White was the son of a Presbyterian minister in Tennessee, he earned money digging ditches at aged 16, before graduating from Troy High School in 1929 and was accepted at the United States Military Academy at West Point on 1 July 1929 with help from congressman Jerry Cooper.

[2] In September 1942 White was sent to serve in the Pacific theater of the Second World War, seeing combat in New Georgia, Bougainville and the Philippines.

Reaching the rank of colonel in the Philippines in 1945,[3] he was severely wounded and had to be dragged to safety while under fire by US Army Chaplain Elmer Heindl.

After release, White joined the CIA in the Office of Operations, becoming head of the Foreign Broadcast Information Branch and by December 1950 Deputy Assistant Director of the Office of Operations.

In 1964, DCI William Raborn made White Executive Director-Comptroller until his retirement in 1972.