General who eschewed his tough moniker

Truth is, retired Gen H Norman Schwarzkopf didn’t care much for his popular “Stormin’ Norman” nickname.

The seemingly no-nonsense Desert Storm commander’s reputed temper with aides and subordinates supposedly earned him that rough-and-ready moniker. But others around the general, who died on Thursday in Tampa, Flordia, at age 78 of complications from pneumonia, knew him as a friendly, talkative, even jovial figure who preferred the somewhat milder sobriquet given by his troops: “The Bear”.

That one perhaps suited him better later in his life, when he supported various national causes and children’s charities while eschewing the spotlight and resisting efforts to draft him to run for political office.