John Shalikashvili

John Malchase David Shalikashvili was born in Poland to a Georgian princely family who fled Soviet occupation. Emigrating to Peoria, Illinois, in 1952, he taught himself English from John Wayne movies and was drafted into the U.S. Army as a private in 1958.

Commissioned through Officer Candidate School, Shalikashvili served in Vietnam and rose steadily to four-star general. In 1991, he commanded Operation Provide Comfort, delivering humanitarian relief to hundreds of thousands of Kurdish refugees in northern Iraq. President Bill Clinton appointed him Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, steering military missions in Bosnia and Haiti.