File:BHObamaEricShinseki12-07-2008.jpg

Summary
President-elect Barack Hussein Obama introduces his choice for Secretary of Veterans Affairs, retired General Eric K. Shinseki, U.S. Army, during a press conference at the Hilton Hotel, Chicago, Illinois, 07 December, 2008.

The announcement came on the anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor; Shinseki was born in 1942 in the territory of Hawaii (before it became a state) to Japanese-American parents.

He was the first Asian-American to achieve the rank of four-star general and the first Asian-American to lead one of the U.S. military's five branches.

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