SEMPER FI
Posted on 04/20/2005 10:20:47 AM PDT by kingattax
WASHINGTON (AP) - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has recommended to President Bush that he nominate Marine Gen. Peter Pace to be the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a senior official said Wednesday.
Bush was expected to announce his choice soon, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Pace, 59, currently the Joint Chiefs vice chairman, would be the first Marine to hold the top job in the military. The Joint Chiefs chairman is the senior uniformed adviser to the president and the secretary of defense.
It is widely expected that Bush will name Navy Adm. Edmund Giambastiani, Jr., to succeed Pace as vice chairman. Giambastiani, 56, was Rumsfeld's senior military assistant before being named commander of U.S. Joint Forces Command in 2002.
The Pace and Giambastiani moves are among many changes in the works at senior levels of the Pentagon. The Navy's top officer, Adm. Vern Clark, is due to retire this summer, and the Air Force chief of staff, Gen. John Jumper, is due to depart this fall. The job of Air Force secretary is vacant, and the current Navy secretary, Gordon England, has been nominated to replace Paul Wolfowitz as deputy defense secretary. Rumsfeld's top policy aide, Douglas Feith, also is leaving.
If confirmed by the Senate, Pace would succeed Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, who is scheduled to retire late this summer after four years as chairman.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., and raised in Teaneck, N.J., Pace graduated from the Naval Academy and got a master's degree in business administration from George Washington University.
After basic training in 1968, he was sent to Vietnam as a rifle platoon leader. He later served in Korea, as a commander for two years during the Somali intervention, in Japan and as head of the U.S. Southern Command.
He became vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs in 2001, shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
The Joint Chiefs chairman has the authority to transmit communications from the president and defense secretary to leaders of the nation's combatant commands, but does not exercise direct military command over any forces.
PING
I heard him speak a few months back. Very impressive feller. Yut!
SEMPER FI
"Pace, 59, currently the Joint Chiefs vice chairman, would be the first Marine to hold the top job in the military."
After all these years not one Marine general has gotten this job?!
These men are obviously too close to the President and Donald Rumsfeld to give impartial and opposing viewpoints within the administration. Just another rubberstamp. We are doomed. Until Blow Biden takes over for us, we are doomed.
Thats an even better pick than the Cardinals made for Pope. I can't believe there hasn't been a Marine selected before.
For most of their existence the Marines were considered just a subunit of the Navy, not a separate branch.
When did they become an official branch?
How long until the first Rat smear job hits the airwaves and front pages? I give it 24 hours, tops.
A Marine!!?? Oh, no. I hear they swear and shout at subordinates....
I think they've always been a separate service, but within the Department of the Navy.
I'm wondering how long the position of head of the Joint Chiefs has existed.
lol..don't tell voinovich or hagel
Guadalcanal, August 1944.
Something republican senators are genetically incapable of being.
Re#17 My point exactly. I hope they get their comeuppance in a big way...
They'll find some female somewhere to say that he was not always a nice man, and didn't play well with others.
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