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| John Shalikashvili, former chairman of the JCS, Dies at 75 |
| 2011-07-23 |
| 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 |
| #5 Seems to have Progressive leanings. From AP: Clinton pointed out that "Gen. Shali" made the recommendations that sent U.S. troops into harm's way in Haiti, Rwanda, Bosnia, the Persian Gulf and a host of other world hotspots that had proliferated since the end of the Cold War....Shalikashvili said American military and civilian authorities need to cooperate more when they decide to get involved in such trouble spots, because so much of what the military is asked to do involves humanitarian or peacekeeping operations. For example, he said, the military might need assistance from the Justice Department to help set up police forces, or advice from the State Department on economic aid. "We know the agencies, but who is responsible for coordinating it, bringing it all in at the right time?" he said. "Haiti, Bosnia, Rwanda, even Somalia, showed us these things go forward from the first day, and there is no coordinator."...Shalikashvili was head of the Joint Chiefs when the "Don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays in the military was adopted. He had argued that allowing homosexuals to serve openly would hurt troop morale and undermine the cohesion of combat units. Years later, though, he said that he changed his mind on the issue after meeting with gay servicemen...Earlier in his career, under the first President George Bush, Shalikashvili served as NATO's supreme allied commander and also commander in chief of all U.S. armed forces in Europe. At the end of the first Gulf War, he was in charge of the Kurdish relief operation in Iraq. In recent months Shalikashvili served on a senior military advisory group to the campaign of Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, as did another former NATO commander, Gen. Wesley Clark...Shortly after Shalikashvili was tabbed by Clinton, the Simon Wiesenthal Center said documents it found indicated the general's late father, Dimitri Shalikashvili, collaborated with the Nazis during World War II. The center said it found the elder Shalikashvili's unpublished writings in the archives of Stanford University's Hoover Institution. Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/07/23/former-joint-chiefs-staff-john-shalikashvili-dies/#ixzz1SyCDNj6I |
| Posted by: Lumpy Elmoluck5091 2011-07-23 18:29 |
| #4 RIP Sir |
| Posted by: Frank G 2011-07-23 17:34 |
| #3 Oops. Here you go. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2011-07-23 17:29 |
| #2 Where's the link? |
| Posted by: tu3031 2011-07-23 17:05 |
| #1 ...God go with you, Sir. He was a good man and a good officer. Mike |
| Posted by: Mike Kozlowski 2011-07-23 16:57 |