Stamp depicts U.S. involvement in Gulf War

©Associated Press

© St. Petersburg Times, published April 29, 2000

TAMPA -- The U.S. Postal Service unveiled a Gulf War stamp Friday, and a general called it a reminder of the sacrifice, achievement and commitment of the troops who served in Desert Storm.

The picture on the new 33-cent stamp is a stark war scene. It shows a soldier behind a mounted machine gun, peering through binoculars as red and yellow flames, apparently from a burning oil field, roil skyward behind him and helicopter gunships zoom in from above.

The stamp was shown to the public for the first time at a ceremony at Memorial Park on MacDill Air Force Base, home of the U.S. Central Command.

The command, under now-retired Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, directed American troops in Desert Shield and Desert Storm, the 1990-91 coalition war against Iraq.

"That performance is perhaps one of the greatest feats of arms we have known, especially in modern times," Marine Gen. Anthony C. Zinni, current commander in chief of U.S. Central Command, told an audience of 200, mostly military.

Schwarzkopf, who lives in the Tampa Bay area, didn't attend the ceremony.

Desert Shield was launched in August 1990. On Jan. 16, 1991, Desert Storm followed, with continuous waves of coalition airplanes bombing Iraqi targets. The ground phase began Feb. 25 and two days later there was a cease-fire. The official end to the war was April 11, 1991.

The American death toll was 146. Wounded Americans numbered 467.

The stamp, one of 15 stamps picked to depict the 1990s in the Postal Service's celebrate-the-century series, will have its first issue Tuesday.

"The stamp will be a reminder of the sacrifice, achievement and commitment we make day-in and day-out," Zinni said.

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