Gen. Schwarzkopf’s Pen Pals : Gulf: Correspondence springs up after coalition commander thanks San Marino lawyer for packages including trail mix and double fudge brownies.

With the help of some trail mix and double fudge brownies from a South Pasadena yuppie food emporium, Virgil V. Becker and his family landed themselves an overseas pen pal with a sweet tooth: U.S. Army Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf.

Becker, a San Marino lawyer, late last year mailed packages crammed with delicacies including imported Scottish shortbread, turkey jerky, San Joaquin pistachios and deluxe dried mixed-fruit compote to Schwarzkopf, commander in chief of Operation Desert Storm.

The general reacted to the gastronomic largess with a prompt thank-you note from Saudi Arabia.

“I particularly enjoyed the contents of your package because it contained trail mix, dried fruit and granola, not to mention the double fudge brownies,” the general wrote on Jan. 12, four days before Allied forces launched their air attack on Iraq. “I have always enjoyed that type of snack and during the weeks to come I know I will enjoy what you sent me.”

Noting that “such support is extremely important to us during these critical times,” Schwarzkopf--now known for his penchant for mint chocolate chip ice cream--said the troops in his office “have already thoroughly enjoyed the double fudge brownies.”

Even before he sent the packages, Becker had helped his 7-year-old grandson, Nicholas Becker of Pasadena, send two crayoned messages to the general.

One, sent last September, was originally intended for Iraq’s leader, whom the boy dubbed a “dummy.” But Becker’s wife, Janet, said young Nicholas concluded that “we better not send that to Saddam Hussein because he might come here and get us. So Virgil said: ‘I’ll send it to Stormin’ Norman and see what he does with it.’ ”

Schwarzkopf replied the next month with a letter that included this post-scripted response: “I agree with you. Mr. Saddam Hussein is a Dummy!”

Becker, 67, a World War II veteran whose son has been serving as an Army surgeon in the Persian Gulf War, has received several personal letters from the general.

“It’s certainly not boilerplate,” Janet Becker said last week as she examined the embossed letterhead on a letter from Schwarzkopf.

Navy Cmdr. Lewis Smith, a spokesman with the general’s media staff in Saudi Arabia, said Schwarzkopf “treats people as individuals.”

“It pretty much amazes me how he can become personally involved (considering) the volume of correspondence he gets,” Smith said. “I frankly don’t know how he does it.”

Schwarzkopf, Smith said, reads his fan mail--averaging 20 to 30 letters a day and peaking to 100 daily at times of high public visibility for the general--and relies on two assistants to help him answer it.

In one letter to Schwarzkopf, Becker offered to “do anything, or send anything that would make life more pleasant” for the American soldiers. He wrote on stationery emblazoned with a letterhead crest depicting a wild turkey at his ranch in San Luis Obispo County.

In response, the general wrote: “What I would truly love is some time very early on a fall or spring morning, to hear the gobble of that Tom Turkey. . . . That would do a lot for my morale!”

As for food, Becker said he sent “several hundred dollars’ worth” to Schwarzkopf and others to be distributed as a supplement to the now-famous MREs (Meal, Ready-to-Eat) given to Allied troops.

The treats came from an upscale South Pasadena grocery, Bristol Farms, which helped its customers send about 1,300 packages--with $20 to $30 worth of gourmet goodies in each--from the company’s stores in South Pasadena and Rolling Hills Estates.

At its South Pasadena store, Bristol Farms last week put on display one of the Schwarzkopf letters to Becker, surrounded by letters from soldiers expressing their thanks for the packages from other benefactors.

On the same display was a Newsweek magazine cover headlined “Victory!” with a picture of the general smiling broadly.

Equally grateful for the gourmet goodies were some less-renowned soldiers.

“MREs get old real fast, and anything is better than Marine chow,” a Marine Lance Cpl. Fishler wrote from Saudi Arabia, not giving his first name.

“I’m wondering how you got my address?? Do I got friends in high places? Ha ha.”