Eric Shinseki
Eric Shinseki
Eric Ken Shinsekiis a retired United States Army general who served as the seventh United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs. His final U.S. Army post was as the 34th Chief of Staff of the Army. Shinseki is a veteran of two tours of combat in the Vietnam War, in which he was awarded three Bronze Stars for valor and two Purple Hearts. He was both the first Asian-American four-star generaland then the Secretary of Veterans Affairs...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionWar Hero
Date of Birth28 November 1942
CityLihue, HI
CountryUnited States of America
It's important in any organization that if visions have any reality at all, it's because the organization believes that the vision is right and that they share in it. Otherwise, it becomes the good idea of one person, and that even more importantly contributes to the sense that it will not survive the departure of that individual.
I have spent a lifetime watching kids make mistakes because they were not trained or well led or properly motivated to do well. I never faulted the kids; rather, I saw opportunity to train, to motivate, to improve leadership - not to punish the individual.
I do engage veterans. I meet with the veterans' service organizations monthly. It's a direct, no-holds-barred discussion. I travel to their conventions, where I speak to the veterans membership. I do travel. I've been to all 50 states. When I do, I engage veterans locally. So I get direct feedback from those veterans.
No veteran should have to wait for claims. If there's anybody impatient here, I am that individual.
I do not want to criticize while my soldiers are still bleeding and dying in Iraq.
It has been very humbling and gratifying to have these men as our role models... Your generation enabled America to close out the twentieth century as the greatest nation in the history of mankind, the only remaining superpower, the world's leading economy and the world's most respected and feared military force in the world- respected by our friends and allies, feared by our adversaries.
More importantly, if you are in a position to hire, hire a veteran. They will be the best employees you have.
If you dislike change, you're going to dislike irrelevance even more.
I can't explain the lack of integrity among some of the leaders of our health care facilities. This is something I rarely encountered during 38 years in uniform. And so I will not defend it because it is indefensible. But I can take responsibility for it and I do.
I grew up as a part of the team that helped to field M-1s and M-60-A3s to the army back in 1980s.
I would say that what's been mobilized to this point - something on the order of several hundred thousand soldiers are probably, you know, a figure that would be required.
Without leadership, command is a hollow experience, a vacuum often filled with mistrust and arrogance..
If you don't like change, you're going to like irrelevance even less.
You must love those you lead before you can be an effective leader, you can certainly command without that sense of commitment, but you cannot lead without it. And without leadership, command is a hollow experience, a vacuum often filled with mistrust and arrogance.