Retired Army Gen. John W. Vessey, who rose through the ranks in a 46-year military career to become chairman of the joint chiefs of staff and help oversee President Ronald Reagan's military buildup, has died. After being named chairman of the joint chiefs in 1982, Vessey helped oversee the military expansion that Reagan championed when he took office just over a year earlier. Another retired chairman of the joint chiefs, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, called Vessey's comments "powerful and eloquent" in his own letter to McCain. Vessey was building a lake home back in Minnesota when Reagan asked him to defer retirement and named him the 10th chairman of the joint chiefs. Vessey and the joint chiefs advised against the 1982 deployment of Marines to Lebanon, which ended after 241 Marines were killed in a suicide attack on their barracks in Beirut in 1983.

Source: ABC News August 19, 2016 05:07 UTC