Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, coalition forces leader during Persian Gulf War, dies

[Confuseous]

WASHINGTON – 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, Florida, 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.


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/201...orces-in-persian-gulf-war-dies/#ixzz2GJAaB7sX

 

[ray_of_hope]

Only 78? Not surprising that his boss, Bush Snr, whom he had disputes with, is in ICU. The timing is uncanny.
My only memory of him was the story of him getting a major to keep a place for him in a toilet queue:


Schwarzkopf sped around in a "motorcade larger than (Saudi King) Fahd's" and was preceded in every room by an enlisted aide who laid out a precise setting of water, orange juice, coffee and chocolate mocha. Cheney watched in wonder during a long flight from Washington as a major held a place for Schwarzkopf in a toilet queue and a colonel stooped on hands and knees, ironing the general's uniform.
http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19930725&slug=1712774