Frank Archibald
Frank Archibald (spook) | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Born | July 31, 1955 Charleston, South Carolina | ||||||||||||||||||||
Died | March 13, 2020 (Age 64) | ||||||||||||||||||||
Nationality | US | ||||||||||||||||||||
Alma mater | Clemson University, National War College | ||||||||||||||||||||
Member of | Association of Former Intelligence Officers | ||||||||||||||||||||
Former director of the CIA's National Clandestine Service
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Francis X. Archibald was a former director of the CIA's National Clandestine Service.[1]
Career
Archibald enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps in 1974 and served with distinction as an Infantryman and leader earning the rank of Sergeant. After leaving the Marine Corps, he graduated from Clemson University in 1983, where he was a Captain of the rugby team. He remained an ardent, lifetime supporter and fan of Clemson and its football team in particular.[2]
He then joined the CIA and began an extraordinary national security career. Over 31 years with the CIA, Archibald served in Latin America, Africa, the Balkans, Southeast and Southwest Asia. Frank held senior assignments at CIA Headquarters in Counterterrorism and Counterintelligence, and was Chief of the Latin American Division. He was a Distinguished Graduate of the National War College in 2001. The capstone of Frank's career was being selected the Director of the National Clandestine Service, an assignment leading all of CIA's operations worldwide. [2]
During his CIA career, he received the CIA's highest award, the Distinguished Intelligence Cross for heroism, as well as numerous other CIA awards.He retired from the CIA in 2015, and subsequently became a senior advisor for the Crumpton Group, an international consulting firm that provides clients with intelligence-driven solutions. He was also on the Board of Directors for the OSS Society.[2]
Exposure
Archibald was outed in a Twitter post in 2013, and details of his biography were known to some journalists. He was 57 when he took the job that year, and it also became known he served tours in Pakistan and Africa and also headed the CIA’s Latin America division.[3]
Related Quotation
Page | Quote | Author | Date |
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CIA/Deputy Director for Operations | “Going back 50 years, the agency's practice was to publicly identify and praise most of Archibald's predecessors. Why? Paradoxically, it’s a job that requires a certain degree of public exposure. The spy chief's duties require him to visit regularly with the FBI, NSA and the dozen other branches of the U.S. intelligence community, to testify to congressional oversight committees and to meet with his foreign counterparts, either here or in some of the world’s most dangerous neighborhoods. Nearly two dozen of his predecessors have been known to the public. It’s too bad they’re going all black-cloak with Archibald, because after the bumpy tenures of the past few people in that job, the agency could benefit from letting people know that it has a "quiet professional" at the helm, as one former colleague put it, a figure of continuity at an agency that has changed CIA directors six times since 2003.” | Jeff Stein Newsweek | 2013 |