Summary
Gen. Colin Powell, the New York City-born son of Jamaican immigrants, determined on an Army career while in ROTC at the College of the City of New York. In the fullness of time he became the highest-ranking black officer to serve in the U.S. Army and one of the most admired men in America. He is now the subject of a splendid biography by Washington Post reporter Karen DeYoung, "Soldier: The Life of Colin Powell."
Mr. Powell's early career saw the usual rotation between field assignments and Army schools. Wherever he went he stood out; in 1968, for instance, he graduated second in a class of more than 1,200 in the Army's Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. Between postings, however, he encountered the harassment most blacks encountered when traveling in the South. Mr. Powell recalls, "I regarded military installations in the South as healthy cells in an otherwise sick body."See the full content of this document
Extract
Reluctant Warrior Who Was Soldier and Statesman
Mr. Powell served two tours in Vietnam, and his experiences there would heavily influence his later strategic perspective. He was twice wounded, once by a punji stick and once when he escaped from a crashed helicopter but returned to the burning aircraft to rescue ...
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