boxing day 2012: General Norman Schwarzkopf who led troops in Persian Gulf War dies age 78

Thursday, December 27, 2012

General Norman Schwarzkopf who led troops in Persian Gulf War dies age 78

PUBLISHED: 19:37 EST, 27 December 2012 | UPDATED: 19:56 EST, 27 December 2012

A U.S. official says retired General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, who commanded the U.S.-led international coalition that drove Saddam Hussein's forces out of Kuwait in 1991, has died.

He was 78.

The official tells The Associated Press that Schwarzkopf died Thursday in Tampa, Florida.

A much-decorated combat soldier in Vietnam, Schwarzkopf was known popularly as 'Stormin' Norman' for his notoriously explosive temper.

Decorated: General Norman Schwarzkopf was the public face of the U.S.-led coalition that invaded Iraq in 1991

During the 1991 Persian Gulf War, he became the public face of the coalition troops who ousted Saddam Hussein's forces from Kuwait.

He was also the mastermind behind the mechanics of Operations Desert Storm, co-authoring the official strategy of the defense of Saudi Arabia, as well as the combat operations in Kuwait and Iraq.

He lived in retirement in Tampa, where he had served in his last military assignment as commander-in-chief of U.S. Central Command. That is the headquarters responsible for U.S. military and security concerns in nearly 20 countries from the eastern Mediterranean and Africa to Pakistan.