[1][2] On 15 June 1916, Hinds entered the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, following in the footsteps of his father, a graduate of the class of 1887.

Due to the United States entry into World War I, his class graduated early on 1 November 1918, and he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Field Artillery Branch.

[3] Hinds was a student officer at the United States Army Field Artillery School at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, from 1 December 1918 to 21 February 1919.

He was then a student officer at the Field Artillery Basic School at Camp Zachary Taylor, Kentucky, until June 1919, when he embarked for France on a tour of the World War I battlefields there.

[5] Hinds joined the War Department General Staff in Washington, D.C., where he was promoted to major on 1 July 40 and lieutenant colonel on 15 September 1941.

He received the Air Medal and the Purple Heart, and multiple foreign decorations, including the French Legion of Honor and Croix de Guerre, Belgian Croix de Guerre and Fourragere, the Soviet Order of the Patriotic War Second Class, the Czechoslovak War Cross 1939–1945.

[6] He served as one of the two Army members of the Atomic Energy Commission's Military Liaison Committee from August 1946 to December 1949.

[8] He served on the staff of the Far East Command in Tokyo, with the rank of brigadier general from 29 January 1950, then became the Deputy Military Governor of the Ryukyus in February 1950.

After the war he served as the Army Secretary of the Research & Development Board in the Office of the Director of Supply Management Agencies in the Department of Defense.

They had a son, Ernest Hinds II, who followed his father and grandfather to West Point, graduating 329th in the class of 1943.