Eric Schwarzkopf

Born and raised in Portland, Oregon, part of a very large family 6 sisters and 2 brothers. I attended Richmond Elementary, followed by Franklin High School. I dropped out after my Junior year of high school, and joined the US Army just to prove the point to my Dad that I could. I finished high school while stationed in Alaska and graduated with my class in 1977. I served 3 years as a Rifleman with Alpha Company 4th BN 9th Infantry in Ft Wainwright, AK (just outside of Fairbanks), and then with Alpha Company 2nd BN 502nd Infantry Ft. Campbell, KY and was honorably discharged in August of 1979. After I got out of the Army, I came back home, and started working full time at the Recruiting Office for the Oregon Army National Guard, during this time I was introduced to Kate Upshaw by her brother who was in my Guard unit, we started dating in the summer of 1980, we married in December of 1981. I continued to stay in the National Guards as a regular Guard member and working full time with a local automotive warehouse called AED. My first Guard unit was Service Battery 2nd BN/218th FA, then I moved over to Charlie Co. 141st Support BN, then finally moving on over to the 206th ATMCT as a office manager coordinating and reporting statistical and logistical data of Army cargo and personnel moving through a combat airfield utilizing US Air Force and commercial flights. During all this time my lovely wife and I of almost 27 years have been blessed with 3 wonderful children, Paul, Jacqueline, and Stephanie, In September of 1989 the 206th ATMCT became the 1st Oregon Army National Guard unit to be activated in over 50 years for a major combat deployment. We were station and worked out of the Dhahran International Airport, Saudi Arabia. Shortly after I got there I wrote a letter to the then CENTCOM commander General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, and mentioned to him that there was another Schwarzkopf in country. I was shortly contacted by his Chief of Staff and was asked to met with the General for lunch in November of 1989. I don't know where or how we are actually related, but I do have a signed letter from the General giving me an official order to consider him as my second cousin. At one point reporters noticed my name tag on my DCU's and started asking me all kinds of questions, US World and News Report did a little short piece that can be found in the February 1990 issue titled "What is in a name". I also got to meet and have my picture taken with the President George H.