RIP, General Shalikashvili

[Skidmore]

Just making note of the passing of this man.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/24/us/24Shalikashvili.html

Gen. John M. Shalikashvili, Military Chief in 1990s, Dies at 75
By SHAILA DEWAN
Gen. John M. Shalikashvili, the first foreign-born soldier to become the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, died Saturday morning at an Army hospital in Washington State of complications after a stroke. He was 75.

General Shalikashvili succeeded Gen. Colin L. Powell as chairman of the Joint Chiefs in 1993 under President Bill Clinton and served until 1997. He advised the president on crises in the Balkans, Haiti and other troubled places.

The general was born in Poland, and his family emigrated in 1952, when he was 16. He became a citizen in 1958 and was drafted two months later. He rose through the ranks, and at the end of the first Gulf War was put in charge of the United States military’s first major humanitarian mission, to return starving Kurds to Iraq.

Referring to the general by his nickname, President Obama said in a statement, “From his arrival in the United States as a 16-year-old Polish immigrant after the Second World War, to a young man who learned English from John Wayne movies, to his rise to the highest ranks of our military, Shali’s life was an ‘only-in-America’ story. By any measure, he made our country a safer and better place.”...more

[sarge43]

1. Peaceful passage soldier. Well done. n/t

[murielm99]

2. I remember him as very gentlemanly.

Also, he was loyal to Clinton. When the right wing spewed all sorts of propaganda about how Clinton had hurt our military, he defended Clinton staunchly.

RIP

[treestar]

3. Born in Poland

His name sounds Georgian (as in the country, not the state).

[customerserviceguy]

4. He is from a family famous in Georgian history

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shalikashvili

Watched the CBS evening news last night, they barely gave him a mention at the end of the program, chose to focus a lot of coverage in the middle of the show on some dead drug addict.