The FReeper Foxhole Profiles General H. Norman Schwarzkopf - Nov. 1, 2003

www.achievement.org ^

[SAMWolf]

Lord,

Keep our Troops forever in Your care

Give them victory over the enemy...

Grant them a safe and swift return...

Bless those who mourn the lost.
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FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer
for all those serving their country at this time.

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General H. Norman Schwarzkopf
(1934 - **)

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From childhood, H. Norman Schwarzkopf dreamed of a military career. His father, had gone to West Point and served in World War I. When the United States entered World War II, Schwarzkopf senior returned to active duty and rose to the rank of brigadier general.

At war's end, General Schwarzkopf was stationed in Iran, where he helped organize and train the national police force. Twelve year-old Norman and the rest of the family joined him there in 1946. For the next few years, young Norman went to school in Iran, Switzerland, Germany and Italy. He became fluent in French and German and went from being an indifferent student to an outstanding one.

Norman Schwarzkopf, yearbook photo.

After returning to the United States, he followed in his father's footsteps at the United States Military Academy at West Point. Besides his military studies, Norman played on the football team, wrestled, sang and conducted the chapel choir. He graduated from West Point in 1956 with a Bachelor's of Science in mechanical engineering and was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant.

His first assignment was as a platoon leader and executive officer 2nd Airborne Battle Group at Fort Benning Georgia. Here he received advanced infantry and airborne training. Next came stints with the 101st Airborne in Kentucky and the 6th Infantry in West Germany. He was aide-de-camp to the Berlin Command in 1960 and 1961, a crucial time in the history of that divided city.

Norman Schwarzkopf returned to the United States and earned a Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Southern California. His special field of study was guided missile engineering.



By 1965 he was back at West Point, teaching engineering. More and more of his former classmates were heading to Vietnam as advisors to the South Vietnamese army and, in 1965, Norman Schwarzkopf applied to join them. As task Force Advisor to a South Vietnamese Airborne Division, Schwarzkopf was promoted from Captain to Major. When his tour of duty in Vietnam was over, he returned to his teaching post at West Point.

In 1968, Major Schwarzkopf became a Lieutenant Colonel. In this same year, he married Brenda Holsinger and attended the Command and General Staff College at Leavenworth, Kansas. As U.S. casualties in Vietnam mounted, Colonel Schwarzkopf became convinced it was his duty to apply his training and experience there, where they might save the most lives. In 1969, Colonel Schwarzkopf returned to Vietnam as a battalion commander.

One of the most remarkable incidents in a distinguished career happened on this tour. When Colonel Schwarzkopf received word that men under his command had encountered a minefield, he rushed to the scene in his helicopter. He found several soldiers still trapped in the minefield. Schwarzkopf urged them to retrace their steps slowly. Still, one man tripped a mine and was severely injured but remained conscious. As the wounded man flailed in agony, the soldiers around him feared that he would set off another mine. Schwarzkopf, also injured by the explosion, crawled across the minefield to the wounded man and held him down so another could splint his shattered leg. One soldier stepped away to break a branch from a nearby tree to make the splint. In doing so, he too hit a mine, killing himself and the two men closest to him, and blowing the leg off of Schwarzkopf's liaison officer. Eventually, Colonel Schwarzkopf led his surviving men to safety. He was awarded the Silver Star for his bravery but, more importantly to Norman Schwarzkopf, he cemented his reputation as an officer who would risk anything for the soldiers under his command.



Before the tour was up, Colonel Schwarzkopf would earn three Silver Stars and be wounded again. In 1971, he returned to the United States in a hip-to shoulder body cast. The Army sent the young Colonel to speak to civilian groups about the war, and Schwarzkopf was shocked at the depth of public hostility to the war and, increasingly, to the military. He came to believe that the government had embarked on a military venture with unclear objectives, no support from the public and a confused strategy that made victory impossible. For a time, he considered leaving the service, but determined that he would stay, and that any war fought under his command would be conducted very differently.

For the next 20 years, Schwarzkopf worked his way up the ladder, alternating between administrative positions in Washington, and command assignments with infantry divisions throughout the U.S. and in Germany. In 1983 he attained the rank of Brigadier General.


Recovering from injuries in Vietnam, 1966.

Almost immediately after receiving this first star, General Schwarzkopf found himself leading troops into battle. A coup had taken place on the tiny Caribbean island of Grenada. With Cuban assistance, the Grenadian revolutionaries were building an airfield which U.S. intelligence suspected would be used to supply insurgents in Central America. It was also feared that Americans studying on the island might be taken hostage. Since an amphibious landing was called for, the entire operation was placed under the command of an admiral, but General Schwarzkopf was placed in command of U.S. ground forces. He quickly won the confidence of his superior and was named Deputy Commander of the Joint Task Force. While the Grenada operation proved more difficult then its planners had anticipated, the coup was quickly thwarted. Order was restored, elections scheduled, and the American students returned home unharmed.



Schwarzkopf's star continued to rise. He was promoted to Major General, and given command of the 24th Mechanized Infantry Division, at Fort Stewart, Georgia. In 1988, he received his fourth star and became a full general. He was appointed Commander in Chief of the U.S. Army Central Command. The Central Command, based at MacDill Air Force Base, near Tampa Florida, is responsible for operations in the Horn of Africa, the Middle East and South Asia. In his capacity as commander, Schwarzkopf prepared a detailed plan for the defense of the oil fields of the Persian Gulf against a hypothetical invasion by Iraq. Within months, Iraq invaded Kuwait, and Schwarzkopf's plan had an immediate practical application.

General Schwarzkopf was Commander in Chief of U.S. Forces in Operation Desert Shield, undertaken to prevent Iraq from moving against Saudi Arabia. Between August and January, he assembled 765,000 troops from 28 countries (541,000 were American), hundreds of ships, thousands of planes and tanks. When prolonged negotiations failed to dislodge Iraqi forces from Kuwait, Desert Shield became Desert Storm.


H. Norman Schwarzkopf was promoted to Brigadier General in 1978

Allied forces carried out a six-week aerial bombardment of Iraq, to disrupt or destroy enemy communications, supply lines and infrastructure. Schwarzkopf feigned an amphibious landing on Kuwait, drawing the bulk of Iraqi forces and exposing their west flank to the Allied advance. Allied troops advanced quickly through Kuwait and into Iraq. With their communications destroyed, their supply lines cut and the Allies within 150 miles of Baghdad, the Iraqis began to surrender in massive numbers. Iraq accepted a cease-fire and, after only 100 hours, the ground fighting was over. Total casualties of the Allied forces were 115 killed in action, 330 wounded in action.

The General returned home to jubilant public celebrations and victory parades in New York, Tampa, and Washington, and addressed a joint session of Congress. General Schwarzkopf retired from the Army in 1992 and wrote his autobiography, It Doesn't Take a Hero in collaboration with Peter Petre.




The General's decorations include five Distinguished Service Medals, three Silver Stars, the Bronze Star, the Purple Heart, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the National Order of the Legion of Honor, and decorations from France, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.



General Schwarzkopf is in great demand as a public speaker and, in recent years, has used his fame to raise public awareness of prostate cancer. In his spare time, he enjoys hunting, fishing and skeet shooting. He is a music lover whose tastes run from grand opera to country and western. Norman and Brenda Schwarzkopf have three children: Cynthia, Jessica and Christian.

[SAMWolf]

Afternoon Stand Watie!

We covered the CSS HUNLEY a while back.

[Soaring Feather]

Caught the shot volley back at ya!!



free the southland, sw /bf

[SAMWolf]

THE REBEL YELL



None of us have ever heard it.
None of us ever will.
There's no one left who can give it.
Tho you may hear its echo still.

You may hear it up near Manassas,
and down around Gaines Mill.
In December it echoes in Fredricksburg,
in May around Chancellorsville.

It's the "pibroch of Southern fealty".
It's a Comanche brave's battle cry.
It's an English huntsman's call to the hounds.
It's a pig farmer's call to the sty.

It's a high-pitched trilling falsetto.
It's the yip of a dog in flight.
It's the scream of a wounded panther.
It's the shriek of the wind in the night.

It was yelled when the boys flushed a rabbit.
It was passed man to man in the ranks.
It was cheered when they saw their leaders.
It was screamed when they whipped the Yanks.

But none of us will ever hear it.
Tho some folks mimic it well.
No soul alive can truly describe
the sound of the Rebel Yell.

-Monte Akers

[Victoria Delsoul]

Afternoon everyone. Good to see you all.

Great thread, Sam. General Schwarzkopf is one of my heroes.

[snippy_about_it]

Good afternoon Victoria.

[Victoria Delsoul]

Hi Snippy, how are you?

[snippy_about_it]

Busy as always. :)

[SAMWolf]

Good Afternoon Victoria. Been dealing with some puter glitches today.

[Valin]

That plane was the Heinkel He-178 which, had its development been pushed, might have altered the course of history.

Chock another one up to that military genius and technological visionary A. Hitler.

there's a line from the movis "The Producers"
Hitler! Now there was a painter! He could do a whole room in one afternoon...two coats!

[snippy_about_it]

Good tag line today Valin.

[Valin]

W. Churchill. You can't miss with good material. :-)

[SAMWolf]

I heard his reasoning was that the war would be over before it could be developed. Wrong-o!!

[Valin]

Once again see reply #49. :-)

[PhilDragoo]

1983 Phil Silvers dies in his sleep at 73.

September 20, 1955 - January 11, 1959
CBS - 138 Episodes

Sergeant Ernie Bilko is the ultimate con man. He runs the motor pool at a small Kansas U.S. Army Camp. Colonel Hall, nominally in charge of the base tries to keep Bilko's plans in check. Bilko runs every money making scheme that he thinks he can pull off. Midnight cruises on Landing Craft, Tank Rides, Poker games, and an interesting deal with local service stations for spare parts for jeep tires.

A real-life equivalent described how his buddy drove a deuce and a quarter into a depot and hid out overnight, loading it with booze, and driving out the next day.

In October 1948, the Chief of Ordnance had designated Redstone Arsenal as the center of research and development activities in the field of rockets and related items. The arsenal was officially reactivated as the site of the Ordnance Rocket Center on 1 June 1949. By the end of that month, Huntsville Arsenal ceased to exist as a separate facility. Later, on 28 October 1949, the Secretary of the Army approved the transfer of the Ordnance Research and Development Division Sub-Office (Rocket) at Fort Bliss, Texas, to Redstone Arsenal. Among those transferred were Dr. Wernher von Braun and his team of German scientists and engineers. With the arrival of the Fort Bliss group beginning on 15 April 1950, Redstone Arsenal officially entered the missile era.

Working in a Santa Fe home, saw a photo of von Braun with a group of scientists and the older man I was working for described von Braun's people coming to Huntsville as quite a deal.

One of those little niches of history like the switchboard for the Manhattan Project in the basement of a building downtown where Laverne screened the calls to the hill.

We worked on the building which is now infested with lawyers and architects.

It Doesn't Take a Hero
H. Norman Schwarzkopf

Given this book by stepson USNA Class of '94 at which Commencement (spit) Clinton (spit) lied for 32 minutes that he would not put our people into Bosnia [A Genuine Quagmiretm].

I seem to recall a brouhaha sometime around the Highway of Death boohooing to the effect that Schwarzkopf felt we could have done more, then GHWB smacked him upside the head, after which the General made a public self-abasement.

That along with the read my lips and the insufferable Dan Quayle cost the former DCI the election.

Quayle is my age and was at DePauw when I was at Wabash--DePauw (we felt, as rivals) was a real nose-in-the-air place.

In 1998 when Marilyn Quayle swung through Santa Fe to test the water for Dan, I suggested to her that Dan needed more of the sense of humor he showed with his new Three Interns and You're Out policy (yes, he really said that).

She had no sense of humor either.

So why did the Republican Guard get away? Why did Saddam survive? Why did we let Saddam slaughter his people after blowing sunshine up their skirts?

Why do we allow reporters in Iraq now? Why not strap them on HumVees and Strykers and make them walk point in the streets of Tikrit?

Aftermath of three hundred Reuters, AP and CNN reporters racing to file the report of coalition soldier injured when he slipped in the shower.

The Iraqi invasion of Kuwait during the early morning hours of 2 August 1990 initiated a chain of events leading to the largest deployment and subsequent combat use of Army missiles in U.S. history. Backed by the United Nations (U.N.) as well as the combined might of a 28-member coalition, the United States drew a "line in the sand" in defense of Saudi Arabia and for the liberation of Kuwait. Supporting this action, known to the world as Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm (ODS), was the technological and logistical know-how of the Army elements located at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama.

Virtually every one of the Army's fielded missile systems managed and supported at Redstone Arsenal were sent to Southwest Asia (SWA). Three general types of missiles were deployed: air defense (AVENGER, CHAPARRAL, STINGER, HAWK, and PATRIOT); antiarmor (DRAGON, TOW [tube-launched, optically-tracked, wire-guided], HELLFIRE, and SHILLELAGH); and artillery (HYDRA-70, MLRS [Multiple Launch Rocket System], and the Army TACMS [Army Tactical Missile System]). Of these systems PATRIOT, DRAGON, HELLFIRE, HYDRA-70, MLRS, TOW, and the Army TACMS were fired in combat. The lack of targets was the primary reason that most of the air defense systems were not employed.

The U.S. Army Missile Command (MICOM) also supported other systems such as the Ground/Vehicle Laser Locator Designator (G/VLLD), the Mast Mounted Sight (MMS), the M-901 Improved TOW Vehicle (ITV), the Forward Area Alerting Radar (FAAR), and various night sights that provided coalition forces with a night-fighting capability not available to the opposing Iraqi army. In addition, "the extremely accurate laser guided bombs that were so effective during the air war were a modern version of a concept that came out of MICOM's [Research, Development and Engineering (RD&E) Center]...more than 25 years ago."

The military and civilian personnel assigned to the Program Executive Offices (PEOs) at Redstone and to MICOM shared in the success of the coalition soldiers who fought to free Kuwait from Iraqi domination. Without the technical and logistical expertise of the organizations located at the arsenal, the operational readiness of the systems deployed in support of ODS would have been impossible to maintain. "Getting equipment ready for deployment,...upgrading systems, filling unit repair parts shortages, arranging shipment, expediting deliveries, and speeding up procurements were among the tasks accomplished."

The Persian Gulf theater of operations posed a number of production, acquisition, spare/repair parts supply, and maintenance challenges for the MICOM/PEO community. The harsh desert climate and the logistical immaturity of the theater of operations were the two biggest factors impacting the operational readiness of the sophisticated missile and rocket systems deployed to SWA by the Army. But Operation Desert Storm also provided a unique opportunity to see how well the Army's inventory of advanced weapons functioned in actual combat conditions.

Ein Sheridan der 82. Luftlandedivision während der Operation Desert Shield.

Abrams tanks of the 2d Armored Cavalry Regiment line a warf at Jubail, Saudi Arabia, during Operation Desert Shield, 27 January 1991.

ASTROS II SYSTEM: Ripple firing of SS-30

Wisconsin fires her 16" guns during Desert Storm

M1A1 HA (Heavy Armor) Abrams, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, Desert Storm, 1991.

Entertaining the men and women serving during Desert Storm

Iraqi T-72 tank hit with DU sabot

Press in Iraq to be fitted with DU sabot activated by giving aid and comfort to the enemy.

That's the last schadenfreude drivel from this one.

[SAMWolf]

Evening Phil Dragoo.

Great post and excellent pictures of our firepower.

Given this book by stepson USNA Class of '94 at which Commencement (spit) Clinton (spit) lied for 32 minutes that he would not put our people into Bosnia [A Genuine Quagmiretm].

Love this line.

The world lost one of it's best when Bob Hope passed away. Lot's of good memories brought about by that one man.

If I remember correctly General Powell was one of those who asked for stop to the bombing on the Highway of death. Even then I figured we'd have to go back sooner or later. Politicians always leaave us with another war to fight.

[E.G.C.]

BTTT!!!!!!

[snippy_about_it]

Thanks Phil, lots of good commentary, information and pics.

[stand watie]

YEP!

free dixie,sw

[stand watie]

YEP, we did!

free dixie,sw

[stand watie]

CSMC. by COMPANY,Platoon & Detachment,

LOAD buck & ball,

FRONT ranks KNEEL,

THREE rolling volleys,reload at will,

READY,

AIM

FIRE!

free the southland,sw