Lt. Gen. Julius W. Becton, Jr. U.S. Army (Ret.): Becton: Autobiography of a Soldier & Public Servant

Generations of soldiers, Colin Powell among them, count him as a mentor. Our nation counts Julius W. Becton as a trailblazer, a leader, and one of its most dedicated public servants.

In 1943, at seventeen years of age, Becton enlisted to fight in World War II. Though his youth in the suburbs of Philadelphia had been rife with the effects of Jim Crow, he found an opportunity to prove what he could do. "We had senior officers who did not think that the black man could fight," he says. "Once you get in a battle or in a foxhole, you couldn't care less what the race or color of that person is on your right or left. You're going to watch his back; he's going to watch your back."

After the end of the war, however, Becton was assigned to a segregated unit in the Philippines. When his unit returned home in 1946, he quit the Army, frustrated by the return of what he calls "the old habits of segregation". Two years later, when President Truman signed an executive order that called for desegregation, Becton volunteered to be recalled. He went on to serve for thirty-four more years - through the full integration of the U.S. Armed Forces, through wars in Korea and Vietnam, and through a series of promotions that culminated in the rank of Lieutenant General.

In 1978, Becton took command of the Seventh Corps, America's largest force stationed in Cold War Europe. Once again, he met skepticism at the capability of African-Americans in the Army, this time from German Chancellor Helmut Schmitt; and once again, Becton earned the respect and admiration of his skeptics, leaving Europe four years later with the Knight Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of Germany. Among his other decorations are the Distinguished Service Medal, two Silver Stars, two Legion of Merit medals, and two Purple Hearts.

Becton retired as a soldier in 1983, but his career as a public servant was far from over. He took command of the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance, which coordinates U.S. aid to countries that have been hit by man-made or natural disasters, and then served as director of the newly-formed Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). After serving as president of his college alma mater, he delayed retirement one more time - at the age of 70 - to become superintendent of the Washington, D.C. public school system, determined to miss no opportunity to lead and teach.