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Toula: the humble village, setting new horizons in new times

12. Other Special Achievements

General George A. Joulwan, who was the former Supreme Allied Commander of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), from 1993-7, whose grandfather came from Toula. Born in 1939, in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, USA, he attended the famous United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, and Loyola University, which is a Roman Catholic private university located in Chicago, Illinois, run by the Jesuits.   He served in the Vietnam War and, after service at the Pentagon in Washington DC, he held various senior commands in Europe and in the United States, which culminated in his appointment to NATO.  As a result of his distinguished military career, he has received many medals and awards from the United States and many other countries.  After his retirement from the army in 1997, he became a businessman. He visited Toula in the late 1990s in order to see where his grandfather was born. Washington Report on Middle East Affairs reported that he said that the visit, ‘exceeded all my expectations.  We went from a four-lane highway to a two-lane highway, to a one-lane road and then to another road to Toula. Motorcycles picked us up for the last 200 yards.’  He was welcomed by over a thousand people at the village, there was a mass celebrated in the church and he visited the house which his grandfather built in 1888.  He was interested to find that his family could be traced back to the 16th century and that there were many Maronite priests in the family.  Source: Washington Report on Middle East Affairs

5.5 History of the Village’ (Source: Toula Village, Mar Assia/Facebook)

Aimée Hanna from the village was a contestant in the Miss Lebanon 2003 contest, which reflects the beauty of the local women.  She was 21 at the time and her parents were Issam and Marie Hanna.  She undertook her secondary education at Saint Coeurs School in Kfarhbab and subsequently undertook a double major at the Lebanese University in Beirut in Business Management and Theatre.  She likes dancing, reading and sports and speaks French, English and Arabic. Source: Mar Assia/Facebook; www.arasale.com/secure/missleb.html.

Miss USA 2010 is a girl with Lebanese background (SMH 18/5/10)