Edgewater's Jason Davis received Bronze Star for Valor during Desert Storm
Retired Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, commander of the allied forces in the first Gulf War two decades ago, died Thursday of pneumonia at the age of 78. 
EDGEWATER -- Desert Storm veteran Jason Davis was saddened by the breaking news out of Washington, D.C., that 78-year-old retired Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, who commanded the US-led international coalition forces into driving Saddam Hussein's army out of Kuwait in 1991, has died.
"He was a very powerful and great leader," said Davis, who officially takes office Tuesday as chair of Volusia County government.
Like Schwarzkopf, who earned the nickname Stormin Norman during the Dessert Storm blitzkrieg on Saddam's hapless troops with an aerial assault that lit up the night skies and broadcast around the world on CNN, the 50-year-old Davis patterned himself during the campaign for office as a no-nonsense outsider with boots on the ground.
"General Schwarzkopf was a true leader who put politics aside," Davis said. "His job was to lead the soldiers and he did. He was an excellent role model and a man of great integrity."
"General Schwarzkopf was a true leader who put politics aside," Davis said. "His job was to lead the soldiers and he did. He was an excellent role model and a man of great integrity."
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Davis said Schwarzkopf's leadership and attention to detail are benchmarks he hopes to emulate in representing the interests of the citizens of Volusia County who gave him a 20,000-vote plurality in the Nov. 6 general election.
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Davis' mettle for standing up to the establishment and even the hostile coverage of local print media since winning the election, was planted in the Arabian desert under the command of General Schwarzkopf.
Davis was in the 101st Airborne Division, 3rd battalion 187 infantry, already on the ground in Saudi Arabia 30 days after Kuwait was invaded by Saddam's forces, under Desert Shield, the precursor to Dessert Shield.
"The day after the air war started, my unit flew up to the border between Saudi Arabia and Iraq," Davis recalled of the commencement of the Gulf War. "Then it was boots on the ground."
"The day after the air war started, my unit flew up to the border between Saudi Arabia and Iraq," Davis recalled of the commencement of the Gulf War. "Then it was boots on the ground."
Davis, injured by friendly fire during Dessert Storm, was awarded the Bronze Star for Valor. Though he never met Schwarzkopf, Davis said his passing is a true milestone in American history.