General Schwarzkopf was the General that was responsible for the success of Desert Storm, We in the storm called him "our General", From everything that I read, he and the other officers that were the product of Vietnam war, vowed not to repeat the mistakes that hamstrung the American war effort. I remember several of them, He would not do the incremental increase that marked the Vietnam effort. Schwarzkopf wanted to have overpowering force to apply on the Iraqi's. He wanted an entire armored corp in theater when the Shield became Storm. That is why VII corp was brought in from Europe, and that is how my unit found itself still in BDU's in a desert war. We in VII corp were very recognizable from the stateside units, they were the desert chocoships and our stuff was Forest green. Another belief was the what we called " the duration effect" We were told that there would be no rotation of units, we would be there for the duration. There would be no individual soldier rotating out also. You would go to war with your buddy, no FNG's like Vietnam. There were no ROE restrictions, no Navy/Air force segregated kill box. All the assets were available to the commander for the sole purpose of completing the mission. General Schwarzkopf was responsible for our pride as a military and finally throwing the "Vietnam effect" on our national policy. May the vikings raise their meade glasses as another warrior arrives in Vahalla.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Retired Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, who topped an illustrious military career by commanding the U.S.-led international coalition that drove Saddam Hussein's
forces out of Kuwait in 1991 but kept a low public profile in
controversies over the second Gulf War against Iraq, died Thursday. He
was 78.
Schwarzkopf died in Tampa, Fla., where he had lived in retirement,
according to a U.S. official, who was not authorized to release the
information publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
A much-decorated combat soldier in Vietnam, Schwarzkopf was known
popularly as "Stormin' Norman" for a notoriously explosive temper.
He served in his last military assignment in Tampa as
commander-in-chief of U.S. Central Command, the headquarters responsible
for U.S. military and security concerns in nearly 20 countries from the
eastern Mediterranean and Africa to Pakistan.
Schwarzkopf became "CINC-Centcom" in 1988 and when Saddam Hussein
invaded Kuwait three years later to punish it for allegedly stealing
Iraqi oil reserves, he commanded Operation Desert Storm, the coalition
of some 30 countries organized by then-President George H.W. Bush that
succeeded in driving the Iraqis out.
At the peak of his postwar national celebrity, Schwarzkopf — a
self-proclaimed political independent — rejected suggestions that he run
for office, and remained far more private than other generals, although
he did serve briefly as a military commentator for NBC.
While focused primarily in his later years on charitable enterprises,
he campaigned for President George W. Bush in 2000 but was ambivalent
about the 2003 invasion of Iraq, saying he doubted victory would be as
easy as the White House and Pentagon predicted. In early 2003 he told
the Washington Post the outcome was an unknown:
"What is postwar Iraq going to look like, with the Kurds and the
Sunnis and the Shiites? That's a huge question, to my mind. It really
should be part of the overall campaign plan," he said.
Initially Schwarzkopf had endorsed the invasion, saying he was
convinced that former Secretary of State Colin Powell had given the
United Nations powerful evidence of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.
After that proved false, he said decisions to go to war should depend on
what U.N. weapons inspectors found.
He seldom spoke up during the conflict, but in late 2004, he sharply
criticized then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and the Pentagon for
mistakes that included inadequate training for Army reservists sent to
Iraq and for erroneous judgments about Iraq.
"In the final analysis I think we are behind schedule. ... I don't
think we counted on it turning into jihad (holy war)," he said in an NBC
interview.
Schwarzkopf was born Aug. 24, 1934, in Trenton, N.J., where his
father, Col. H. Norman Schwarzkopf Jr., founder and commander of the New
Jersey State Police, was then leading the investigation of the
Lindbergh kidnap case, which ended with the arrest and 1936 execution of
German-born carpenter Richard Hauptmann for stealing and murdering the
famed aviator's infant son.
The elder Schwarzkopf was named Herbert, but when the son was asked
what his "H'' stood for, he would reply, "H." Although reputed to be
short-tempered with aides and subordinates, he was a friendly, talkative
and even jovial figure who didn't like "Stormin' Norman" and preferred
to be known as "the Bear," a sobriquet given him by troops.
He also was outspoken at times, including when he described Gen.
William Westmoreland, the U.S. commander in Vietnam, as "a horse's ass"
in an Associated Press interview.
As a teenager Norman accompanied his father to Iran, where the elder
Schwarzkopf trained the country's national police force and was an
adviser to Reza Pahlavi, the young Shah of Iran.
Young Norman studied there and in Switzerland, Germany and Italy,
then followed in his father's footsteps to West Point, graduating in
1956 with an engineering degree. After stints in the U.S. and abroad, he
earned a master's degree in engineering at the University of Southern
California and later taught missile engineering at West Point.
In 1966 he volunteered for Vietnam and served two tours, first as a
U.S. adviser to South Vietnamese paratroops and later as a battalion
commander in the U.S. Army's Americal Division. He earned three Silver
Stars for valor — including one for saving troops from a minefield —
plus a Bronze Star, a Purple Heart and three Distinguished Service
Medals.
While many career officers left
military service embittered by Vietnam, Schwarzkopf was among those who
opted to stay and help rebuild the tattered Army into a potent,
modernized all-volunteer force.
After Saddam invaded Kuwait in
August 1990, Schwarzkopf played a key diplomatic role by helping to
persuade Saudi Arabia's King Fahd to allow U.S. and other foreign troops
to deploy on Saudi territory as a staging area for the war to come.
On Jan. 17, 1991, a five-month
buildup called Desert Shield became Operation Desert Storm as allied
aircraft attacked Iraqi bases and Baghdad government facilities. The
six-week aerial campaign climaxed with a massive ground offensive on
Feb. 24-28, routing the Iraqis from Kuwait in 100 hours before U.S.
officials called a halt.
Schwarzkopf said afterward he
agreed with Bush's decision to stop the war rather than drive to Baghdad
to capture Saddam, as his mission had been only to oust the Iraqis from
Kuwait.
But in a desert tent meeting with
vanquished Iraqi generals, he allowed a key concession on Iraq's use of
helicopters, which later backfired by enabling Saddam to crack down
more easily on rebellious Shiites and Kurds.
While he later avoided the public
second-guessing by academics and think tank experts over the ambiguous
outcome of Gulf War I and its impact on Gulf War II, he told the
Washington Post in 2003, "You can't help but... with 20/20 hindsight, go
back and say, 'Look, had we done something different, we probably
wouldn't be facing what we are facing today.'"
After retiring from the Army in
1992, Schwarzkopf wrote a best-selling autobiography, "It Doesn't Take A
Hero." Of his Gulf war role, he said, "I like to say I'm not a hero. I
was lucky enough to lead a very successful war." He was knighted by
Queen Elizabeth II and honored with decorations from France, Britain,
Belgium, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Bahrain.
Schwarzkopf was a national
spokesman for prostate cancer awareness and for Recovery of the Grizzly
Bear, served on the Nature Conservancy board of governors and was active
in various charities for chronically ill children.
"I may have made my reputation as
a general in the Army and I'm very proud of that," he once told the AP.
"But I've always felt that I was more than one-dimensional. I'd like to
think I'm a caring human being. ... It's nice to feel that you have a
purpose."
Schwarzkopf and his wife, Brenda, had three children: Cynthia, Jessica and Christian.
