Colin Luther Powell

(http://www.visualphotos.com/photo/1x6495489/General_Colin_Powell_Chairman_of_the_Joint_Chiefs_214-417.jpg ())

Scouting through Vietnam, being the first Afro-Caribbean to serve as Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff, Colin L. Powell is my hero because he is courageous, determined, and achieved many things that people did not expect of him.

The first reason Powell is my hero is that he is courageous. When he lived in Harlem, he went to school at Morris High School. When Powell was in Vietnam, he stepped on a bungee cord that propelled a bamboo stake into his foot. He still served in Vietnam until the infection got so bad that he was forced to return home. Now that takes courage to stay on a battleground with a wound like that. I probably would have crawled up in a ball. He did return to Vietnam in 1968 as a major at a time when no one would want to return to such a battleground where you could end up going home in a body bag. As a matter of fact, many people at that time was doing everything they could to avoid the draft and evade their responsibility to military service. Not Colin Powell.

The second reason Colin Powell is my hero is because he is determined.  At his time, racism was even stronger than it is now.  So, he probably had some people to try to put him down.  But, he was determined to achieve his goal and did not give up until he achieved what he set out to do.

The third reason Colin Powell is my hero is because he achieved great things that many did not expect of him.  Being born in Harlem, he lived there and then graduated from Morris High School with C average grades.  From that background, it appeared he would be like any other person.  Only his mother and father thought that he would go on and be the person he is today.  Proving his parents' faith in him to be well-founded, Powell achieved a great victory for minorities when he became the first Afro-Caribbean to serve the United States as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. 

So, when Colin Luther Powell is my hero because he is courageous, determined, and achieved many great things that people that did not expect of him.