Honoring Operation Desert Storm: Waging a battle to build a war memorial
CBSN
The first Persian Gulf War lasted six weeks. Kuwait was liberated from the murderous grasp of Saddam Hussein, and the Iraqi army admitted defeat, at a surrender ceremony presided over by the charismatic General Norman Schwarzkopf, who said of Iraq's leadership, "I'm not here to give them anything. I'm here to tell them exactly what we expect them to do." In:
The first Persian Gulf War lasted six weeks. Kuwait was liberated from the murderous grasp of Saddam Hussein, and the Iraqi army admitted defeat, at a surrender ceremony presided over by the charismatic General Norman Schwarzkopf, who said of Iraq's leadership, "I'm not here to give them anything. I'm here to tell them exactly what we expect them to do."
"Stormin' Norman," as he was called, became the most popular battlefield general since World War II. His commander-in-chief, President George H.W. Bush, had an 89 percent approval rating, and for the first time in a generation, America felt good about its military. "By God, we've kicked the Vietnam syndrome once and for all," Bush said.
More than half a million Americans served in Operation Desert Storm; 148 were killed in action. Yet today, it is all but forgotten. "I just felt like that was not right, and that something had to be done to change that," said Scott Stump, who was a lowly Marine Lance Corporal in that war. He set out to build a memorial to Desert Storm on the National Mall, probably the most-prized real estate in all of America.
"I'd been to Washington D.C. one time in my life; that was the summer of 8th grade," said Stump. "I had no connections, didn't know anybody."
First, he had to persuade Congress to pass a bill authorizing the memorial – a process he likened to "pulling teeth." He said the responses he got included, "Well, there weren't enough people that died, you know, for there to be a memorial."
