General John Shalikashvili was the first foreign-born Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the first draftee to rise to the position, and the first OCS graduate to be appointed Chairman. He was born in Warsaw in 1936, survived the German occupation of Poland and the 1944 Warsaw uprising, and then emigrated with his family to the United States. In 1958, he became a U.S. citizen after having been classified as stateless due to his parents’ refugee status. He was drafted into the Army, applied for OCS and was commissioned in 1959. Shalikashvili was described in the New York Times as the “intellectual godfather” of the Partnership for Peace, NATO’s military cooperation program with the former members of the Warsaw Pact. He is a recipient of four awards of the Defense Distinguished Service Medal and Bronze Star w/ V Device.
