Shinseki, Eric Ken, 1942-

<p>Eric Ken Shinseki (born November 28, 1942) is a retired United States Army general who served as the seventh United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs (2009–2014). His final United States Army post was as the 34th Chief of Staff of the Army (1999–2003). Shinseki is a veteran of two tours of combat in the Vietnam War, in which he was awarded three Bronze Star Medals for valor and two Purple Hearts. He was the first Asian-American four-star general, and the first Asian-American Secretary of Veterans Affairs.</p>

<p>Shinseki was born in Lihue, Kauaʻi, 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 Kaua'i and graduated from Kaua'i High and Intermediate School in 1960. While attending Kaua'i 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 of National Defense University.</p>

<p>Shinseki served in a variety of command and staff assignments in the Continental United States and overseas, including two combat tours with the 9th and 25th Infantry Divisions in the Republic of Vietnam as an artillery forward observer and as commander of Troop A, 3rd Squadron, 5th Cavalry Regiment during the Vietnam War. During one of those tours while serving as a forward artillery observer, he stepped on a land mine, which blew the front off one of his feet; after spending almost a year recovering from his injuries, he returned to active duty in 1971.</p>

<p>Shinseki has served at Schofield Barracks, Hawai'i with Headquarters, United States Army Hawaii, and Fort Shafter with Headquarters, United States Army Pacific. He has taught at the U.S. Military Academy's Department of English. During duty with the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment at Fort Bliss, Texas, he served as the regimental adjutant and as the executive officer of its 1st Squadron.</p>

<p>Shinseki's ten-plus years of service in Europe included assignments as Commander, 3rd Squadron, 7th Cavalry, 3rd Infantry Division (Schweinfurt); Commander, 2nd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division (Kitzingen); Assistant Chief of Staff, G3, 3rd Infantry Division (Operations, Plans and Training) (Würzburg); and Assistant Division Commander for Maneuver, 3rd Infantry Division (Schweinfurt). The 3rd Division was organized at that time as a heavy mechanized division. He also served as Assistant Chief of Staff, G3 (Operations, Plans, and Training), VII Corps (Stuttgart). Shinseki served as Deputy Chief of Staff for Support, Allied Land Forces Southern Europe (Verona), an element of the Allied Forces Southern Europe.</p>

<p>From March 1994 to July 1995, Shinseki commanded the 1st Cavalry Division at Fort Hood, Texas. In July 1996, he was promoted to lieutenant general and became Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations and Plans, United States Army. In June 1997, Shinseki was appointed to the rank of general before assuming duties as Commanding General, Seventh United States Army; Commander, Allied Land Forces Central Europe; and Commander, NATO Stabilization Force in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Shinseki became the Army's 28th Vice Chief of Staff on November 24, 1998, then became its 34th Chief of Staff on June 22, 1999. Shinseki retired on June 11, 2003 at the end of his four-year term. His Farewell Memo contained some of his ideas regarding the future of the military. At that time, General Shinseki retired from the Army after 38 years of military service.</p>

<p>As of 2009, Shinseki was the highest-ranked Asian American in the history of the United States. Additionally, as of 2004, he is the highest-ranked Japanese American to have served in the United States Armed Forces.</p>

<p>Eric K. Shinseki, in full Eric Ken Shinseki, (born November 28, 1942, Lihue, Hawaii), U.S. Army officer who was the first Asian American to achieve the rank of four-star general. He commanded North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) peacekeeping forces in Bosnia-Herzegovina (1997–98), served as army chief of staff (1999–2003), and was secretary of veterans affairs (2009–14) in the administration of Pres. Barack Obama.</p>

<p>Shinseki was born less than a year after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and his parents, like other Japanese Americans at the time, were classified by the U.S. government as “enemy aliens.” To prove their loyalty to their adopted country, three of his uncles enlisted in the army, and they served in Europe in the all-Japanese 100th Battalion and 442nd Regimental Combat Team. In spite of early misgivings about the use of Nisei (second-generation Japanese American) troops, the soldiers established a reputation for unmatched bravery, and Nisei units went on to become some of the most decorated in U.S armed forces history. Shinseki was inspired by his uncles’ service, and he entered the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, where he earned a B.A. in engineering and a second lieutenant’s commission in 1965. Later that year, he began the first of two combat tours in Vietnam. He was awarded three Bronze Stars for valour and a Purple Heart with an Oak Leaf Cluster—he received the latter honour for a combat injury that cost him part of his right foot. He spent almost a year recovering from his wounds, but he returned to active duty in 1971.</p>

<p>Shinseki earned an M.A. in English from Duke University (1976) before taking a position as an instructor at West Point. He continued to advance along the officer career track, with extended postings at the Pentagon and with the 3rd Infantry Division in West Germany, and in 1991 he was promoted to brigadier general. He received his first division command when he was named commanding general of the 1st Cavalry Division in 1994, and he earned his second star later that year. Shinseki added a third star in 1996, and he was named commander in chief of U.S. Army forces in Europe the following year. During this time, he also served as commander of NATO land forces in central Europe, as well as commander of the NATO stabilization mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina. He earned his fourth star in August 1997, and Pres. Bill Clinton nominated him to the post of army chief of staff in April 1999.</p>

<p>Shinseki remained on as army chief of staff during the administration of Pres. George W. Bush, but his tenure was marked by increasing tension with civilian leaders in the Pentagon. Shinseki subscribed to Secretary of State Colin Powell’s doctrine that military force, if used, should be overwhelming in size, speed, and power. This conflicted with the “small footprint” strategy espoused by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and his assistant, Paul Wolfowitz, who believed that advanced battlefield technology and precision weapons made large bodies of traditional infantry obsolete. In the days leading up to the Iraq War, this doctrinal clash became public, when Shinseki testified before Congress in 2003 that an invasion of Iraq would require “several hundred thousand soldiers” and that a post-war occupation could awaken “ethnic tensions that could lead to other problems.” These statements were immediately refuted by Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, and Shinseki retired a few months later. In 2008 Obama nominated Shinseki to serve as secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), the second largest agency in the federal government. He was approved by the Senate in January 2009.</p>

<p>Although long wait times for veterans seeking treatment at VA medical facilities had been reported for years, in 2014 evidence emerged that some facilities had covered up and misrepresented those wait times and that veterans had died before they received care. Amid intensifying allegations of systemic misconduct at the VA, Shinseki resigned in May 2014.</p>