Background
Yates was born in Bangor, Maine to Archie O. and Gertrude A. (Wilson) Yates and attended Bangor High School.
Yates was born in Bangor, Maine to Archie O. and Gertrude A. (Wilson) Yates and attended Bangor High School.
United States Military Academy.
He was the younger brother of United States Air Force Lieutenant General Donald Norton Yates. He spent one year at the Stanton Preparatory Academy in Cornwall, New York before entering the United States Military Academy in 1937. Yates graduated second in the West Point class of 1941, winning three of the fifteen available academic awards, including the Robert East. Lee Saber for the highest standing in mathematics.
On graduation he entered the United States. Army Corps of Engineers.
Yates did two tours of duty as a senior officer during the Vietnam War. In 1966 he was Deputy Chief of the Engineering Division of the United States. Army Vietnam.
In 1969-1970 he was Director of Construction in Vietnam, with the rank of brigadier general. In 1966-1968 Yates was Chief Engineer of the Corps" Philadelphia District, and was also briefly Chief Engineer of the North Pacific Division, headquartered in Portland, Oregon, and responsible for the Columbia River Basin.