BlackFive

             A veteran of nine campaigns in World War II, General Yarborough's last  command was with the 505^th Regimental Combat Team.  Along with the  famous 442^nd Infantry Division, they liberated Genoa, Italy.  After the German surrender,  Yarborough remained in Europe as Provost Marshal of the US Forces in  Vienna, Austria where he was responsible for organizing the International Patrol, which consisted of British, French, Soviet and American members and was dramatized in the film "The Third Man."  During this time, Yarborough met the ailing Russian ballet star Vaslav Nijinsky and his wife Romola, and aided in smuggling the couple through the Russian sector to freedom in England.

             Following assignments at the Armed Forces Information School in Pennsylvania and the British College in England,  Yarborough attended and later taught at the U.S. Army War College at Carlisle Barracks, PA.  From 1956 to 1957, he was assigned as Deputy Commander of the US Military Assistance Command - Cambodia.  He traveled throughout Southeast Asia during this time, his fluency in French serving him well in working with the Cambodian higher political and military echelons.  He then went to be the Commanding Officer for the 1^st  Battle Group, 7^th Infantry where he moved the entire unit from Fort Benning, GA to Germany.  He later commanded the US Army  66^th Counterintelligence Corps Group in Germany, serving as a liaison between the  Allied counterespionage, intelligence and police agencies.

           In January 1961, he was appointed commander/commandant of the US Army Special Warfare Center/School for Special Warfare at Fort Bragg, NC. Remaining until 1965, he was instrumental in the build-up of Special Forces, overseeing the activation of four new Groups.  He also worked diligently to increase the professional and academic standard of the JFK School, bringing in national figures in anthropology, history, science, and inviting leading political figures to speak. He initiated an exhaustive review of training programs and doctrine, and wrote numerous monographs on subjects pertaining to Special Operations, which are still relevant today.  It was also under his management that foreign students were fully integrated into training and language instruction was expanded. He established five new courses including the Military Assistance Training Advisor School, the Unconventional Warfare course and the Counter-Terrorism course.  He also initiated a staff study that later resulted in the movement of the US Army Civil Affairs School from Fort Gordon, GA to Fort Bragg.

It was during  his tenure as Commander of the Special Warfare Center that in 1961, he arranged for  President Kennedy to visit Fort Bragg, resulting in the authorization of the Green Beret for wear as the official headgear of Special Forces.

After his  tenure at the Special Warfare School, he served as Senior Member, UN  Command Military Armistice Commission, Panmunjom, Korea where he was the chief spokesman and negotiator for the UN Command in talks with the North Koreans and Chinese.  He then was assigned as Assistant Deputy Chief of Staff for Special Operations in the Pentagon with the responsibility of all Special Forces, PSYOP and Civil Affairs units and activities.  In this position, he completed exhaustive studies on the state of insurgencies in Thailand and Latin America. A year later, he became the Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence on the Army General Staff where he monitored the Army's intelligence training programs, provided finished intelligence materials to the Army General Staff and directed the Army's personnel security program.  He also directed the programs in which foreign military attaches assigned to Washington were involved and was responsible for  their accreditation by DA. 

             During the final years of his career, Yarborough was the Army's top  intelligence officer at the Pentagon in Washington, DC.  He assumed the command of I  Corps in Korea in 1968, a position he held for a year.  I Corps consisted of both conventional and nuclear weapons, two American divisions and three Korean Divisions, and a Korean Marine Corps Brigade, numbering approximately 100,000 men.  In 1969, he was assigned as the Chief of Staff and Deputy Commander in Chief, US Army Pacific, responsible for directing a wide variety of Army activities in the Pacific Rim, including planning joint training exercises, response to natural disasters and monitoring intelligence operations.  He retired from the Army in 1971.

            In 1971, the Army tasked him to prepare a classified Asian study on the state of the Asian continent after the Vietnam Conflict.  He also was a guest speaker for the National Strategy Information Center where he gave talks such as the Changing Balance of Military Power or the history of Special Forces to various groups around the country.  He also was asked to visit various countries such as Rhodesia and Mozambique for the State Department.  From  his visits, he wrote various talking papers still in use today.

Lieutenant General Yarborough was a member of the Rotary and Kiwanis Clubs.  He is also an honorary member of the British SAS Regiment and a member of the St. John's Lodge 260, F&AM.  He wrote  two books:  Bail Out Over North Africa and So You Want A Volunteer Army. General Yarborough was married to his wife Norma for over 60 years. They had three children:  2 girls and one boy.  Mrs. Yarborough passed away in 1999.  He was honored in the fall of 2005 with the donation of a bust in his honor at the Airborne and Special Operations Museum in Fayetteville, NC.

(On a personal note:  I had the honor of meeting him in 1987 soon after Chapter 38 of the SF Association first named the Chapter in his honor. A guy on my Team won a bottle of Wild Turkey in a raffle and LTG Yarborough joined us in a toast.  He made time to talk to every guy there who wanted to speak with him.  He made and forgot more Airborne and Special Forces history than anyone you'll ever meet.  A truly Great American!)

Requiescat in Pace, my General!

  AIRBORNE!  All the Way!

  De Oppresso Liber!