General Norman Schwarzkopf
Military commander
Born: August 22, 1934, in Trenton, New Jersey
Died: Dec. 22, 2012, in Tampa, Florida
New Jersey Hall of Fame, Class of 2008: Public Service
Big and burly with a tough, but kindly countenance, Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf came to epitomize American military might at the end of the 20th century. A decorated Vietnam War hero, he rose through the ranks to become the highly visible commander of the victorious coalition forces in the Persian Gulf War against Iraq.
Schwarzkopf’s father, Herbert Norman Schwarzkopf Sr., was a West Point graduate and a World War I veteran who rose to the rank of colonel before leaving the military to become the founding superintendent of the New Jersey State Police. In the latter role, he served as the lead investigator in the Lindbergh kidnapping case in 1932. He returned to the military as a brigadier general during World War II.
The younger Schwarzkopf attended Bordentown Military Academy, but continued his education abroad as his father’s military postings took the family to Iran, Switzerland, and Germany. He eventually graduated from Valley Forge Military Academy in Pennsylvania and proceeded to West Point, where he played football, wrestled, and sang in and conducted the choir. He later earned a master’s degree in engineering at the University of Southern California, specializing in missile mechanics.
Schwarzkopf entered the military in 1956 as a first lieutenant, served in West Germany, and had reached the rank of captain by the time he volunteered for service in Vietnam. He served two tours of duty in Vietnam, first as an advisor, then as a battalion commander, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel. As a combat commander who saw action in the field, he received three Silver Stars, two Purple Hearts, and France’s Legion of Merit.
Rising to the rank of major general, Schwarzkopf helped lead the ground forces for the U.S. invasion of Grenada in 1983. By 1988, Schwarzkopf, by then a four-star general, was appointed commander-in-chief of United States Central Command, with responsibilities for U.S. military operations in 19 countries. Two years later, when Iraqi forces under Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, Schwarzkopf planned and executed Operation Desert Storm, an intense air and land campaign designed to overwhelm the Iraqi Army. Indeed, according to Britannica, it took only 100 hours for the ground campaign to destroy or incapacitate the Iraqi Army and retake Kuwait—all with minimal allied casualties.
After negotiating a ceasefire with Iraqi military leaders, Schwarzkopf returned to the States a national hero. Greeted with a host of military honors and parades in New York and Washington, D.C., Schwarzkopf had not only defeated the Iraqi forces in the Gulf War, he had restored honor and pride to America’s military. Revered by his fellow Americans, he also was respected by his men, who knew of his record as a field commander and mindfulness of their sacrifices.
Schwarzkopf retired from the military in 1991, but remained a visible public figure for years. He wrote a bestselling memoir, “It Doesn’t Take a Hero”; became an in-demand public speaker; and lent his support to numerous children’s charities and other philanthropic causes. Upon his death in 2012, he was buried with military honors at West Point Cemetery.