Navy World War II POW visits 4th Fleet

NAVAL STATON MAYPORT, Fla. (NNS) -- Retired Chief Boatswain's Mate Bill Ingram, a World War II veteran and former Prisoner of War (POW) visited and talked with Sailors from U.S. 4th Fleet June 21.

Ingram enlisted in the Navy in June of 1941 at the age of 17.

After completing boot camp, he was assigned to heavy cruiser USS Houston (CA-3). Ingram requested the Houston because his older brother was a Signalman 2nd Class on board, but after arriving to the ship, Bill found out his brother had already transferred to the Philippines.

Shortly after Ingram arrived to the ship, Houston was operating in the Pacific Ocean and engaged in several battles with the Japanese Imperial Navy.

On Feb. 28, 1942 the Battle of Sundra Strait began. A Japanese amphibious task force was preparing to invade Java, in the Dutch East Indies and a task force of American, Dutch, and Australian ships, including Houston were sent to intercept the Japanese force. In the early morning hours March 1, Houston was struck by three Japanese torpedoes, rolled over, with her Ensign still flying and sank. Of the 1,061 Sailors and Marines aboard the ship, 693 were lost. Ingram, along with 368 Sailors abandoned the ship into the Pacific Ocean.

"I was laying there with a mattress over me, with all kinds of things falling on top of me. A Boatswain's Mate 1st Class came running over saying "We have to get off the ship," Ingram said.

"I didn't have a life jacket, so he gave me a life ring and right before I jumped in the water he told me to swim as fast as I could away from the ship. The undertow from the ship sinking will bring you down, so I got in the water and swam as fast as I could," he said.

Growing up in Springfield, Ill., Ingram's family was poor, despite not being able to afford swimming lessons, a gym teacher from the school he attended offered him free swimming lessons, training that very well may have saved his life that night.

Despite escaping from Houston, Ingram was still far from escaping danger. After spending close to a day in the water, a Japanese patrol boat picked him up. After being interrogated for information and realizing that he did not know anything, Ingram was thrown back into the ocean.

Once again Ingram found himself in the water, desperate. He spent another day in the water before being picked up by a civilian fishing vessel, which eventually took him and others from the Houston to Java. Not sure where to go, the group saw a building with a Red Cross flag on it and went there.

They received food and medical attention and clothing, but during the night, a group of Japanese soldiers came, and took Ingram and his shipmates as prisoners of war.

He left Java by ship to Burma, where for the next three years he and his fellow POW's spent building the Tai-Burma railroad. The Tai-Burma railroad, also known as the "Death Railway" was a 258 mile railway that connected Bangkok, Thailand to Burma. The railway was built by forced laborers, including more than 60,000 Allied personnel. More than 16,000 died as a result of the intense labor and lack of adequate food, water, and medical attention.

"It was very hard; I rate my survival to the way I made it through my up brining. We were poor, we did not have three meals a day, and when we did eat, beans and homemade bread was about all we had, I was use to not having much," Ingram said.

Ingram was still working on the railroad when World War II in the Pacific was declared over, but a few weeks prior had come down with dysentery and malaria, and remembers little about leaving Burma and returning to the United States.

"I was really out of it; I remember being in the camp, then the next thing I really remember, is being in New York City with some of the other guys from the prison camp. They told me we had left the camp in Burma, and flew back to the U.S. So I am sitting there in this bar, and the bartender starts talking to me, and I tell him I don't know how I got there and that I want to go home. I told him I was from Springfield, so he helped me get on a bus go home."

Shortly after Ingram was captured, he was able to send a post card home to his parents, informing them that he was a POW but was still alive. He hadn't been able to send any correspondence in over a year, so when he arrived home, his parents had no idea what had happened to him.

"My parents had moved after I left and I did not know that, so when I arrived home they were gone. So eventually I found the mailman, and found their new address. I thought it would be nice to surprise them, but when I knocked on the door my mom answered and she almost had a heart attack," he recounted.

Soon after arriving home, Ingram found out for the first time that his brother that had been on Houston had been a POW as well. His brother transferred from Houston to the Philippines, where eventually he was captured on island of Corregidor.

Even after the grueling ordeal of being a POW, Ingram decided to remain in the Navy and was promoted to the rank of chief petty officer. He remained in the Navy until he retired in 1961. After he retired from the Navy, Ingram moved to Jacksonville, Fla. where he lives today.

"One of the chief petty officer's jobs is to pass along Navy history and tradition to the sailors who are going to relieve us one day, chiefs like Bill Ingram taking the time to come to our command and speak to our Sailors is a great example of passing along that tradition," said U.S. 4th Fleet Command Master Chief David Tellez.

Bill Ingram is one of only 12 survivors from USS Houston according to the National World War II Museum.

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