William P. Yarborough
Encyclopedia
Lieutenant General William Pelham Yarborough (May 12, 1912 – December 6, 2005) was a United States Army
officer and a 1936 graduate of West Point
. General Yarborough designed the parachutist badge, paratrooper or 'jump' boots, and the airborne jump uniform. He is known as the 'Father of the Modern Green Berets.' He is descended from the Yorkshire
House of Yarborough. William Yarborough is a distant cousin to such British noble figures as the Baron Deramore
and Lord Alvingham
.
. In 1931, Yarborough enlisted in the U.S. Army, obtaining an appointment to the U.S. Military Academy a year later in 1932. At his graduation from West Point in June 1936 Yarborough sworn in as a second lieutenant by General of the Armies John J. Pershing
. He was assigned to the 57th Infantry, Philippine Scouts at Fort McKinley, Luzon where he remained until February 1940, when he was transferred to the 29th Infantry Regiment at Fort Benning, Georgia. He joined the newly formed 501st Parachute Battalion in late 1940 and was given command of Company "C". Later, as Test Officer for the Provisional Parachute Group in 1941, he designed the paratrooper's boot, the paratrooper's uniform, the parachutist's qualification badge, and a number of aerial delivery containers for which he received U. S. patents.
Yarborough first met his future wife, Norma Tuttle Yarborough (1918–1999), when she was 12 and he was 18. At the time, they were neighbors when their fathers were stationed at Ft. Benning. They became reacquainted when the two families were next door neighbors at Plattsburgh Barracks in New York. The future Mrs. Yarborough studied under Karl Menninger at Washburn University
when her father was assigned to Ft. Leavenworth. In 1936 she was crowned "Miss Topeka."
Yarborough was selected by General Mark Clark
to be his Airborne Advisor and in that capacity accompanied General Clark to England. As a working member of the London Planning Group, he developed the initial concept and plan for the airborne phase of the North African Invasion. When the Paratroop Task Force departed Land's End
, England on November 7, 1942, Yarborough as executive officer accompanied it on its flight over Spain toward its target objectives in Algeria
. This was the longest operational flight ever made by parachute troops. In the course of the ensuing action the airplane in which he was flying was shot down by Vichy French fighter aircraft over the Sebkra d’Oran. He participated in combat operations to capture Tafaroui Airdrome in Algeria. A week later, Yarborough parachuted into Youks les Bains Airfield near Tebessa, Algeria (near the Tunisian border) and fighting as part of a combined French and U.S. Paratroop Task Force in Tunisia until January 1943, when he returned to the United States.
In March 1943, Yarborough returned to North Africa as Commander of the 2d Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment
, 82d Airborne Division, and led his unit through the Sicilian Invasion. He was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in May. Following a disastrous battle at Tumminello Pass, Yarborough was relieved of his command by Major General Matthew Ridgway
. General Clark then had him assigned to his staff. During Operation Avalanche Yarborough served as the airborne officer of G-3, Fifth Army and organized the night drop zone to receive the latest elements of the 82d, which had flown from Sicily to relieve the beleaguered beachhead.
Just prior to the fall of Naples, Yarborough was given command of the 509th Parachute Battalion. His unit, as part of Darby's
Ranger Force
, made the initial landings at Anzio
-Nettuno and held a key position on the beachhead for two months. Later under his command the 509th and two attached parachute battalions spearheaded the landings in southern France
, landing on a mountaintop near Le Muy before dawn. Cannes
, Nice
and Monte Carlo
along the Côte d'Azur fell to the parachutists who then turned northward into the Maritime Alps to protect the right flank of the U.S. Seventh Army as it moved north.
Yarborough returned briefly to the United States to attend the 21st course of the Command and General Staff College
, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. He returned to Europe in January 1945 as commander of the 473rd Infantry Regimental Combat Team
, which fought its way up the Ligurian Coast
to Genoa
and the French border as World War II came to an end. It was during this campaign that he was awarded the Silver Star
.
From 1947 to 1949 General Yarborough served as Director of the Department of Troop Information and Education at the Armed Forces Information School, Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania. In 1950 he returned to Europe for the third time to attend the British Staff College at Camberley, England. Upon graduation he was assigned to the NATO Plans Section of the Joint American Military Advisory Group to Europe, stationed in London. He entered the Army War College as a student in 1952 and after graduation served on its faculty for three years.
In 1956 he became Deputy Chief of the U. S. Military Advisory and Assistance Group to Cambodia. He remained in this assignment until he returned to the U.S. Army War College
for a temporary tour prior to assuming command of the 1st Battle Group, 7th Infantry at Fort Benning, Georgia, later moving it to Aschaffenburg, Germany. Leaving the Battle Group in 1958, he commanded the 66th Counterintelligence Corps Group in Stuttgart for two years until his reassignment to Fort Bragg, North Carolina
.
It was during his tenure as Commander of the Special Warfare Center that in 1961, he arranged for President Kennedy to visit Fort Bragg, the results were twofold - acquiring the funding to further develop the Special Forces into a strategic unit within the US Army and the more visible sign - the authorization of the Green Beret for wear as the official headgear of Special Forces. Yarborough's design for the original parachutists uniform was incorporated into the 1963 Army tropical uniform that was later worn by all Army units in the Vietnam War
.
Yarborough encouraged "an intensive civilian registration program . . . so that [everyone] is eventually registered in government files together with fingerprints and photographs." Interrogation procedures and techniques, including regular questioning of rural villagers "who are believed to be knowledgeable of guerrilla activities" were advised. "Exhaustive interrogation of the bandits, to include sodium pentathol and polygraph, should be used to elicit every shred of information. Both the Army and the Police need trained interrogators." Pentathol was originally used by doctors for relaxation, but in the 1970s it was reported used by some Latin American militaries to induce "paralysis, agony, and terror."
"In general, the Yarborough team recommended that the US provide guidance and assistance in all aspects of counter-insurgency…Civilian and military personnel, clandestinely selected and trained in resistance operations, would be required in order to develop an underground civil and military structure. This organization was to undertake 'clandestine execution of plans developed by the United States Government toward defined objectives in the political, economic, and military fields'...it would…undertake … 'paramilitary, sabotage, and/or terrorist activities against known communist proponents'." Yarborough did not feel that this would be successful unless it were under U.S. command.
During the final years of his career, Yarborough was the Army's top intelligence officer at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.
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, U.S. 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 War. 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.
.
A veteran of four combat jumps, General Yarborough holds, among other awards and decorations, the Distinguished Service Medal
, Silver Star
, Legion of Merit
with three Oak Leaf Clusters, Bronze Star
, Joint Services Commendation Medal, Italian Bronze Medal for Valor
, Italian Cross for Valor, French Croix de guerre
with Palm, Regimental Badge 3d Zouaves, Korean Order of Merit Second Class
, Combat Infantryman Badge
, the Cambodian, Korean, Philippine, Thai and Vietnamese Parachutist Badges, and the Unit Citation with Oak Leaf Cluster.
Italian Cross for Valor
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
officer and a 1936 graduate of West Point
United States Military Academy
The United States Military Academy at West Point is a four-year coeducational federal service academy located at West Point, New York. The academy sits on scenic high ground overlooking the Hudson River, north of New York City...
. General Yarborough designed the parachutist badge, paratrooper or 'jump' boots, and the airborne jump uniform. He is known as the 'Father of the Modern Green Berets.' He is descended from the Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
House of Yarborough. William Yarborough is a distant cousin to such British noble figures as the Baron Deramore
Baron Deramore
Baron Deramore, of Belvoir in the County of Down, was a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 18 November 1885 for the Conservative Member of Parliament Sir Thomas Bateson, 2nd Baronet. His father Thomas Bateson had been created a Baronet, of Belvoir Park in the County of...
and Lord Alvingham
Baron Alvingham
Baron Alvingham, of Woodfold in the County Palatine of Lancaster, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 10 July 1929 for Robert Yerburgh. He had previously represented Dorset South in the House of Commons as a Conservative. His father, Robert Yerburgh, had earlier...
.
Early life
William Pelham Yarborough was born May 12, 1912 in Seattle, Washington. He is the son of Colonel Leroy W. and Addessia Yarborough. He attended high school at San Rafael Military Academy in California and later at Columbus, GeorgiaColumbus, Georgia
Columbus is a city in and the county seat of Muscogee County, Georgia, United States, with which it is consolidated. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 189,885. It is the principal city of the Columbus, Georgia metropolitan area, which, in 2009, had an estimated population of 292,795...
. In 1931, Yarborough enlisted in the U.S. Army, obtaining an appointment to the U.S. Military Academy a year later in 1932. At his graduation from West Point in June 1936 Yarborough sworn in as a second lieutenant by General of the Armies John J. Pershing
John J. Pershing
John Joseph "Black Jack" Pershing, GCB , was a general officer in the United States Army who led the American Expeditionary Forces in World War I...
. He was assigned to the 57th Infantry, Philippine Scouts at Fort McKinley, Luzon where he remained until February 1940, when he was transferred to the 29th Infantry Regiment at Fort Benning, Georgia. He joined the newly formed 501st Parachute Battalion in late 1940 and was given command of Company "C". Later, as Test Officer for the Provisional Parachute Group in 1941, he designed the paratrooper's boot, the paratrooper's uniform, the parachutist's qualification badge, and a number of aerial delivery containers for which he received U. S. patents.
Washburn University
Washburn University is a co-educational, public institution of higher learning in Topeka, Kansas, USA. It offers undergraduate and graduate programs, as well as professional programs in law and business. Washburn has 550 faculty members, who teach more than 6,400 undergraduate students and...
when her father was assigned to Ft. Leavenworth. In 1936 she was crowned "Miss Topeka."
World War II
In July 1942, MajorMajor (United States)
In the United States Army, Air Force, and Marine Corps, major is a field grade military officer rank just above the rank of captain and just below the rank of lieutenant colonel...
Yarborough was selected by General Mark Clark
Mark Wayne Clark
Mark Wayne Clark was an American general during World War II and the Korean War and was the youngest lieutenant general in the U.S. Army...
to be his Airborne Advisor and in that capacity accompanied General Clark to England. As a working member of the London Planning Group, he developed the initial concept and plan for the airborne phase of the North African Invasion. When the Paratroop Task Force departed Land's End
Land's End
Land's End is a headland and small settlement in west Cornwall, England, within the United Kingdom. It is located on the Penwith peninsula approximately eight miles west-southwest of Penzance....
, England on November 7, 1942, Yarborough as executive officer accompanied it on its flight over Spain toward its target objectives in Algeria
Algeria
Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...
. This was the longest operational flight ever made by parachute troops. In the course of the ensuing action the airplane in which he was flying was shot down by Vichy French fighter aircraft over the Sebkra d’Oran. He participated in combat operations to capture Tafaroui Airdrome in Algeria. A week later, Yarborough parachuted into Youks les Bains Airfield near Tebessa, Algeria (near the Tunisian border) and fighting as part of a combined French and U.S. Paratroop Task Force in Tunisia until January 1943, when he returned to the United States.
In March 1943, Yarborough returned to North Africa as Commander of the 2d Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment
504th Parachute Infantry Regiment
The 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment is an airborne infantry regiment in the United States Army, first formed in 1942 as part of the 82nd Airborne Division.-Organization:...
, 82d Airborne Division, and led his unit through the Sicilian Invasion. He was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in May. Following a disastrous battle at Tumminello Pass, Yarborough was relieved of his command by Major General Matthew Ridgway
Matthew Ridgway
Matthew Bunker Ridgway was a United States Army General. He held several major commands and was most famous for resurrecting the United Nations war effort during the Korean War. Several historians have credited Ridgway for turning around the war in favor of the UN side...
. General Clark then had him assigned to his staff. During Operation Avalanche Yarborough served as the airborne officer of G-3, Fifth Army and organized the night drop zone to receive the latest elements of the 82d, which had flown from Sicily to relieve the beleaguered beachhead.
Just prior to the fall of Naples, Yarborough was given command of the 509th Parachute Battalion. His unit, as part of Darby's
William Orlando Darby
William Orlando Darby was an officer in the United States Army during World War II. Darby led the famous Darby's Rangers which evolved into the US Army Rangers and was also made famous as a major motion picture starring the American actor James Garner in the role of Darby.-Early life:Darby was...
Ranger Force
United States Army Rangers
United States Army Rangers are elite members of the United States Army. Rangers have served in recognized U.S. Army Ranger units or have graduated from the U.S. Army's Ranger School...
, made the initial landings at Anzio
Anzio
Anzio is a city and comune on the coast of the Lazio region of Italy, about south of Rome.Well known for its seaside harbour setting, it is a fishing port and a departure point for ferries and hydroplanes to the Pontine Islands of Ponza, Palmarola and Ventotene...
-Nettuno and held a key position on the beachhead for two months. Later under his command the 509th and two attached parachute battalions spearheaded the landings in southern France
Operation Dragoon
Operation Dragoon was the Allied invasion of southern France on August 15, 1944, during World War II. The invasion was initiated via a parachute drop by the 1st Airborne Task Force, followed by an amphibious assault by elements of the U.S. Seventh Army, followed a day later by a force made up...
, landing on a mountaintop near Le Muy before dawn. Cannes
Cannes
Cannes is one of the best-known cities of the French Riviera, a busy tourist destination and host of the annual Cannes Film Festival. It is a Commune of France in the Alpes-Maritimes department....
, Nice
Nice
Nice is the fifth most populous city in France, after Paris, Marseille, Lyon and Toulouse, with a population of 348,721 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Nice extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of more than 955,000 on an area of...
and Monte Carlo
Monte Carlo
Monte Carlo is an administrative area of the Principality of Monaco....
along the Côte d'Azur fell to the parachutists who then turned northward into the Maritime Alps to protect the right flank of the U.S. Seventh Army as it moved north.
Yarborough returned briefly to the United States to attend the 21st course of the Command and General Staff College
Command and General Staff College
The United States Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas is a graduate school for United States Army and sister service officers, interagency representatives, and international military officers. The college was established in 1881 by William Tecumseh Sherman as a...
, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. He returned to Europe in January 1945 as commander of the 473rd Infantry Regimental Combat Team
473rd Regimental Combat Team
The 473rd Regimental Combat Team was a provisional infantry unit that served on the Italian Front during World War II. It was created on January 14, 1945 from existing anti-aircraft units that were no longer needed to defend against enemy aircraft...
, which fought its way up the Ligurian Coast
Liguria
Liguria is a coastal region of north-western Italy, the third smallest of the Italian regions. Its capital is Genoa. It is a popular region with tourists for its beautiful beaches, picturesque little towns, and good food.-Geography:...
to Genoa
Genoa
Genoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....
and the French border as World War II came to an end. It was during this campaign that he was awarded the Silver Star
Silver Star
The Silver Star is the third-highest combat military decoration that can be awarded to a member of any branch of the United States armed forces for valor in the face of the enemy....
.
Service in Europe, US, and Cambodia
In June 1945 the 473d Infantry Regiment was shipped back to the United States for deactivation and General Yarborough, remaining in Europe, was named as Provost Marshal; first of the 15th Army Group, and later of the U.S. Forces in Austria and the Vienna Area Command. In the latter position he organized the famous Four Power International Patrol of Russian, French, British, and American military police.From 1947 to 1949 General Yarborough served as Director of the Department of Troop Information and Education at the Armed Forces Information School, Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania. In 1950 he returned to Europe for the third time to attend the British Staff College at Camberley, England. Upon graduation he was assigned to the NATO Plans Section of the Joint American Military Advisory Group to Europe, stationed in London. He entered the Army War College as a student in 1952 and after graduation served on its faculty for three years.
In 1956 he became Deputy Chief of the U. S. Military Advisory and Assistance Group to Cambodia. He remained in this assignment until he returned to the U.S. Army War College
U.S. Army War College
The United States Army War College is a United States Army school located in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, on the 500 acre campus of the historic Carlisle Barracks...
for a temporary tour prior to assuming command of the 1st Battle Group, 7th Infantry at Fort Benning, Georgia, later moving it to Aschaffenburg, Germany. Leaving the Battle Group in 1958, he commanded the 66th Counterintelligence Corps Group in Stuttgart for two years until his reassignment to Fort Bragg, North Carolina
Fort Bragg, North Carolina
Fort Bragg is a major United States Army installation, in Cumberland and Hoke counties, North Carolina, U.S., mostly in Fayetteville but also partly in the town of Spring Lake. It was also a census-designated place in the 2010 census and had a population of 39,457. The fort is named for Confederate...
.
Commander of US Army Special Warfare Center
In January 1961, he was appointed commander/commandant of the US Army Special Warfare Center/School for Special Warfare at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. 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, Georgia 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, the results were twofold - acquiring the funding to further develop the Special Forces into a strategic unit within the US Army and the more visible sign - the authorization of the Green Beret for wear as the official headgear of Special Forces. Yarborough's design for the original parachutists uniform was incorporated into the 1963 Army tropical uniform that was later worn by all Army units in the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
.
Colombia
A Fort Bragg top-level U.S. Special Warfare team, headed by Special Warfare Center commander General Yarborough, visited Colombia in February 1962. In a secret supplement to his report to the joint Chiefs of Staff, Yarborough, encouraged a stay-behind irregular force and its immediate deployment to eliminate communists representing a future threat:"[A] concerted country team effort should be made now to select civilian and military personnel for clandestine training in resistance operations in case they are needed later. This should be done with a view toward development of a civil and military structure for exploitation in the event the Colombian internal security system deteriorates further. This structure should be used to pressure toward reforms known to be needed, perform counter-agent and counter-propaganda functions and as necessary execute paramilitary, sabotage and/or terrorist activities against known communist proponents. It should be backed by the United States."
Yarborough encouraged "an intensive civilian registration program . . . so that [everyone] is eventually registered in government files together with fingerprints and photographs." Interrogation procedures and techniques, including regular questioning of rural villagers "who are believed to be knowledgeable of guerrilla activities" were advised. "Exhaustive interrogation of the bandits, to include sodium pentathol and polygraph, should be used to elicit every shred of information. Both the Army and the Police need trained interrogators." Pentathol was originally used by doctors for relaxation, but in the 1970s it was reported used by some Latin American militaries to induce "paralysis, agony, and terror."
"In general, the Yarborough team recommended that the US provide guidance and assistance in all aspects of counter-insurgency…Civilian and military personnel, clandestinely selected and trained in resistance operations, would be required in order to develop an underground civil and military structure. This organization was to undertake 'clandestine execution of plans developed by the United States Government toward defined objectives in the political, economic, and military fields'...it would…undertake … 'paramilitary, sabotage, and/or terrorist activities against known communist proponents'." Yarborough did not feel that this would be successful unless it were under U.S. command.
Asian service
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, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
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, U.S. Army Pacific
United States Army Pacific Command
United States Army Pacific is an Army Service Component Command of the United States Army and is the army component unit of the United States Pacific Command, except for units in Korea. The main areas that this command has jurisdiction in include Hawaii, Alaska, the Pacific Ocean, and Japan...
, responsible for directing a wide variety of Army activities in the Pacific Rim
Pacific Rim
The Pacific Rim refers to places around the edge of the Pacific Ocean. The term "Pacific Basin" includes the Pacific Rim and islands in the Pacific Ocean...
, 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 War. 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
Rhodesia
Rhodesia , officially the Republic of Rhodesia from 1970, was an unrecognised state located in southern Africa that existed between 1965 and 1979 following its Unilateral Declaration of Independence from the United Kingdom on 11 November 1965...
and Mozambique
Mozambique
Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique , is a country in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west and Swaziland and South Africa to the southwest...
for the State Department. From his visits, he wrote various talking papers still in use today.
Later life
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, LTG (Ret.) William Lee Yarborough, US Army. Mrs. Yarborough died in 1999. He was honored on September 30, 2005 with the donation of a bust in his honor at the Airborne and Special Operations Museum in Fayetteville, North CarolinaFayetteville, North Carolina
Fayetteville is a city located in Cumberland County, North Carolina, United States. It is the county seat of Cumberland County, and is best known as the home of Fort Bragg, a U.S. Army post located northwest of the city....
.
A veteran of four combat jumps, General Yarborough holds, among other awards and decorations, the Distinguished Service Medal
Distinguished Service Medal (Army)
The Distinguished Service Medal is a military award of the United States Army that is presented to any person who, while serving in any capacity with the United States military, has distinguished himself or herself by exceptionally meritorious service to the Government in a duty of great...
, Silver Star
Silver Star
The Silver Star is the third-highest combat military decoration that can be awarded to a member of any branch of the United States armed forces for valor in the face of the enemy....
, Legion of Merit
Legion of Merit
The Legion of Merit is a military decoration of the United States armed forces that is awarded for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services and achievements...
with three Oak Leaf Clusters, Bronze Star
Bronze Star Medal
The Bronze Star Medal is a United States Armed Forces individual military decoration that may be awarded for bravery, acts of merit, or meritorious service. As a medal it is awarded for merit, and with the "V" for valor device it is awarded for heroism. It is the fourth-highest combat award of the...
, Joint Services Commendation Medal, Italian Bronze Medal for Valor
Bronze Medal of Military Valor
The Bronze Medal of Military Valor is an Italian medal for gallantry.It was established by Charles Albert of Sardinia on March 26, 1833, along with the higher ranking Gold and Silver Medals for Military valor...
, Italian Cross for Valor, French Croix de guerre
Croix de guerre
The Croix de guerre is a military decoration of France. It was first created in 1915 and consists of a square-cross medal on two crossed swords, hanging from a ribbon with various degree pins. The decoration was awarded during World War I, again in World War II, and in other conflicts...
with Palm, Regimental Badge 3d Zouaves, Korean Order of Merit Second Class
Order of Military Merit (Korea)
The Order of Military Merit is the primary military decoration awarded by the government of Republic of Korea.-Classes of the Order:The order is divided into five classes:Notable recipients...
, Combat Infantryman Badge
Combat Infantryman Badge
The Combat Infantryman Badge is the U.S. Army combat service recognition decoration awarded to soldiers—enlisted men and officers holding colonel rank or below, who personally fought in active ground combat while an assigned member of either an infantry or a Special Forces unit, of brigade size...
, the Cambodian, Korean, Philippine, Thai and Vietnamese Parachutist Badges, and the Unit Citation with Oak Leaf Cluster.
External links
- Obituary William P. Yarborough December 11, 2005
- Arlington National Cemetery Biography
- Yarborough's Airborne Parachutist Badge
- LTG William P. Yarborough Chapter Special Forces Association, Chapter 38
Italian Cross for Valor