As I am getting ready for my long Monday at work, I’m watching the breaking news about the passing of Colin Powell at the age of 84 due to Covid complications. He was an icon to me. I can trace various points of my own history with his name… He was one of those crucial American heroes when I was in high school for Operation Desert Storm in 1991. He was the focus of a research paper I wrote for an assignment while I was in Basic Noncommissioned Officers Course in 2000 in the army. I learned so much more about this extraordinary man’s leadership by that research. As the Secretary of State, he laid out the reason to enter Iraq by explaining the intelligence surrounding Iraq’s possession of weapons of mass destruction, which spoke directly to my job in the army early in 2003. To me, that briefing made everything I trained for up to that point extremely real.

He was an icon. Not very often am I impacted this way by public figures, but Colin Powell was the American story. He was the son of immigrants, a figure of diversity, a leader, a conservative, a hero, a statesman, a father, a husband, and an unquestionable patriot. He made his mark on the American story and rightfully holds his rich place in American history. Rest in peace, Colin Powell, and be the leader of angels the way you were on earth…

by Rory Andes

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