Americans welcomed U.S. troops home enthusiastically. Powell, Schwarzkopf, and Schwarzkopf’s wife, Brenda, participate in a parade (above and below left) in New York City. (right) Desert Storm veter- ans cross Memorial Bridge in Washington, D.C., accompanied by a fleet of planes.

There was enormous pride, parades all over the place. We thought we would never get through with them. Every town wanted one. And every- body wanted to lionize Norm. Norm was king of the world. We off ered him a couple of jobs in the military. He called me and asked me about them. I said, “Norm, you don’t understand because you haven’t come home yet. You’re too big! Your personage has outgrown anything we can give you in the mili- tary. Come home and take a look. I think you’ll realize it’s time to retire.” I mean he’d become super-life-size.

Wasn’t that also true for you, to a large extent? Yeah … and I’m still going to lunch on it. [Laughter.]

I had no intention of leaving be-

cause my term was going to be over in a little while. I stayed until the next administration came in and then retired. I didn’t do anything with the Pentagon. I’m on no defense contrac- tor boards. I’ve gone off to a diff erent life. I talk about those days, but you’re the fi rst person who has interviewed me about them in a long time. I’m interested in other things now, such as youth programs. I’ve got 10 schools named after me, and [I’m] proud of all of them. I visit all of them. So my life has moved on to something else, just as Norm’s did, only just a little later.

How did the Gulf War change the military’s perception of itself? The only thing that dinged it a bit was that after the war, I had to get

PHOTOS: ABOVE LEFT, NATIONAL ARCHIVES; TOP LEFT, GAMBLIN YANN; ABOVE RIGHT, TERRY ASHE

back on my original goal to reduce the size of the military. The Soviet Union was gone as of Dec. 26, 1991. So we had to cut the size of the mili- tary before Congress did. The diffi - cult part of that was releasing a lot of servicemembers who had just been successful in Iraq and Panama. A lot of offi cers with plus-20 years asked, “Why am I being asked to go?” You just have to do it. For the good of the service, we had to re- duce to something more in tune with the demands that would be placed on it. It was a tough time.

MO

— Contributing Editor Tom Philpott has produced the weekly syndicated “Mili- tary Update” column since 1994. His most recent feature article for Military Offi cer was “European Downshift,” June 2015.

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