When he was an Army cadet in the mid-1980s, Jeffrey Freeland met Colin Powell during a visit to Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Freeland was unaware of Powell at the time, but the soldier who would become the most decorated Black man in United States military history — ascending to chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and secretary of state — would impact Freeland’s career.
“I met him again years later when I was a second lieutenant, and he was great,” Freeland, who retired in 2006 as a colonel, said. “The best thing he did for all officers, but particularly for minority officers, is he was a mentor. He would call you back, email you back and sit down with you and talk to you about what you needed to do to become successful.”
Powell died Monday at 84 due to complications from Covid-19. His family said he had been fully vaccinated, but he also had multiple myeloma, a cancer of a type of white blood cell.
