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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The generals we have left are a collection of perfumed princes and yuppies. No more warriors at flag rank, just a collection of ass kissing politicians.
RIP, Sir. You served your country well.
We were blessed to meet Gen. Schwarzkopf at the Congressional Medal of Honor Society’s annual banquet on Sept. 11, 2002, exactly a year after 9/11. His speech noted that some people were calling upon us to “forgive and forget” about the terrorist attacks on the East Coast, and his booming response was, “FORGET HELL!”
He was younger than my parents. Rest in peace.
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As a fellow Veteran, as the General was, of the “WE WERE SOLDIERS” Battle of IA DRANG-1965, it was pretty easy for us to see in person that there really are people out there in this world who hate the Free ..for being Free.
People who witness this firsthand and then act on it ..to protect the Free.. are indispensable ..to the Free.
As we now continue to lose our most indispensable National Resource in time of greatest need.
One by One.
Signed:
Ronnie Guyer, Veteran/Survivor “WE WERE SOLDIERS” Battle of IA DRANG-1965
http://www.lzxray.com/guyer_collection.htm
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RIP Stormin’ Norman, Thank you for your service.
What a Great American! He was one of my favorite Generals!
I really admired this man. He was a great American and served his country well. So sad that he is gone. Prayers up for his family.
RIP, General. I send a big “Toujours Prej” from a 2nd Cav trooper who served under you proudly in Desert Storm.
The General’s death seems not just the passing of a man, but the passing of an era.
I still have my copy of the message from him, stating and I quote...
“Our cause is just ! Now you must be the thunder and the lightning of Desert Storm. May God be with you, your loved ones at home, and our country.
H. Norman Schwarzkoph, Commander in Chief, U.S. Central Command.”
Thank you General for letting us do what we were trained to do when needed and keeping the polidiots and presstitutes off our asses during the first gulf war.....RIP Sir.
Thank you for your service soldier, RIP.
Thank you for your service. The term “soldier’s general” came to mind as I read your note, so I did a search:
http://wtvr.com/2012/12/27/source-retired-gen-norman-schwarzkopf-dead-at-78/
Excerpts:
Van Hipp, who was deputy assistant secretary of the Army during the Gulf War, said Schwarzkopf was a “soldier’s general.”
“They called him ‘Stormin’ Norman’ for a reason,” Hipp said. “But in the end he was a guy. He was a teddy bear. He was tough. He was gruff, but he cared about his troops, and he cared about his soldiers.”...
His father, Major Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, a West Point graduate who fought in World War I, became head of New Jersey State Police, helping to build the fledgling force and eventually leading the investigation of the infamous Lindbergh baby kidnapping.
“The day I was born, my father said… ‘That boy is going to West Point,” Schwarzkopf recalled to King. “And that’s the only thing I ever heard my entire young life.”.....
“I prided myself on being unflappable even in the most chaotic of circumstances,” he wrote. “That guise lasted until Vietnam, where I realized that I was dealing with human lives and if one were lost, it could never be replaced. I quickly learned that there was nothing wrong with being emotional.”
He was commissioned a second lieutenant and served two tours of duty in Vietnam, where he received three Silver Stars.
He was a hero to many of use kids back then, and he never used his position to EVER run for office even though he could have had almost any he wanted.
Given the political and economic freedom to practice it, 'enlightened self-interest' tempers an elemental fact of human nature with the inherent spiritual constraints of a rational, moral people,
Enlightenment is the key of course; most serious thinkers of the 18th & 19th centuries - many of our Founders among them - viewing it as a prerequisite for a successfully functioning, sustainable society.
And those on the left with even a smattering of extant integrity know that, have always known that; hence their most vicious and sustained attacks being aimed precisely there.
Greed vs Enlightened Self-Interest is as Night vs Day.
For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?
The Free World gives you a final Salute ,General ! RIP.
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A good soldier.....
But would the Romans have had to fight in Iraq twice - still with no solutions?
Next time America decides to fight abroad we need to use drones, mini-drones, missiles, nukes, and finally plenty of salt.
In addition put a permanent Super-Glued gag/burka on Muslim lover Colin Powell ASAP.
George HW Bush should have sent A-10s and B-2s ahead of our Abrams tanks and pretended he was Rommel as he flattened all of Iraq and taken all of their oil for the next 200 years.
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