USN Aviation Ordnance Chief Otis Earl Ingram was born in Norphlet, Arkansas on April 4, 1916, the son of Otis Powell Ingram (1886-1921) and Maude A. Measles (1889-1974) from Hollywood, Arkansas. His father supported his family as a foreman at a sawmill company before his premature death in 1921. His mother, now a widow, would remarry Joseph M. Jackson (1888-1969). Her oldest child James William would serve in the US Navy in WWII before he retired as a railroad worker.
As for Otis, he would enlist in the US Navy on May 24, 1939, and reported to NAS Pensacola as a Seaman exactly one month later. While stationed here he met, courted, and married a young Pensacola girl by the name of Anne Marie O'Neal (1921-1991) on December 6, 1940. She was the youngest child of five born to Arthur Marcus O'Neal (1883-1941) and Viola Martha Simmons (1891-1979). Her father was a foreman of a "planer" crew for the Ferris Lee Lumber Company and later in life was a custodian of the court of record building. Sadly, he would pass away in 1941, not long after Otis and Anne Marie were married.
In the meantime, Ingram's naval career was going well to the point that by March 1942, he had been promoted to Aviation Ordnanceman 1st Class. By July 1944, he had been promoted again to the rank of Navy Chief and was stationed as an aviation turret gunner aboard the CVL-30 USS San Jacinto. On July 27th, his VT-51 Torpedo Squadron was ordered to make a bombing run on Malakal Harbor, one of the islands of the Palau chain. The harbor was used as an enemy haven for their ships and was one of the significant targets prior to the Marine landing on Peleliu on September 15, 1944. As they neared the island, Ingram's aircraft was the lead plane of the four Avenger Torpedo bombers flying about three miles in front of the formation. Witnesses said they observed an object, believed to be an aircraft, on fire going down in Malakal Harbor. The pilot, Ingram, and the radio operator 3rd Class Walter E. Mintus were all killed in the crash. All three were presumed dead on February 4, 1946.
After combat operations in the area ceased, the American Graves Registration Service compared all unidentified remains recovered near Palau to the crew of the Ingram's aircraft, with negative results. As a result, the three crewmen were declared non-recoverable on May 21, 1949. But from January 2004 to 2016, a non-profit organization, the BentProp Project, conducted several investigations regarding the debris field of an unidentified aircraft, consistent with an Avenger, near Malakal Harbor. In January and February 2018, a DPAA team excavated a suspected crash site in Malakal Harbor, Republic of Palau, recovering debris and life support equipment that were consistent with a crew member from the crash, as well as possible remains. They used dental and anthropological analysis, as well as material and circumstantial evidence. Both Ingram and Walter Mintus were both identified. Walter was shipped home to Portage, PA and Ingram to Pensacola, Florida for burial.
Ingram rests today in Barrancas National Cemetery where he was joined by his wife Anne Marie in 1991.
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