Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, October 1, 1993 TAG: 9310010336
SECTION: NATL/INTL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
The most popular and powerful American military man in a generation will remain before the public eye with the writing of his memoirs (at $6 million), frequent lectures (at $60,000 each) and a nationwide guessing game about his political plans.
Powell's retirement ceremony at Fort Myer, Va., was attended by President and Hillary Rodham Clinton, Vice President Al Gore, former President Bush and Barbara Bush, former Vice President Dan Quayle and rank upon rank of dignitaries and diplomats, senior military officers and covetous politicians.
Powell's already beribboned breast was loaded with a half-dozen more medals, including a special citation from Queen Elizabeth II, who named the general an honorary knight commander in the military division of the Most Honorable Order of the Bath.
Under sunny skies on a chilly early autumn afternoon, Clinton extolled the 56-year-old general as "strong and wise, forthright and honest," the perfect model of the perfect soldier.
"You are truly a hard act to follow," Clinton said. "Your reward is a grateful nation and a bright future."
Powell delivered an emotional and deliberately apolitical farewell of thanks to American men and women in uniform, to the civilian leaders who entrusted great responsibility in him and to his immediate and extended family, especially his wife of 31 years, Alma.
With four silver stars glittering on each shoulder and his second Presidential Medal of Freedom draped about his neck, Powell said, "The Army has officially advised me that, for record purposes, I have served 35 years, three months, 21 days, and as we say in the infantry, a wake-up [the morning of one's final day]. I loved every single day of it. And it's hard to leave. . . .
"I have never wanted to be anything but a soldier, and my dream has been fulfilled for almost four decades," said Powell, who ended his career as far more than a simple soldier.
Powell shed his uniform Thursday, the son of Jamaican immigrants rising from the tough South Bronx section of New York City to wield the most governmental power of any black in the nation's history.
The veteran of two tours in Vietnam emerged from the pack of young officers in 1972, when Caspar Weinberger, then-President Nixon's budget director, plucked him from a group of White House scholars and shepherded his career through assignments from the Energy Department to the White House, where he eventually became national security adviser under former President Reagan.
Bush named Powell chairman of the Joint Chiefs in 1989, where he managed the military through invasions and budget cuts.
by CNB