Norman Schwarzkopf

West Point, 1956

Be Thou At Peace

Posted by R Ren Hart on May 24, 2014:

Ah Norm, you left us too soon and we miss thee. I remember well those first few weeks of Beast Barracks when you said to me, "Ren, I bet you can't spell my last name." I tried, and failed. In later years, as I pondered that encounter, I decided that Norm was making sure that a certain few of us knew who he was! As plebes, we were on the soccer team together; Norm was our Half Back and I was Full Back ... we weren't too fast, but a lot of little guys bounced off of us and we enjoyed the contact. When Plebe Year was over, a bunch of us headed to France for our first vacation and real escape from West Point in 12 months. Bob Arnold and I paired up and were headed to Nice where my Grandmother lived, but before we left Paris we came across Norm in Montmartre and swapped lies about our Paris activities for the previous three days. A month later, we were together again for the Basic Infantry Officer Training at Fort Benning. Norm and Ernie were bachelors so from time to time it was incumbent upon we marrieds to feed the bachelors and they would join us for dinner at Camellia Apartments ... always gracious, always fun. Again we came together four years later for the Advance Course at Benning. One of our assignments there called for us to write an article for Infantry Magazine. The class winner would be published in that monthly. Norm, of course, won the writing contest with his story entitled, "The Burnished Helmet". It was about the warrior who returned to his tent after a hard day of doing battle, took off his helmet and recounted the events of the day. The story line left you thinking it was a recent combat situation, but in the end it was apparent that it was warrior in Caesar's Legions who suffered the same leadership problems as one faced today. Very Schwartzkophian. The years passed. In 1963 Norm was at USC getting his masters in Computer Science and I was there, at the same time, going through their Aviation Accident and Safety Course. We met on campus and talked. Norm was looking forward to his invitation to play tennis that weekend at the Los Angeles Tennis Club which was a bit of a coup. When I saw him next on campus I asked how his match went. He said, I was paired against the President of the Club and won 6-0 and 6-0, but they didn't invite me to join! Norm always was a bit competitive! And it was about that time he came out on the list of "The 50 Most Likely to Succeed" which was published by a popular magazine. About 5 or 6 years later, Norm and three other classmates were at Fort Lewis. Three of them commanding brigades ... was it Mike Conrad and John Snodgrass? And I believe J.J. McGinn was there too and we all got together for dinner at the Officer's Club. Those in advert gatherings were always great. The next day I returned to the Presidio of San Francisco, where I was stationed. Norm launched from there and went on to greatness ... we all knew he would. Ah Norm, you left us too soon, and we miss thee.

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