Norman Schwarzkopf Born in Trenton

Summary

H. Norman Schwarzkopf was born on August 22, 1934, in Trenton, New Jersey. The son of a career Army officer, he spent portions of his youth abroad before entering the United States Military Academy. Schwarzkopf graduated from West Point in 1956 and became an infantry officer. He served two tours during the Vietnam War and held increasingly senior command and staff positions afterward. In 1988, Schwarzkopf became commander in chief of U.S. Central Command. Following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in August 1990, he directed the multinational military forces assembled for Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. The 1991 campaign used a major air offensive followed by a rapid ground operation that expelled Iraqi forces from Kuwait. Schwarzkopf retired from the Army later that year as a four-star general. He became one of the most publicly recognizable American military commanders of the late twentieth century and died in Tampa, Florida, in 2012.