Colin Powell, the first African American United State’s Secretary of State and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is dead.
In a statement, his family said he passed away on Monday morning due to complications from Covid 19 though he was fully vaccinated.
“We want to thank the medical staff at Walter Reed National Medical Center for their caring treatment. We have lost a remarkable and loving husband, father, grandfather and a great American,” the Powell family said in a statement posted on Facebook.
Powell served as the United States Secretary of State from 2001 to 2005, the first African-American to hold the position.
He also served as the 16th United States National Security Advisor from 1987 to 1989 and as the 12th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1989 to 1993.
He was Commander of the U.S. Army Forces Command in 1989.
His last assignment, from October 1989 to September 1993, was as the 12th chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the highest military position in the US Department of Defense.
In the position, he oversaw US military during the invasion of Panama in 1989 and Operation Desert Storm in the Persian Gulf War against Iraq in 1990–1991.
His term was highly controversial regarding his inaccurate justification for America’s Iraq War in 2003. He was forced to resign after Bush was reelected in 2004.
Powell was born in New York City in 1937, Powell was educated in the New York City public schools, graduating from the City College of New York, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in geology.
He received a commission as an Army second lieutenant upon graduation in June 1958 and was in the military 35 years, during which time he held many command and staff positions and rose to the rank of four-star general.
