There, he completed a Bachelor of Science degree, played varsity football, and was the Commander of the Brigade of Midshipman. After graduation in 1946 (Class of '47) he served one year at sea before entering Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar where he earned a master's degree in philosophy, politics, and economics.

Following Oxford, he served at sea primarily in destroyers. In 1967 he commissioned the guided missile cruiser U.S.S. Horne and the next year operated with the Seventh Fleet off Vietnam. On shore, he served in the Navy's Office of Politico-Military Affairs, in Secretary of Defense McNamara's Office of Systems Analysis, and as Executive Assistant and Naval Aide to the Secretaries of the Navy Paul Ignatius and John Chafee.

He was selected for promotion to Rear Admiral in May 1970 and as a flag officer served in command of a Carrier Task group of the Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean, as the Director of the Navy's Office of Systems Analysis, as Commander of the Second Fleet and as the 36th President of the Naval War College at Newport, Rhode Island. He made major changes at both the academic content and the pedagogical style of the War College's course. In part the course was based on the study of military history, going back to the Peloponnesian Wars; in part on reading the classical military strategists; and in part on case studies of decision-making techniques midst ambiguity and uncertainty. These revisions in the curriculum have basically remained in effect ever since.

In September 1975, he was promoted to the rank of Admiral and became Commander-in-Chief of NATO's Southern Flank, with headquarters in Naples, Italy, and was responsible for the defense of Italy, Greece, Turkey and the Mediterranean Sea.

In February 1977 President Jimmy Carter nominated him to be Director of Central Intelligence. In this capacity, he headed both the Intelligence Community (composed of all of the foreign intelligence agencies of the United States) and the Central Intelligence Agency. He was responsible for developing new procedures for closer oversight of the Intelligence Community by the Congress and the White House; he led the Intelligence Community in adapting to a new era of real-time photographic satellites; and, he instituted major management reform at the CIA. On completion of these duties in January 1981, President Carter presented him the National Security Medal.

In 1995 Admiral Turner was awarded a Senior Research Fellowship at the Norwegian Nobel Peace Institute in Oslo.

He has taught at Yale University and at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York. In 1991, he joined the faculty of the Graduate School of Public Affairs, University of Maryland at College Park. In the fall of 2000, he became the first Raymond H. Spruance Distinguished Fellow at the Naval War College, and taught a course entitled National Intelligence: Needs and Means.

Admiral Turner has written three books. Secrecy and Democracy discusses the problems of conducting secret intelligence activities in our open, democratic society; Terrorism and Democracy discusses how a democracy can respond to acts of terrorism without undermining its democratic principles; and, Caging the Nuclear Genie - An American Challenge for Global Security develops a plan for controlling nuclear weapons. A revised edition of Caging the Nuclear Genie that deals also with biological and chemical weapons was published in May 1999.

In November 1998 he was awarded the Foreign Policy Association Medal for demonstrated commitment to peace, along with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, and Senator George Mitchell. In the same month the State of Illinois selected him as a Laureate of the Lincoln Academy of Illinois.

Admiral Turner was selected as a winner of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Research and Writing Competition. As a result of this grant, he has begun work on his newest book that will discuss U.S. military strategy and its relation to foreign policy.

Admiral Turner has honorary degrees from Amherst College, Roger Williams College, Bryant College, Salve Regina College, Sierra Nevada College, the Naval War College, and the Citadel.

He is a member of the Board of Directors Chase Investment Counsel Corporation and the International Spy Museum, the Board of Direction of the American Association of Rhodes Scholars, and the Committee of Visitors for Goucher College.

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