This issue of Proceedings celebrates two remarkable Marines: Peter Pace and Frederick Branch. General Pace concluded a long, difficult journey begun by others in April when President Bush nominated him to be the first Marine chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The trail that General Pace followed to the summit of the profession of arms is chronicled by retired Brigadier General Edwin H. Simmons, director emeritus of Marine Corps History and Museums, and an old friend of the Naval Institute. Fortuitously, the Institute's CEO and Publisher, Thomas L. Wilkerson, is General Pace's Naval Academy classmate and a fellow Marine. Tom takes a look at Pete Pace the Man while enumerating the stiff challenges that await him.
General Pace has distinguished himself through four decades of military service, but the next four years will determine his legacy. No one knows that better than he does. We salute his achievement and wish him well. If he succeeds, we all do.
Captain Branch died a few weeks ago. He was buried with full military honors at Quantico. His legacy is memorialized by the picture that graces this page and the one on page 30 in which nine black Marine generals are shown with General Michael Hagee, commandant of the Marine Corps.
Talk about tough journeys. Captain Branch was the first black man commissioned in the Marine Corps, which lagged far behind the other services in accepting blacks into its ranks. David Danelo relates Captain Branch's little-known story. And we welcome to our pages Charles Bolden, retired major general and astronaut, who describes his debt to Captain Branch and his own experiences as a black Marine officer.
Jim Lacey's "Sense and Nonsense" is a change of pace for Proceedings, a look at Iraq's economy. Lieutenant Colonel Lacey's writing is sprightly and engaging, even when dealing with the dismal science, and his point has meaning to our troops in theater: The revival of the Iraqi economy and the success of the American military mission are inseparable.
The U.S. submarine force, the focus of this issue, faces a "complex and confusing" future, says Norman Polmar, who discusses the situation in his long-running U.S. Navy column. Captain James Patton argues for keeping two shipyards at work building subs and Charles Thibo updates readers on Germany's U31, one of the quietest of the new breed of conventional submarines.
This issue contains the prize-winning entry in the Vincent Astor Memorial Leadership Essay Contest. Navy Lieutenant Jennifer Free makes the case that, beneath the buzzwords that smother most discussions of network-centric warfare, the crucial elements in making it work are not new to the service: leadership and trust.
Erin Solaro's "All the Sisters and All the Brothers," a first-person account of what she saw while embedded with troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, moves Proceedings to the cutting edge of the debate on women in combat. Ms. Solaro's message: Get over it. It's already happening.
Colonel David Fuquea's May article, "Hit My Virtual Smoke," drew some not-so-friendly fire from longtime contributor Chuck Myers and former F/A-18 pilot Jay Stout. Their rejoinders lead off our Comment and Discussion section. And Vice Admiral John Cotton discusses the state of the Naval Reserve, or rather the Navy Reserve, as it has just been renamed, with former Proceedings editor Mike Collins. Commander David Tyler recommends some change in Reserve personnel policies in a Commentary on page 61. The name change triggered an amusing, if biting, response from one of our readers: See BULLETIN, Stop The Presses, page 70.
Bravo Zulu to the Naval Academy Class of 1968. President Bush's choice of Admiral Michael Mullen to be the next Chief of Naval Operations continues the run of this exceptional class. With Senate confirmation expected, Admiral Mullen will soon join his classmates, CMC Mike Hagee and ex-CNO Jay Johnson, as current or former members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The class can thus claim the first such hat trick in Academy history.
Throw in a secretary of the Navy, acclaimed author James Webb, and it's clear the Class of 1968 is one of the Academy's most lustrous. Charlie Bolden, as it happens, is a '68er, too.
Editor's Page
By Robert Timberg