George Williams graduated from Claflin University in Orangeburg, South Carolina, and received his Bachelor of Divinity degree from Gammon Theological Seminary in Atlanta, Georgia. Ordained a Methodist minister, he enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1942, and was commissioned as a chaplain. He served with the 93d Infantry Division in the South Pacific during World War II, earning a Bronze Star. In 1945 he became the first chaplain of the Veterans Administration, but left the VA in 1947 to accept his regular Army commission. Returning to combat in Korea, he earned a Silver Star.