Retired Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf dies at 78 U.S. Army Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, seen in September 1990, died Thursday at age 78. David Longstreath, Associated Press December 27, 2012, 4:22 p.m. A U.S. official says retired Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, who commanded the U.S.-led international coalition that drove Saddam Hussein's forces out of Kuwait in 1991, has died. The official tells The Associated Press that Schwarzkopf died Thursday in Tampa, Fla. He lived in retirement in Tampa, where he had served in his last military assignment as commander-in-chief of U.S. Central Command. That is the headquarters responsible for U.S. military and security concerns in nearly 20 countries from the eastern Mediterranean and Africa to Pakistan.