Stacy Conradt
The Quick 10: 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Colin Powell
by Stacy Conradt - October 29, 2008 - 2:24 PM

q10

Mangesh very astutely pointed out the other day that Colin Powell is a guy you hear about a lot politically, but it seems like most of us don’t know much about him personally. Turns out he’s pretty fascinating, and he has a great sense of humor. If you’ve got a little time to kill, check out this interview with Larry King. It takes a while to get to the funny stuff, but near the bottom he swears that he TiVos Larry King every night and calls Larry a Luddite (Larry: “What’s a Luddite?”) in the same breath. He also talks about how he made Pottery Barn angry.

powell1. In the late ‘50s, Powell was posted in Gelnhausen, Germany. They now have a street named after him: “General-Colin-Powell-Straße”.
2. If you have ever noticed a red wagon pin on his lapel, it’s not just a whimsical style choice – it’s the logo of his organization, America’s Promise. It’s a charitable organization with the goal of helping children in the U.S. succeed in various fields.

3. When Powell was in Vietnam, he fell victim to a punji stick booby trap. He was leading his unit when his right leg fell into a shallow hole; his foot was pierced by the stick. The simple trap is a stick whittled razor-sharp, then smeared with animal feces (the intent was to cause infection and fever). The stick was so sharp it went right through his boot and into the bottom of his foot, which had swelled up by the time he got back to camp. It was infected, but he was treated and the wound healed effectively.

4. He served in Germany at the same time as Elvis and met him twice. He said, “When I met him, he was out in the field just as dirty and tired as the rest of us from doing his job. We were in this wooded area north of Frankfurt and I was driving along in my Jeep and somebody noted that, there he was. When I got out of my Jeep and walked over to him he saluted and what very proper and what struck me was that he looked just like another GI. He was shorter than I expected.”

5. As a member of the ROTC, Powell joined the Pershing Rifles, a fraternity and drill team famous for their precision routines. Even after he achieved great success in the military, he kept a pen set that he had won in a competition on his desk.

6. Speaking of the ROTC, very few generals have come from there (as opposed to a military academy). Powell was also the first Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to ever come out of the ROTC.

7. When he was in his teens, Powell got a job at a baby furniture store. They had just gotten in a bunch of cribs and grabbed the first kid on the street to see if he would help out for a little extra cash. It was Colin Powell, and he did such a great job that they hired him for 75 cents an hour. While there, he picked up some Yiddish used by the shopowners and drops it into his speeches from time to time.

8. His parents were immigrants from Jamaica – they settled in Harlem in 1937 and later moved to the South Bronx.

9. He loves TiVo.

10. His bachelor’s degree from City College of New York was in geology. And he wasn’t a great student – he gave a commencement address at Marymount University in 2006 and admitted that he had a “C” average.

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Comments (13)

  1. We BOTH love TiVo!

    posted by David on 10-29-2008 at 3:10 pm

  2. I served under Colin Powell when he was a one star general in 1980. The first time I met him was in the middle of January on a snowy hilltop at 23:00 (11:00 at night). He always made a point of visiting units that were training in the field, regardless of the weather conditions. He made sure we were getting at least one hot meal per day.

    Every single soldier looked up to him, and not just because of his rank.

    posted by TJ on 10-29-2008 at 4:41 pm

  3. Yay geology major! As I sit here responding to this I’m supposed to be writing up a lab lol

    posted by Christine on 10-29-2008 at 4:53 pm

  4. Just have to second that, Christine! I’m just finishing grading on a minerals quiz.

    posted by Dan on 10-29-2008 at 6:04 pm

  5. I’m writing in Gen. Powell on Tuesday. He sure is a heck of a lot better of an option than the leading candidates.

    posted by DYMongoose on 10-29-2008 at 10:47 pm

  6. General/Secretary Powell has been and always will be a hero of mine regardless of my disagreeing with his political activities. He is a great man who has earned the trust and respect of the world much as he did that of his troops. I would vote for him in a heartbeat if ever afforded the opportunity. Instead, I have to choose between two useless, untrustworthy, slimey politicians who have no interest in anything but themselves. America, in S/G Powell we HAVE a Superman if we would allow him to be one.

    posted by Scott-O on 10-30-2008 at 9:10 am

  7. I was going to say that General Powell was one of the few people in politics I actually respect. Then I realized he is the ONLY person I respect. He is an incredible example of integrity. I don’t know his full story, but I infer that he quit the Bush Cabinet because he had been fed a pack of lies about Iran, and then fed that pack of lies to the rest of the world. I’m so sorry that happened to him.
    I wish, too, that he would run for President. I don’t agree with all of his views either, but I completely respect him as a man and that’s what we need in our highest office.

    posted by Rachel on 10-30-2008 at 9:33 am

  8. Let’s hope that our next president realizes the worth of this man and puts him in a spot where he can help our country grow back to THE world power.

    Thanks General Powell for all you have contributed. We appreciate you very much.

    posted by olal on 10-30-2008 at 9:52 am

  9. If you respect Colin Powell’s integrity, honor, and intellect so much, then vote for the man he endorsed, Barack Obama.

    posted by Southern Buddhist on 10-30-2008 at 11:34 am

  10. Unfortunately, Powell has said that he will never run for president, even though he’s virtually guaranteed to win.

    posted by gibson8or on 10-30-2008 at 12:42 pm

  11. Gen. Powell spoke at a company meeting I attended, and he was astonishing — articulate, smart, hysterically funny, insightful, inspiring, and moving; all in 45 minutes. And he came across as warm, relaxed, and at ease with himself. Clearly he has thought about and learned from everything he’s ever experienced.

    posted by Liza Jane on 10-30-2008 at 2:00 pm

  12. Powell lost my respect when he became Bush’s lackey and helped lie to the American people.
    Yeah, he was being a good soldier. So what, there were lots of good soldiers in Wermacht during WWII.

    posted by BassMan on 10-30-2008 at 3:14 pm

  13. Colin Powell will never run for office. He was directly involved in suppressing evidence of the My Lai Massacre during the US occupation of Viet Nam. Just Google “Colin Powell My Lai”. He has no elective future.

    posted by jimbo46 on 12-23-2008 at 7:49 pm

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