Eric Shinseki

Eric Ken Shinseki is a retired United States Army general who served as the seventh United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs . His final U.S. Army post was as the 34th Chief of Staff of the Army . Shinseki is a veteran of two tours of combat in the Vietnam War, in which he was awarded three Bronze Stars for valor and two Purple Hearts. He was both the first AsianAmerican fourstar general and then the Secretary of Veterans Affairs.

Shinseki was born in Lihue, Kaua i, in the then Territory of Hawaii, to an American family of Japanese ancestry. His grandparents emigrated from Hiroshima to Hawaii in 1901. He grew up in a sugarcane plantation community on Kauai and graduated from Kauai High and Intermediate School in 1960. While attending Kauai he was active in the Boy Scouts and served as class president. As a boy, Shinseki learned that three of his uncles had served in the 442nd Infantry Regiment, a unit of Japanese Americans that became one of the most decorated fighting units in United States history. Motivated by his uncles example, he attended the United States Military Academy and graduated in 1965 with a bachelor of science degree and a commission as a second lieutenant. He earned a Master of Arts degree in English Literature from Duke University. He was also educated at the Armor Officer Advanced Course, the United States Army Command and General Staff College, and the National War College.

Source: Wikipedia