Reply #13: Ex-Joint Chiefs chairman suffers stroke

[cal04]

Retired Gen. John Shalikashvili, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and now an adviser to Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry, has been hospitalized in Washington state after a severe stroke, Pentagon officials said Monday. After falling ill at his home in Steilacoom, Washington, Shalikashvili was admitted Saturday morning to Madigan Army Medical Center in Tacoma, officials said. The general was in guarded condition Monday in an intensive care unit, according to hospital spokeswoman Sharon Ayala.

Shalikashvili, 68, was born in Poland and came to the United States at age 16 in 1952, according to The Associated Press. He became the first foreign-born chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff when he was named to that post in 1993. He served until his retirement in 1997.

At a gathering honoring Shalikashvili at that time, President Clinton said, "He never minced words, he never postured or pulled punches, he never shied away from tough issues or tough calls, and most important, he never shied away from doing what he believed was the right thing," according to the AP. Before serving as the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, he was NATO's 10th supreme allied commander in Europe.

He enlisted in the Army in 1958 and rose through the ranks, serving in Vietnam from 1968 to 1969 and heading up a 1991 international relief operation that airlifted food for Kurds in northern Iraq as well as providing them with protection. Most recently, the general has been an adviser to the Kerry campaign, speaking at last month's Democratic National Convention in Massachusetts. The Kerry campaign had no immediate comment. Shalikashvili and his wife, Joan, moved to Steilacoom, near Fort Lewis south of Tacoma, in 1998, according to the AP.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/08/09/general.stroke/index.html