John Shalikashvili

John Malchase David Shalikashvili (Georgian: ჯონ მალხაზ დავით შალიკაშვილი, romanized: jon malkhaz davit shalik’ashvili, IPA: [ʃalikʼaʃʷili]; June 27, 1936 – July 23, 2011) was a United States Army general who served as Supreme Allied Commander Europe from 1992 to 1993 and the 13th chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1993 to 1997. He was born in Warsaw, Poland, in the family of émigré Georgian officer Dimitri Shalikashvili and his Polish wife Maria Rüdiger-Belyaeva. In 1996, he was the first recipient of the Naval War College Distinguished Graduate Leadership Award.
Shalikashvili was the first, and as of 2023 only, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff not born in the United States. He served in every level of unit command from platoon to division. Shalikashvili died of a stroke in 2011 at the age of 75.