10-18-2021, 02:52 PM
Colin Powell, first Black secretary of state, dies from COVID-19 complications
WASHINGTON — Colin Powell, the trailblazing military commander and first Black secretary of statewhose career was defined in part by America's two wars with Iraq, died Monday of COVID-19 related complications.
Powell, 84, was born in New York City to Jamaican immigrants, served four U.S. presidents and rose to become the first African American and the youngest chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the nation's highest-ranking military officer. He died Monday at Walter Reed National Medical Center. His family said he was fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
"We have lost a remarkable and loving husband, father, grandfather and a great American," Powell's family said in its statement.
The news of his death rippled across the country, sparking an outpouring of grief and praise for his decades of public service.
"He was a tremendous personal friend and mentor to me, and there’s a hole in my heart right now as I think about his loss," Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Monday. "I will miss him dearly."
Former President Jimmy Carter called him a "true patriot and public servant," and noted that Powell worked on many issues outside the limelight, including pro-democracy efforts in Haiti and Jamaica.
Powell served two combat tours in Vietnam before climbing the ranks and overseeing the first Gulf War in 1990-1991, when American and allied forces drove Iraq's military from Kuwait. Powell's distinguished military career was later tarnished by his tenure as the nation's chief diplomat, when then-President George W. Bush's led the U.S. into the second Iraq war in 2003, based on faulty assertions that Saddam Hussein's government had weapons of mass destruction.
Powell later called that a "blot" on his career.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/poli...505049002/
WASHINGTON — Colin Powell, the trailblazing military commander and first Black secretary of statewhose career was defined in part by America's two wars with Iraq, died Monday of COVID-19 related complications.
Powell, 84, was born in New York City to Jamaican immigrants, served four U.S. presidents and rose to become the first African American and the youngest chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the nation's highest-ranking military officer. He died Monday at Walter Reed National Medical Center. His family said he was fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
"We have lost a remarkable and loving husband, father, grandfather and a great American," Powell's family said in its statement.
The news of his death rippled across the country, sparking an outpouring of grief and praise for his decades of public service.
"He was a tremendous personal friend and mentor to me, and there’s a hole in my heart right now as I think about his loss," Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Monday. "I will miss him dearly."
Former President Jimmy Carter called him a "true patriot and public servant," and noted that Powell worked on many issues outside the limelight, including pro-democracy efforts in Haiti and Jamaica.
Powell served two combat tours in Vietnam before climbing the ranks and overseeing the first Gulf War in 1990-1991, when American and allied forces drove Iraq's military from Kuwait. Powell's distinguished military career was later tarnished by his tenure as the nation's chief diplomat, when then-President George W. Bush's led the U.S. into the second Iraq war in 2003, based on faulty assertions that Saddam Hussein's government had weapons of mass destruction.
Powell later called that a "blot" on his career.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/poli...505049002/