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<em>H Norman ‘Norm’ Schwarzkopf</em> was born an Army brat, the son of Major General Herbert N. Schwarzkopf (USMA April 1917) and Ruth Bowman Schwarzkopf, following two older sisters, Ruth Ann and Sally.</p>
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During World War II, Norm’s father was sent to Iran as head of a military mission to modernize the Imperial Iranian Gendarmerie. Norm joined him there after the war and thus spent a portion of his youth in a part of the world that would later be his principal focus.</p>
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Norm held a high cadet rank and graduated valedictorian of his class at Valley Forge Military Academy. He won an Honor Military School competitive appointment to West Point. As a cadet he was a “flanker” in Company A-1, Cadet in Charge of the Cadet Choir, cadet captain, and the A-1 company commander as a First Classman. His entry in the <em>Howitzer</em> said prophetically that “his spirit is his greatest asset and will assure him success.”</p>
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Graduating in the top 10 percent of the class, Norm chose Infantry as his branch. His early assignments included the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, KY and the 6th Infantry in Berlin, Germany. After earning a master’s degree in mechanical engineering at the University of Southern California, he joined the West Point faculty in the Department of Mechanics, where he served a three-year tour as an instructor and then, with a year in Vietnam sandwiched between the first and second years, as an associate professor.</p>
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In November 1967, Norm met his future wife, Brenda Holsinger, after an Army football game and married her the next July in the West Point Chapel. They had three children: two daughters, Cynthia and Jessica, and a son, Christian.</p>
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Norm served two tours in Vietnam, first as an advisor to Vietnamese Airborne forces, then as a battalion commander in the U.S. 23rd Infantry Division. He was wounded each time and racked up three Silver Stars and three Bronze Stars (one with V for valor). A famous photo shows Norm with his arm around a wounded soldier, helping him out of a minefield.</p>
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Following graduation from the Army War College, Norm served as deputy commander of the 172nd Infantry Brigade in Alaska, commanded a brigade in the 9th Infantry Division at Fort Lewis, WA, and then—selected to be a brigadier general—became Director of Plans at Pacific Command Headquarters, in Hawaii. Next he was Assistant Division Commander of the 8th Infantry Division in Germany.</p>
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Further command assignments included the 24th Infantry Division (Mechanized) at Fort Stewart, GA and then I Corps back at Fort Lewis, interspersed with Pentagon assignments and followed by his being named Deputy Chief of Staff for Plans and Operations on the Army Staff. He was in that post when, in 1988, he was promoted to full general and designated Commander-in-Chief of U.S. Central Command, his appointment with destiny.</p>
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Soon Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait triggered a free world response that saw Norm in Saudi Arabia commanding Coalition Forces in the Gulf War. In a famous “Mother of All Briefings,” Norm explained how they were going to cut off the invading forces, then kill them. He then proceeded to do exactly that in Operation Desert Storm, later described by the Army as the largest combined naval, ground, and air campaign conducted by the United States military establishment since World War II.</p>
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Many honors followed. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and a Congressional Gold Medal. He was knighted by the Queen of England, who named him an Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath. He also received the Defense Distinguished Service Medal and the Distinguished Service Medals from the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Coast Guard, as well as high decorations from many of the nations that were part of the coalition he had led to victory.</p>
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At West Point, dressed in his signature cammies, he was honored with a review by the Corps of Cadets and then delivered his memorable address: “The mothers and fathers of America will hand you their sons and daughters with confidence that you will not needlessly waste their lives,” he said. “And you dare not. You absolutely dare not.”</p>
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His classmates quoted Norm on devotion to duty in a Cold War exhibit contributed to West Point on the occasion of their 50th reunion. “West Point,” he said, “by instilling the ideal of service above self, gave me more than a military career—it gave me a calling.” The West Point Association of Graduates also named him a Distinguished Graduate, stating in the citation that his “superb conduct of the Gulf War is an extraordinary feat of generalship unparalleled in its decisiveness.”</p>
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In retirement, Norm wrote a widely read autobiography entitled <em>It Doesn’t Take a Hero. </em>A <em>New York Times</em> review he was sure to have enjoyed said, “General Schwarzkopf comes across as a strong professional soldier, a Patton with a conscience.”</p>
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In later years Norm supported numerous philanthropies, avidly pursued his longstanding interests in skeet, trap, sporting clays, shooting, hunting, and fishing, and was a frequent broadcast commentator on military affairs.</p>
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In an emotional and touching eulogy, Major General Leroy Suddath, Norm’s classmate and roommate for all four years at West Point, observed that Norm had committed himself to the betterment of mankind in his post-Army days as completely and abundantly as his commitment to his soldiers, and to his country, during his Army career.</p>
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Norm lived his life by the West Point motto of Duty, Honor, Country. Brenda and the children were proud to be a military family. His life was truly “Well Done.” May he rest in peace.</p>
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<em>— Classmates and family</em></p>