In 1968 he graduated from the Command and General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, second in a class of 1,244. On his return, he completed the Infantry Officer Advanced Course at Fort Benning, Georgia was promoted to major in 1966 and the following year became an instructor at the Infantry School. Wounded during this tour, he received a Purple Heart.

He then transferred to Fort Devens, Massachusetts, to command a company of the 5th Infantry Division and in 1962 was promoted to captain.ДЇrom December 1962 to November 1963 Powell was assigned to Vietnam, where he served as an adviser to a South Vietnamese infantry battalion. After completing Infantry Officer Basic, Ranger, and Airborne schools, he joined the 3d Armored Division in West Germany as a platoon leader. He became company commander of the Pershing Rifles, attained ROTCвЂ™s highest rank of cadet colonel, and was named a вЂњdistinguished military graduate.вЂќ When he graduated in l958 with a bachelor of science in geology, Powell was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Regular Army.Дuring the next decade Powell mastered infantry tactics and unit leadership. Attracted by the panache of the Pershing Rifles drill team, he joined the Army Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC). At sixteen he entered the City College of New York. He grew up in the South Bronx, where he graduated from Morris High School. Colin Luther Powell, the son of Jamaican immigrants, was born on 5 April 1937 in the Harlem section of New York City.

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