{"id":6911,"date":"2021-10-19T15:01:49","date_gmt":"2021-10-19T15:01:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/?p=6911"},"modified":"2021-10-19T19:28:58","modified_gmt":"2021-10-19T19:28:58","slug":"named-after-gen-colin-powell-a-soldier-mourns-his-passing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/2021\/10\/19\/named-after-gen-colin-powell-a-soldier-mourns-his-passing\/","title":{"rendered":"Named after Gen. Colin Powell, a Soldier mourns his passing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Article by Sgt. Marc Loi, Task Force Public Affairs<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The young medic who bears a general\u2019s name was just wrapping up his day when news broke that the man for whom he was named had died. His first thought was that life was too short.

His second thought was of the general\u2019s life, which had meant so much to so many around the world that the medic\u2019s grandfather named him \u201cCollinPowell\u201d the day he was born in Cameroon.

For Spc. Collinpowell Ebai, a medic deployed here in support of Operation Spartan Shield, Gen. Colin Powell\u2019s passing is both a time to mourn and a reminder of a regimented and hopeful childhood that made him the Soldier and man he is today.

\u201cMy first name is a combination of the first and last name of my grandfather\u2019s most-admired leader of all time,\u201d said Ebai, who was born in Kumba, Cameroon, a month before Powell retired as a four-star general. \u201cIn fact, my uncles still call me, \u2018the general.\u2019\u201d

The hopes Ebai\u2019s grandfather placed in him didn\u2019t just manifest in the name he bears \u2013 they also extended to the rigorous academic pace his grandfather \u2013 a schoolteacher \u2013 put him and his aunt, two months older than Ebai, through in their childhood.

\u201cGrandpa\u2019s famous drill was making us write our names in full on an abnormally long sheet of paper,\u201d Ebai said. \u201cAs a child, I hated this exercise because it took away my soccer time in the evenings.\u201d

As they wrote, the pair also listened as Ebai\u2019s grandfather reminded them that failure was never an option.

\u201cHe would always say that if the school was looking for one person to represent the class as best student, both me and my aunt had to be selected,\u201d Ebai said.

Although being a soccer star was not in the cards, Ebai flourished in school.

\u201cI was on the top of my class the entire time I was in school \u2013 and if I wasn\u2019t, it was my aunt,\u201d he said. \u201cHis no-failure mentality, along with love, emotional and spiritual support developed a fighter within me and a motivation that drives me to be excellent even now.\u201d\"\"<\/a>

As he excelled in school, Ebai also got curious about his namesake \u2013 something adults, including his teachers, seemed to make a fuss over.

\u201cThere was a plethora of people who challenged my character and pushed me to carry myself the way the general would,\u201d Ebai said. \u201cI had no choice but to find out who this man was.\u201d

Among the things the young Ebai found out was that the man he was named after served as a general and Secretary of State, and that he was an influential leader in America.

In 2016, at his father\u2019s urging, Ebai began the immigration process to America. Yet again, the Soldier\u2019s name played a part in the decisions he would later make.

\u201cDuring my visa interview, the interviewer was impressed by my story and told me that I would be a great asset to the United States military,\u201d Ebai said.

Ebai set foot on American soil in May 2016 \u2013 May 22, he remembers exactly \u2013 and wanted to continue his academic career. He had excelled in Cameroon and chose biology as his major, which he hoped would lead to a career in trauma medicine.

Although he performed well as a student, two thoughts gnawed at Ebai \u2013 the general\u2019s life and the advice the interviewer gave him during his visa processing.

\u201cI was considering the military and had taken a peek into the benefits of serving,\u201d Ebai said. \u201cOne day, I remember being curious about the man whose name I bear and ended up reading about him that night until I fell asleep. I read about him once a week after that.\u201d

Among the things Ebai said fascinated him were that Powell\u2019s family also immigrated to the United States and that Powell was also African-American. Inspired by those similarities, Ebai enlisted in the Maryland Army National Guard in 2017.

\u201cI decided I was going to join the same military branch that Colin Powell served in. I was going to serve in the Army to make a difference,\u201d Ebai said. \u201cOn my basic training graduation day, I received my naturalization certificate (to become an American citizen). I rewarded myself with a book about Colin Powell \u2013 if you\u2019ve ever been to basic training, buying a book is usually not the first thing you want to do on graduation day.\u201d

Since entering the Army, Ebai has completed his bachelor\u2019s degree and currently works as a police officer with the Metro Transit Police Department in the Washington, D.C., area, when not serving on active duty with the National Guard.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Ebai was wrapping up his shift Tuesday afternoon when he learned that his namesake had died. Although he never met Powell, Ebai said the news hit him hard.

\u201cYou know the bed that we use to examine patients? I had to sit on it for a while,\u201d he said. \u201cIt hit me that no matter how long he lived, it was too short.\u201d<\/p>\n

A reason for that thinking was the impact Powell had on Ebai\u2019s life and that he never got to meet the general.

\u201cI always wanted to meet him \u2013 not because I wanted some kind of recognition, but because I wanted to let him know how much he was loved outside of the U.S.,\u201d Ebai said.

To honor Powell\u2019s legacy, Ebai said he wants to live a life that provides impact, and that begins with how he treats others, much like Powell did.

\u201cHis passing is something that will stay with me for my entire life,\u201d Ebai said. \u201cI want to wake up focused on making someone smile, helping someone or making someone feel valuable.

\u201cHe was someone I\u2019ve always respected and wanted to emulate,\u201d Ebai added. \u201cI just wish he lived a bit longer.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Article by Sgt. Marc Loi, Task Force Public Affairs The young medic who bears a general\u2019s name was just wrapping up his day when news broke that the man for whom he was named had died. His first thought was that life was too short. His second thought was of the general\u2019s life, which had  Read the Rest…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":160,"featured_media":6913,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/160"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6911"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6911\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6924,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6911\/revisions\/6924"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}