He attended Indiana University, 1943–44, and then served in the United States Army Air Forces in the Second World War in Europe.

[4] In the late 1950s, Mr. Laumer returned to Florida and purchased a small two-acre island on a lake in Hernando County near Weeki Wachee.

Around this time he turned his attention to writing, specifically science fiction; his first work, a short story, was published in April 1959.

Stories from the former chronicle the evolution of super tanks that eventually become self-aware through the constant improvement resulting from centuries of intermittent warfare against various alien races.

The latter deals with the adventures of a cynical spacefaring diplomat who constantly has to overcome the red-tape-infused failures of people with names like Ambassador Grossblunder.

In an interview with Paul Walker of Luna Monthly, Laumer stated, "I had no shortage of iniquitous memories of the Foreign Service."

Laumer's other adventures often included the subjects of time travel and alternate worlds, such as found in A Trace of Memory, Dinosaur Beach and the Imperium series.

As he explained in an interview with Charles Platt published in Dream Makers Volume II (1983), he refused to accept the doctors' diagnosis.