America says goodbye to General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, who led our country through many military feats. Schwarzkopf passed away Thursday at the age of 78 from complications from pneumonia. Before retiring in 1992, he went down in history for his impressive military record, intelligence and amiable personality.
Among his greatest achievements was commanding more than 540,000 US troops and an allied force of more than 200,000 in Operation Desert Storm, liberating Kuwait from the forces of Saddam Hussein in 1991.
Early on, Schwarzkopf graduated from West Point and was commissioned as Second Lieutenant. He was adviser to the Commanding General of the Berlin Brigade in 1960 and 1961. In 1965, after completing his masters degree at USC, Schwarzkopf served at West Point as an instructor in the mechanical engineering department. Shortly after, in the same year he volunteered and served as a task force adviser to the South Vietnamese Airborne Division, where he was promoted from Captain to Major.
His military career continued to rise in the 1970s. In 1988, he was promoted to General and appointed Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Central Command. Schwarzkopf played a crucial role in the Gulf War, creating detailed plans for defense.
He was nicknamed, “Stormin’ Norman” later on. After retirement he served as a military analyst for NBC, most recently Operation Iraqi Freedom, along with promoting prostate cancer awareness, a disease with which he was diagnosed in 1993, and for which he was successfully treated.
“General Norm Schwarzkopf, to me, epitomized the ‘duty, service, country’ creed that has defended our freedom and seen this great Nation through our most trying international crises. More than that, he was a good and decent man — and a dear friend,” Former President H.W. Bush said.
