Foil: 35 Panel: 3 Column: 1 Line: 24

Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Leader

Honored by:
Dr. Patricia A. Mc Fate

Ambassador Sidney Graybeal flew 32 combat missions as a B-29 pilot in World War II. He received the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal with three oak clusters, along with other service medals from the theater. He joined the Central Intelligence Agency in 1950 as a guided missile intelligence analyst and served as an advisor to Ambassador Goldberg at the Surprise Attack Conference in 1958. As Chief of the Guided Missile and Space Division, he was sent to the White House in October 1962 to inform President John Kennedy that analysis of U-2 photography and other means of intelligence demonstrated that offensive missiles were present in Cuba. In 1964, he joined the State Department; during his tenure he served on the U.S. delegations to the Eighteen Nation Disarmament Conference, the Outer Space Treaty, and SALT-I. In 1973 he became the first U.S. Commissioner on the Standing Consultative Commission, the implementing body for the SALT-I agreements. In 1976, he returned to CIA to become Director of the Office of Strategic Research. In January 1980 he received the President's Award for Distinguished Federal Service, the highest award a civilian can received from the United States Government. In 1994, he was appointed to the Policy Board of the Department of Defense. In 1998 when he died, President Clinton, speaking on behalf of all the Presidents for whom he served, said: "as a World War II combat veteran, an intelligence officer, an arms control negotiator and a defense policy advisory, his contributions to our country's national security were immeasurable."