Colin Powell a Four Star General

Colin Luther Powell was born on April 5, 1937 in Harlem, New York to Jamaican immigrants, Luther and Maud Powell. He was raised in the South Bronx and educated in public schools and graduated from Morris High School in 1954. He attended City College in N.Y., where he studied geology which led his joining the Reserves Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC). He soon became commander of his unit, spiralling him towards the beginning of his military career.

In 1958, after graduation he was commissioned in the U.S. Army as a 2nd lieutenant. Powell met Alma Vivian Johnson of Birmingham, Alabama and married her in 1962 while stationed at Fort Devens, Massachusetts. They have three children, Michael, Linda and Annemarie. During this time he was sent by President John Kennedy to South Vietnam as one of 16,000 advisers.

Powell was wounded in 1963, while on patrol at the Vietnamese-Laotian border. His first tour awarded him a Purple Heart and in his second year, a Bronze Star.

During his 2nd Vietnam tour, from 1968 to 1969, he investigated the My Lai Massacre in which 300 civilians were killed by the U.S. Army. His report refuted the allegations of wrongdoing and even stated, “Relations between American soldiers and the Vietnamese people are excellent.”

During his Vietnam tour he was injured in a helicopter crash, but he managed to rescue his comrades and was awarded the Soldier’s Medal. He has received 11 military decorations, including the Legion of Merit.

In 1972 Powell received an MBA at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.,and won a White House fellowship. During the Nixon administration he was assigned to the Office of Management and Budget, which impressed Caspar Weinberger and Frank Carlucci. They consulted Powell when they served as Secretary of State, and National Security Adviser in the Reagan administration.

Colonel Colin Powell served as a battalion commander in the Korea war in 1973, and later worked in the Pentagon. He studied at the Army War College and was promoted to brigadier general and commanded the 101st Airborne Division.

During the Carter administration he was assistant to the deputy secretary of defense and the secretary of energy. Becoming Major General he assisted Frank Carlucci at the Department of Defense during the transition to the Reagan administration. He became senior military aide to Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger and helped coordinate the Granada invasion and the Libya bombing.