Posted on 12/27/2012 4:31:56 PM PST by Wisconsinlady
Edited on 12/28/2012 4:45:17 AM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
WASHINGTON – Truth is, retired Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf didn't care much for his popular "Stormin' Norman" nickname.
The seemingly no-nonsense Desert Storm commander's reputed temper with aides and subordinates supposedly earned him that rough-and-ready moniker. But others around the general, who died Thursday in Tampa, Fla., at age 78 from complications from pneumonia, knew him as a friendly, talkative and even jovial figure who preferred the somewhat milder sobriquet given by his troops: "The Bear."
That one perhaps suited him better later in his life, when he supported various national causes and children's charities while eschewing the spotlight and resisting efforts to draft him to run for political office.
He lived out a quiet retirement in Tampa, where he'd served his last military assignment and where an elementary school bearing his name is testament to his standing in the community.
Schwarzkopf capped an illustrious military career by commanding the U.S.-led international coalition that drove Saddam Hussein's forces out of Kuwait in 1991 -- but he'd managed to keep a low profile in the public debate over the second Gulf War against Iraq, saying at one point that he doubted victory would be as easy as the White House and the Pentagon predicted.
Schwarzkopf was named commander in chief of U.S. Central Command at Tampa's MacDill Air Force Base in 1988, overseeing the headquarters for U.S. military and security concerns in nearly two dozen countries stretching across the Middle East to Afghanistan and the rest of central Asia, plus Pakistan.
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Not to start thread drift but you know who else did this very thing. George Patton. They called him "blood and guts" but it was the enemy's blood and guts left on the ground. His troops suffered the lowest casualty rate of all frontline American Armies in the WWII campaign, not despite his aggressiveness, but because of it. Like Patton, Schwartzkopf knew the value of a swift, strong offense.
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..The second battle (of IA DRANG-1965)was fought by troops from the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) Airborne Brigade, under BG Du Quoc Dong, with LTC Ngo Quang Truong, chief of staff under Dong, in tactical command. Another U.S. officer, who would rise to the highest ranks, was an adviser to the Airborne at the battle: then-major H Norman Schwarzkopf Jr.. Schwarzkopf held Truong in the highest respect. [7]
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Condolences to family and friends of General Schwarzkopf. America’s finest. Thank you, sir.
Canteen ping for a final salute to a great general.
RIP
Cleanup on aisle 147.
RIP . One more patriot of the Constitution goes to his rest.
May the good Lord keep you safe in the palm of his hand.
He will be sorely missed in the near battles to come.
I didn’t know MSNBC Ed posted here.
I smell an ozone ZOT in your future.
Prayers up... RIP
“All is well, safely rest, God is nigh.”
repetition > familiarity > indifference > contempt
(sound like part of the game plan of any particular bastard half-breed traitor vermin with whom y'all may be nauseating familiar ?)
This Australian was proud to serve under his command.
RIP General...you were a fine man and a heck of a shooter. I had the pleasure of shooting sporting clays with the General in Tampa, FL in May 1995. Great guy!
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