Bill Ingram USN USS Houston CA-30 POW of Japan

Bill Ingram tried to enlist in the Navy while still 16 years of age in 1941 before WW II started but, the Navy made him wait for his 17th birthday in June of 1941.  Bill enlisted and was sent to Boot Camp in Great Lakes Ill.  He was assigned to the heavy cruiser USS Houston as a “powder monkey” which was the job of putting the powder charges which were in a sack and placing them in the 8 inch Naval guns aboard the heavy Cruiser Houston.  In early 1942 the Japanese were unstoppable in the South Pacific which is where Bill was at that time aboard the Houston.  In this first interview that I did with Bill he tells of the fighting that he went through with the sinking of the USS Houston, HMS Perth on 28 Feb. 1942.  The Houston had a crew of 1065 only about 350 survived the sinking.  Bill was among those that survived the bloody battle of Sunda Straight in the Java Sea.  In the next program which will be on Sept. 9th at 10:30 at the Carnigie Library in Jackson.  Bill will tell about his three and a half years of captivity in Burma and Thialand on the “Death Railway” or Burma/Thailand Railroad.  The 1957 movie with William Holden “The Bridge on the River Kwai” was about the Burma/Thailand Railroad.

Where: Carnigie Library Jackson Michigan

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