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Coling Powell and the U.S. Military General Colin Powell was the first

General Colin Powell was the first black officer to become the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. This accomplishment came after a long history of discrimination and abuse of blacks in the U.S. military, extending even into the early part of Powell's career in the army. Powell worked his way up though the system to become a general, but it was his performance and prominence during the Desert Storm situation that catapulted him to national prominence as the news media centered on this leader, the highest-ranking African-American in the history of the country. Powell's story is a truly American version of success. He was born of immigrant parents form Jamaica and grew up in moderately poor circumstances. His education was in average public schools. He succeeded through his own hard work, though, to overcome whatever limitations this placed on him. Powell was the first black American to serve in sensitive and key positions of government, and he did so through the administrations of five presidents. He was the first black appointed to the post of national security advisor to the White House. He was the first Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) officer named to the chairmanship of the Joint chiefs. He was further the youngest chairman of the Joint Chiefs of staff, being appointed to the post when he was only 52. He achieved all of these first because of "his distinguishing qualities of character, coupled with an abundance of skills for solving problems" (Hughes 10). An examination of Powell's life suggests how he achieved his success and what he had to overcome to do it.

Powell has also not been at all reticent about spreading his own message for success to others. When he was still Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the Pentagon in 1992, he returned to Morris High School in the South Bronx, where he was once a student, and told the students to get their high school diplomas as a minimum to achieving anything ...

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Coling Powell and the U.S. Military General Colin Powell was the first. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 11:25, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1707958.html