For
Then the 71-year-old retired four-star general met with President
When Shinseki took the oath of office Jan. 21, 2009, as the seventh secretary of Veterans Affairs, he promised this: "The overriding challenge I am addressing from my first day in office is to make the Department of Veterans Affairs a 21st century organization focused on the nation's veterans as its clients."
But on Friday, more than five years after taking on what seemed to many an impossible assignment at the VA, Shinseki said goodbye to his employees with this letter: