President orders flags to be flown at half-staff in honor of Colin Powell

The White House has ordered flags to be flown at half-staff in honor of former Secretary of State Colin Powell.

According to The Hill, Powell died Monday following complications related to COVID-19, despite being fully vaccinated. 

"General Colin Powell was a patriot of unmatched honor and dignity," President Joe Biden said in a proclamation honoring the diplomat. "The son of immigrants, born in New York City, raised in Harlem and the South Bronx, a graduate of the City College of New York, he rose to the highest ranks of the United States military and to advise four Presidents. He believed in the promise of America because he lived it. And he devoted much of his life to making that promise a reality for so many others."

According to Powell's family, the 84-year-old former diplomat had been diagnosed with a blood disease called multiple myeloma and was being treated at Walter Reed National Medical Center.

In Biden's proclamation, the President ordered that all flags should be lowered to half-staff at all U.S. federal buildings, military bases, and any overseas embassies and consulates. 

Powell served as Secretary of State under former President George W. Bush, and was the first Black American to hold that post.