His highest rank was as Army Provost Marshal General from 1964 to 1968; in that post he was involved in the responses to some of the major civil and political disturbances of the 1960s.

[3][4] He was commissioned as an infantry officer in the United States Army in 1935 and served in the European theatre in World War II.

[1] On 15 August 1965, in meetings at the White House to plan the use of federal troops to quell the Watts riot he was designated as the personal representative of the Army chief of staff, one of three senior officials to oversee the operation in Los Angeles.

[8][7]: 173  During the October 1967 March on the Pentagon, Turner advised Attorney General Ramsey Clark that the demonstrators were "highly angry, emotional, brave and daring."

[7]: 358  Turner asserted that "the Chicago Police Department, under extremely trying circumstances, successfully accomplished their [sic] mission of maintaining law and order... with professional restraint and control.

"[7]: 362 After working as a security consultant, he was appointed by the Nixon administration as Chief, Executive Office for United States Marshals on 5 March 1969, but was forced to resign on 4 September 1969 after becoming a central figure in the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations' inquiry into the military club system, known as the PX Scandal.

[12]: 46–7  Turner was later accused of having covered up an attempt by Wooldridge to smuggle 8-9 cases of liquor aboard General Creighton Abrams' KC-135 jet in April 1967.

[13] In January 1971 he was indicted by a Federal grand jury for illegal firearms transactions and income tax evasion which had come to light during the PX Scandal.

[12]: 59  In April 1971 he pleaded guilty to soliciting 136 firearms confiscated by the Chicago Police Department, which he misrepresented as a gift for the Army.