WILLIAM FRANCIS RABORN, JR. DIRECTOR OF CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP99-00418R000100290001-0
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 10, 2012
• Sequence Number: 1
• Content Type: BIO

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/05/10: CIA-RDP99-00418R000100290001-0
WILLIAM FRANCIS RABORN, JR.
Director of Central Intelligence
Vice Admiral William Francis Raborn, Jr., United States Navy.
(Retired), was selected Director of Central Intelligence by President
Johnson, according to an announcement made 11 April 1965. The Senate
confirmed his nomination 11 days later, and he was sworn in on 28 April.
He is the third Naval officer to be Director of Central Intelligence.
He is recognized as a scientist, a proved administrator, a
skilled organizer, a command Naval officer who has been a combat aviator,
and the developer of the Navy's Polaris missile and fleet ballistic missile
system.
Admiral Raborn was born in Decatur, Texas, 8 June 1905. He attended
public schools in Ryan and Marlow, Oklahoma. In 1924 he was appointed
to the U.S. Naval Academy by Senator Elmer 'Ttomas of Oklahoma. He gradu-
ated from the Academy and was commissioned an Ensign in the Navy 7 June 1928.
Following graduation, he performed gunnery duty aboard the USS Texas
and the destroyers Twiggs and Dickerson until June 1933. He was assigned
to flight training at the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida, and
was designated Naval Aviator in April of the following year.
In June 193+ he was assigned to Fighting Squadron 5 aboard the
carrier Lexington. He continued in this type. of duty assignment in other
naval fighter squadrons until June 1937, when he returned to the Naval
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Air Station at Pensacola to serve as an instructor. He then returned
to duty with naval fighter units. In August 1942, he reported to the
Free Gunnery School, U.S. Naval Air Station, Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii, as
Officer in Charge where he initiated, developed, and organized the
Aviation Free Gunnery School.
From March 1943 to the Fall of 1944, he was assigned to the Office
of the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Air and served there as head
of Aviation Gunnery Training. He then joined the USS Hancock as Execu-
tive Officer. The Hancock carried out operations against enemy Japanese
forces in the Philippine Islands, tht South China Sea, Iwo Jima, and the
Japanese Homeland.
His subsequent naval assignments, beginning in June 1945, were:
Chief of Staff to Commander Task Force 38 and Commander Carrier Division
Two. in the Western Pacific; Operations Officer on the staff of the
Commander, Fleet Air, with headquarters in San Diego, California; and the
Bureau of Ordnance, Navy Department, Washington, D.C., where he was
responsible for the development of guided missiles and aviation ordnance.
In July 1950, he assumed command of the USS Bairoko, which conducted
training in anti-submarine warfare in waters off Japan, Okinawa, and
Formosa.
He attended the Naval War College, Newport, Rhode Island, in 1951
and 1952. In July 1952, he was designated Assistant Director of the Guided
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Missiles Division, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Navy Department.
He continued in this assignment until he assumed command of the USS
Bennington in April 1954. He then served as Assistant Chief of Staff
for Operations on the staff of the Commander in Chief of the U.S. Atlantic
Fleet from February 1955 until December 1955 when he reported as Director
of Special Projects, Department of the Navy.
As Director of Special Projects he was charged with the task of
developing a fleet ballistic missile system -- the Polaris. He established
the Special Projects Office, Department of the Navy, and created a manage-
ment system, implementing a new management tool -- the Progress Evaluation
Reporting Technique. This system has been adopted extensively in many
areas of American industry.
The operational readiness of the fleet ballistic missile system was
established by two underwater launchings of Polaris missiles on 20 July
1960. On 9 March 1962, he became Deputy Chief of Naval Operations
(Development), Navy Department. Admiral Raborn was retired from the
Navy on 1 September 1963.
At the time of his nomination to the position of Director of Central
Intelligence, Admiral Raborn was Vice President for Program-Management
at the Aerojet-General Corporation.
Admiral Raborn has received the following awards: Distinguished
Service Medal, the Silver Star Medal, the Bronze Star Medal with Silver
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Star, the Commendation Ribbon with Bronze Star, the Navy Unit Commenda-
tion Ribbon, the Defense Service Medal, the American Campaign Medal,
the Asiatic-Pacific Medal with one Silver Star and one Bronze Star
(6 engagements), the World War II Victory Medal, the National Defense
Service Medal, the Korean Service Medal, the United Nations Service
Medal, and the Philippine Defense Ribbon. President Kennedy presented
Admiral Raborn with the Collier Trophy Award in 1963.
Admiral Raborn is married to the former Mildred T. Terrill of Bay-
town, Texas. He has two children, Mrs. Barbara Raborn Richardson and
William Francis Raborn, III.
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