‘Stormin’ Norman’ buried at Academy

WEST POINT, N.Y. — Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, the no-nonsense Desert Storm commander famously nicknamed “Stormin’ Norman,” graduated from the U. S. Military Academy at West Point, soaking up its values: “Duty, Honor, Country.”

He married here. He taught here. And on Thursday he was buried here.

His family and friends joined Kuwaiti officials, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, former Vice President Dick Cheney and cadets in gray for a memorial service in the academy’s gothic chapel Thursday afternoon.

His remains were buried afterward at the cemetery on the grounds of the military institution.

“Norman Schwarzkopf, Class of ‘56, has come home,” Powell said during the service.

Schwarzkopf commanded the U.S.-led international coalition that drove Saddam Hussein’s forces out of Kuwait in 1991 when Powell was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Schwarzkopf was 78 when he died of complications from pneumonia on Dec. 27 in Tampa.

The general’s “Stormin’ Norman” nickname became popular in the lead-up to Operation Desert Storm, the six-week aerial campaign that climaxed with a massive ground offensive Feb. 24-28, 1991.

Iraqis were routed from Kuwait in 100 hours before U.S. officials called a halt.

“When anyone thinks of Desert Storm, they think of Stormin’ Norman, The Bear; ... he was a larger than life figure,” Powell said.