Eric K. Shinseki

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Eric K. Shinseki

Eric Ken Shinseki (born November 28, 1942 in Lihue , Kauai , Hawaii ) is a former general in the US Army . He served as the 34th Chief of Staff of the Army from 1999 to 2003 and was War Veterans Minister in the cabinet of US President Barack Obama from 2009 to late May 2014 . Shinseki was the first U.S. citizen of Asian descent to be named a four-star general , chief of staff of the armed forces, and war veteran minister.

Military career

Shinseki was born into a Japanese-American family. He graduated from the US Military Academy at West Point in 1965 with a Bachelor of Science and also received his officer license as a second lieutenant . After graduating from West Point, he was trained as an artillery officer.

Shinseki served two rounds ( tour of duty ) with the 9th and 25th US Infantry Divisions in the Vietnam War from 1965 to 1966 . He served as an advanced artillery observation officer of the B battery , 2nd Battalion , 9th US Artillery Regiment .

From 1967 to 1968 he served as Assistant Secretary and then Secretary of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the US Army Hawaii headquarters in Schofield Barracks , Hawaii. Then he changed arms and was trained as a tank officer until 1969 in Fort Knox , Texas . In 1970 he served again in Vietnam as the commander of a unit of the 5th US Cavalry Regiment. During this mission he was wounded by a land mine . He then served from 1971 to 1974 as a staff officer at the US Army Pacific headquarters at Fort Shafter . By 1976 he earned a Masters in English from Duke University and then taught the same subject at the US Military Academy until 1978 . In 1979 Shinseki graduated from Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth and then served until 1981 as a regimental adjutant and first officer of the 1st Squadron of the 3rd Armored US Cavalry Regiment at Fort Bliss .

Shinseki as Chief of Staff of the Army , 2000.

From 1981 to 1982 he served as the U.S. Army's deputy chief of staff for operations and planning. He then took over command of the 3rd Squadron, 7th US Cavalry Regiment of the 3rd US Infantry Division in Schweinfurt until 1984 and then until 1985 the post of Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations ( G3 ) of the 3rd US Infantry Division in Würzburg . The following year, 1986, he graduated from National War College, and then served until 1987 as training commander in the U.S. Army's Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations and Planning. From 1987 to 1989 Shinseki went back to Europe and there took command of the 2nd Brigade of the 3rd US Infantry Division in Kitzingen . Then he took over the post of Deputy Chief of Staff (G3) for operations, planning and training of the VII US Corps in Stuttgart until 1990 and served as Deputy Chief of Staff for support of the Allied Land Forces Southern Europe , Allied Command Europe , in Verona until 1992 , Italy . In the following year, 1992 to 1993, Shinseki then served as deputy division commander of the 3rd US Infantry Division in Schweinfurt. By 1994 Shinseki was back in the Department of Defense , assuming the post of Director of Training in the US Army's Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations and Planning. From March 1994 to July 1995 Shinseki commanded the 1st U.S. Cavalry Division in Fort Hood , Texas . A year later, in July 1996, he was promoted to Lieutenant General and appointed Deputy Chief of Staff in the US Army for planning and operations.

In June 1997 Shinseki was promoted to general and took over from July 1997 to October 1998 as commanding general at the same time the US Army Europe , the Allied Land Forces Central Europe of NATO and the Stabilization Force (SFOR) in Bosnia and Herzegovina . On November 24, 1998, Shinseki assumed the post of 28th Vice Chief of Staff of the Army . Half a year later, on June 22, 1999, he succeeded Dennis Reimer as 34th Chief of Staff of the Army (CSA) and served in this position until he gave up the post on June 11, 2003 and retired in August 2003.

As CSA he began the transformation of the US Army to meet the challenges of the 21st century, which his successor Peter J. Schoomaker continued. Until the end of his service, he led the US Army through Operation Enduring Freedom and the Iraq war .

Shinseki is married and has a daughter and a son.

Iraq war

In the run-up to the Iraq war , there was public disagreement between Shinseki and Donald Rumsfeld over questions of the necessary troop strength. Shinseki had asked for more troops than the US Secretary of Defense wanted to provide for the campaign. On February 25, 2003, four months before retiring from the US Army, he raised these concerns in a public hearing with the Senate Armed Services Committee . He said that "something on the order of several hundred thousand soldiers" was necessary to stabilize post-war Iraq. Rumsfeld and his deputy Paul Wolfowitz publicly contradicted this statement and called Shinseki's assessment “ far off the mark ”. Wolfowitz even said that it was "hard to believe" that more troops were needed for post-war Iraq than when Saddam Hussein was overthrown .

Shinseki was later cited by many former Army officers as a prime example of Rumsfeld's failure to heed and treat the officers' professional military advice. After the war ended and the occupation of Iraq continued, General John Abizaid , commander of US Central Command , told the Senate Armed Services Committee on November 15, 2006 that Shinseki's assessment of the number of troops required was correct. No civilian workers from the Rumsfeld office appeared at Shinseki's retirement ceremony. Referred to by z. B. the former Major General John Batiste , when he called for the resignation of Rumsfeld. Shinseki himself is not satisfied with his martyr role and has refused to comment officially on the Iraq war or troop strength since his retirement.

Appointment as Minister of War Veterans

In December 2008, around a month after his victory in the 2008 presidential election , Barack Obama announced that he would appoint Shinseki to his cabinet as Secretary of War Veterans. On January 20, 2009, the day Obama's inauguration, Shinseki's appointment was confirmed by acclamation by the Senate .

When Barack Obama was inaugurated for the second time in 2013, Shinseki was a Designated Survivor . In the event of an attack on the Capitol, he would have been the highest-ranking survivor and would have succeeded Barack Obama as president.

Shinseki resigned on May 30, 2014 after years of maladministration in US veterans' health and a scandal over the deaths of numerous war veterans. Shinseki's last public appearance was at a National Coalition for Homeless Veterans conference in front of homeless veterans. He admitted serious grievances and apologized. On May 28, an internal report was published describing massive problems in the health system for the war returnees and attesting that the Ministry's health programs were overwhelmed by the large number of veterans returning from Afghanistan and Iraq. For example, waiting lists for the admission of former soldiers in a veterans hospital were only kept pretend. In a military hospital in Phoenix, Arizona, up to 40 veterans had died because they had not received medical treatment in time. President Obama also admitted that veteran grievances were not a new development, but had been "a problem for decades".

Awards

Selection of decorations, sorted based on the Order of Precedence of the Military Awards:

Web links

Commons : Eric K. Shinseki  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

supporting documents

  1. ↑ a b I would say that what's been mobilized to this point - something on the order of several hundred thousand soldiers - are probably, you know, a figure that would be required. ( New York Times, February 28, 2003; English)
  2. ↑ Scorned general's tactics proved right: Profile of the army chief sidelined by Rumsfeld ( The Guardian of March 29, 2003; English)
  3. ↑ Anatomy of a Revolt ( Newsweek April 24, 2006; English)
  4. ^ "General (Eric) Shinseki was right that a greater international force contribution, US force contribution and Iraqi force contribution should have been available immediately after major combat operations." ( Washington Post of November 16, 2006; English)
  5. ↑ Senate Armed Services Committee Holds Hearing on Current Situation in Iraq and Afghanistan ( Memento of the original from October 22, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ( Congressional Hearings November 15, 2006; English)  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.centcom.mil
  6. ↑ Armed Services Hearing Transcript (November 15, 2006; English)
  7. ↑ Generals Speak Out on Iraq ( NewsHour with Jim Lehrer , PBS April 13, 2006; English)
  8. ↑ Obama taps Shinseki as VA secretary , www.msnbc.msn.com, accessed December 7, 2008.
  9. ↑ Seven Obama nominees approved , Politico January 20, 2009, accessed January 21, 2009.
  10. ↑ US Minister Shinseki resigns after scandal , accessed on May 31, 2014.
  11. ↑ Resignation after the scandal over the death of war veterans , accessed on May 31, 2014.
personal data
SURNAME Shinseki, Eric
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Shinseki, Eric K.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American general and politician
DATE OF BIRTH November 28, 1942
PLACE OF BIRTH Lihue , Hawaii