Ft Myer Va

Gen. John Shalikashvili, 1936-2011

SEAVIEW — As many mourn the death of John Shalikashvili, a four-star general and the former Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff during the Clinton administration, some Peninsula residents reminisced this week about a local vacationer who was a true product of the American dream.

A Polish immigrant, Shalikashvili died from complications from a stroke on Saturday, July 23, at Madigan Army Medical Center in Tacoma. He was 75, and is survived by his wife, Joan, and a son, Brant.

In 1993, President Bill Clinton appointed him chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the highest military council in the U.S. He was the first immigrant to achieve that rank.

Former State Sen. Sid Snyder remembered with a chuckle, “He wasn’t seeking the position, but the president offered him the job and he said ‘You don’t turn the president down.’”

Shalikashvili retired from the Army in September 1997.

Local reactions

For a number of years, the general spent a couple weeks each summer on the Peninsula at Joan’s family’s vacation home. Joan and her sister, Jean Thompson, inherited the home from the Sugarman family, who owned a grocery store in Seaview years ago.

John Gevurtz, whose family has vacationed in Seaview for generations, shared fond memories of Shalikashvili and his annual August trips to the coast. 

“He was very impressed with the United States as a little boy, and growing up here, he was very proud,” Gevurtz said from his Portland home on Monday. 

“He was sort of interesting, because the military is usually with the Republicans and all, but he came out for one of the Democratic presidential candidates and even gave a talk at the presidential Democratic convention.”

Gevurtz says he even had Thanksgiving dinner at the Shoalwater with the general. 

“I remember he ordered duck. I was really surprised,” he said. “He was really in the spirit of things, a pretty exceptional person I think.

“He was always friendly, down to earth, a very nice guy, very smart, he loved Seaview,” said Gevurtz. “But, you know, he had his agents around him just in case he needed to communicate.”

Gevurtz remembers when Shalikashvili used the Super 8 motel as his office away from home during the Cold War.

“He had to be in touch with the Pentagon and the White House; he had communications there,” he explained. “That whole first floor was occupied by U.S. federal government communications in case they needed him … A few times he had to go to Astoria, and then Portland to fly to Washington, D.C., because president needed him.

Fort Myer Works Behind Scenes for Army Ten-Miler | Article | The ...

John Newman, a plans and operations specialist in FMMC's Directorate of Plans, Training and Mobilization, said an FMMC bus does 'recon' along the designated course nearly two months before the October race. The run-through helps determine where to set up water stations, medic tents and other services to minister to the needs of the thousands of runners who pound the pavement the day of the race. The FMMC Directorate of Logistics provides supplemental transportation buses to Old Guard Soldiers working the event, and oversees a flatbed truck and two "cherrypickers" that to give media better event visuals, he said. The cherrypickers will give camera crews a unique vantage at the start of the race, while a three-ton flat bed paces runners from the front of the race. Mr. Newman said each year builds upon the experiences of the previous year. He recalled a suspicious box found two years ago, which forced organizers to alter the course at the last minute. Unfortunately, a truck wasn't available to move the water stations and other equipment to the new route, which changed the parameters and nature of the race.

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