Profile: Gen. Colin Powell
Dec. 17 -- During the 1991 Gulf War, Gen. Colin Powell’s steady gaze looked out from television screens across the world. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff appeared smart, certain and straightforward.
After the Gulf War, which successfully expelled the Iraqi army from Kuwait, Powell’s instant celebrity grew, his name becoming synonymous with integrity to many Americans across the political spectrum. Then, the speculation surrounding his potential political career began swirling.
But the speculation ended Saturday when George W. Bush named Powell as his secretary of state.
National Myth
“He is charismatic,” says Howard Means, Powell’s 1992 biographer. “As soon as you meet him, you can’t help liking him. I think that comes across in his interviews and it came across during the Gulf War. When I first met him, right away I could see myself going fishing with him and having a few drinks over a good conversation. He just makes you feel at ease.”
Powell’s life journey reads like a national myth. Raised in poverty in the South Bronx by immigrant parents from Jamaica, he went to public schools, including the City College of New York, where he joined the ROTC.
After graduation, he was commissioned in the Army as a second lieutenant and rose through the lower ranks to become the first African-American and youngest Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, from 1989 to 1993, when he retired from the military to write his 1995 best selling autobiography My American Journey.
For the past seven years Powell has remained in the public eye, traveling the country speaking to schools, businesses and other organizations about his life story. He’s also sat on various corporate boards and chaired America’s Promise, a civic organization dedicated to uplifting youth through mentoring programs, after-school programs and education.
Military Man
Powell says he fell instantly in love with the military when he joined the ROTC program his first semester at City College. Although never a star student, he excelled in the Army.
“The discipline, the structure, the camaraderie, the sense of belonging were what I craved,” he wrote, comparing it to the other pillar of his life, the Episcopal church.
Powell served two tours in Vietnam. During the second, he survived a helicopter crash-landing, going back into the smoking wreckage to pull out his commanding general and two others.
For that and other valor in Vietnam, he received two Purple Hearts, a Bronze Star, a Soldier’s Medal, and the Legion of Merit.
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