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John Shalikashvili, former chairman of the JCS, Dies at 75
Formal news link provided.Retired Army Gen. John Shalikashvili, a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has died of complications from a stroke. He was 75. Shalikashvili passed away Saturday at Madigan Army Medical Center in Tacoma, Washington. He is survived by his wife, Joan, and their son, Brant. Born in Poland in 1936, Shalikashvili became the first foreign-born chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1993. He held the post until his retirement in 1997, serving under former President Bill Clinton. Peculiar biographical information from his Wiki: John Shalikashvili is a scion of the medieval Georgian noble house of Shalikashvili. His father, Prince Dimitri Shalikashvili (1896--1978), served in the army of Imperial Russia. After the Bolshevik Revolution, he became a lieutenant-colonel in the army of the Democratic Republic of Georgia. When the Soviet Union invaded and occupied Georgia in 1921, he was on diplomatic service in Turkey. Dimitri then joined other Georgian exiles in Poland, where he met and married John's mother, Marie Antoinette, daughter of Count Rudiger-Bielajew, a former Tsarist general. They had three children: Othar, John, and Gale. Dimitri served in the Polish Army (along with other Georgian exiles) as a contract officer. In 1939, he fought against the German invasion of Poland. The unit was later incorporated into the SS-Waffengruppe Georgien and transferred to Normandy. Dimitri surrendered to British forces and was a prisoner of war until after the war. Meanwhile, Maria, John, and his two brothers lived through the destruction of Warsaw. As the Red Army approached Warsaw in 1944, the family fled to Pappenheim, Germany where they were reunited with Dimitri. They stayed with relatives there for eight years. In 1952, when John was 16, the family immigrated to Peoria, Illinois. Shalikashvili went to Peoria High School, where he was a long distance runner. He attended Bradley University in Peoria, and received a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering in 1958. He is a member of Theta Chi Fraternity. He later received a master's degree in International Affairs. In May 1958, Shalikashvili and his family became American citizens. It was the first citizenship he ever held. He had previously been classified as "stateless", since he had been born to parents who had been refugees. Posted by: Anonymoose 2011-07-23 |
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