LIEUTENANT GENERAL JOSEPH FRANCIS CARROLL

Lt. Gen. Joseph Francis Carroll is the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, with the responsibility for controlling Department of Defense Intelligence resources assigned to DIA and reviewing the intelligence functions assigned the military departments in satisfying the intelligence requirements of the Department of Defense.

General Carroll was born in Chicago, Ill., in 1910. He graduated from St. Mary's College, Mundelein, Ill., in 1933 with a bachelor of arts degree and holds a doctor of jurisprudence degree from Loyola University, Chicago, Ill., 1940. He has been a member of the Illinois State Bar Association since 1940.

After working with Swift and Company in Chicago, where he rose to a position as assistant sales manager, General Carroll joined the Federal Bureau of Investigation in October 1940, where he served as a special agent in field offices at Memphis and Knoxville, Tenn., as well as Chicago, Ill. In May 1944, he was transferred to the Washington headquarters of the FBI, where he held progressive positions as supervisor in charge of bank robbery and kidnapping matters, chief of the Criminal Section, and first assistant to the assistant director of the FBI in charge of the General Investigations and Accounting Division.

At the termination of World War II, the government was faced with the problem of disposition of war surplus property throughout the world. Upon special request from the administrator of the Surplus Property Administration, General Carroll was loaned by the attorney general and the director of the FBI to the Surplus Property Administration (later the War Assets Administration). In this assignment he organized and directed the Compliance Enforcement Division, directing all investigative activity associated with surplus property disposal. In May 1947, he was recalled to his former position in the FBI as an administrative assistant to the director of the FBI.

When the U.S. Air Force was established as a separate executive department in September 1947 by the National Security Act, the secretary of the Air Force requested FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover to loan General Carroll to the services to organize an Air Force agency for investigative and counterintelligence functions. He organized and directed this new organization, the Office of Special Investigations. General Carroll was tendered a commission as a colonel, U.S. Air Force Reserve, Jan. 12, 1948. He was ordered to active duty in the grade of brigadier general May 6, 1948, and promoted to major general Aug. 11, 1950.

From the time of his entry on active duty on May 6, 1948, General Carroll served as the first director of the Office of Special Investigations, creating and organizing this centrally-directed investigative service, establishing district offices to service the air commands in the United States, and furnishing trained specialists to Air Force activities worldwide for the conduct of special investigations.

On Sept. 6, 1950, he was appointed deputy inspector general for security, U.S. Air Force, In this assignment he was responsible for the security and physical protection of Air Force installations and activities against sabotage, espionage, and other hostile threats. In this capacity, he directed the Office of Special Investigations, the Office of the Provost Marshal, U.S. Air Force, and was responsible for all security plans and policy for the U.S. Air Force.

Until this time, General Carroll had been a member of the U.S. Air Force Reserve on active duty, On Jan. 29, 1952, he was integrated into the Regular Air Force as a permanent colonel by a special act of Congress.

General Carroll was ordered to Wiesbaden, Germany, April 1, 1958, as deputy commander (Rear) for the U.S. Air Forces in Europe. He served in that capacity until November 1959 when, under a command reorganization, he was named chief of staff, U.S. Air Forces in Europe.

On Feb. 1, 1960, General Carroll was promoted to lieutenant general and became The Inspector General of the U.S. Air Force with duty station in Washington, D.C. He remained in that position until Oct. 1, 1961, when the secretary of defense appointed him to his present assignment as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency.

His military decorations include the Distinguished Service Medal and the Legion of Merit with oak leaf cluster.


(Current as of Aug. 1, 1966)