Florida reacts to death of Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf

Florida reacts to death of Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf
Tampa Bay
By Robbyn Mitchell
Times Staff Writer
In Print: Friday, December 28, 2012

TAMPA — It was hot and clear as the military plane zipped through Tampa's airspace.

In front of a frenzied crowd, the plane landed, the door opened and out stepped Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, followed by soldiers returning from kicking Iraqi troops out of Kuwait.

"He was larger than life," recalled U.S. Rep. C.W. Bill Young, who was at the old Tampa Stadium for that public thank you on May 5, 1991.

"He was a hero who controlled a war that was minimal cost in money and in causalities," Young said. "He went over there, dug them out of the sand, whipped Saddam Hussein's tail and sent them flying back to Baghdad."

Gen. Schwarzkopf came to Tampa in 1988 as the head of U.S. Central Command at MacDill Air Force Base. He was ordered by then-President George H.W. Bush to initiate Operation Desert Storm, and the sweeping success of that campaign endeared him the nation and his new neighbors.
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