Historians are wise to avoid “first,’’ only,” or “unique.” Almost always there is a precedent, an earlier claimant to whatever is being claimed. So it is refreshing to have an absolutely incontrovertible “first,” which is that General Peter Pace is the first Marine to be nominated as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Marines of a generation or two ago would have found the possibility of such a nomination too farfetched to even contemplate.
For even the faintest of precedents one would have to look back to the ad hoc formation of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the first months of World War Two. Immediately after Pearl Harbor an overjoyed Prime Minister Winston Churchill, relieved that America was finally in the war, had rushed across the Atlantic—in what turned out to be an eight-day voyage in the Royal Navy’s new battleship HMS Duke of York, aircraft travel being considered too dangerous—to meet with President Roosevelt. Afterward, Churchill wrote that perhaps the most valuable result of this first Washington conference, code-named “Arcadia,” was the “setting up of the now famous ‘Combined Chiefs of Staff Committee.’ ”
The closest the Americans could offer to pair off with the British Chiefs of Staff already in existence was the Joint Army and Navy Board, which segued into the “Joint Chiefs of Staff,” it having been decided that “joint” would be used to designate operations involving two or more services of the same nation and “combined” for operations by more than one nation.
Admiral William D. Leahy, Chief of Staff to the commander-in-chief, that is, Roosevelt, chaired this informally constituted Joint Chiefs of Staff. Other members were General George C. Marshall, Chief of Staff of the Army; Admiral Ernest J. King, Chief of Naval Operations; and General Henry “Hap” Arnold, Deputy Army Chief of Staff for Air. In December 1944, as the war neared an end, all these original members were elevated to five-star rank.
In the early days of the war, the Marine Corps’ Major General Commandant Thomas Holcomb sat in with this wartime JCS but then was pinched out by the domineering Admiral King, who considered Holcomb’s presence superfluous. But Holcomb did stand in well with Roosevelt, friendship based on a mutual interest in rifle marksmanship formed in the early years of the Wilson administration during Roosevelt’s first years as Assistant Secretary of the Navy. Holcomb was not forgotten. He was promoted to lieutenant general in 1942 and after retirement in 1944 raised to four stars.
Despite its battlefield successes in the Pacific, the post-war period was not an easy time for the Marine Corps. A new kind of war—’’the Battle for Unification”—was being fought on Capitol Hill. As early as November 1943 General Marshall had signed a memorandum proposing that A the Air Force be recognized as a separate service and that all services be brought under a Department of War with a single chief of staff and an armed forces general staff. After many reiterations and refinements, this concept emerged after the war’s end as the “Collins Plan,” named for Army Lieutenant General J. Lawton Collins who became its principal spokesman. In a corollary advanced by General Dwight D. Eisenhower, now the Army Chief of Staff, the Marine Corps would be reduced to small lightly armed units, none larger than a regiment. The Marine Corps was not only affronted, but to a number of able Marine wordsmiths, the Army’s plan smacked too much of the German General Staff, which had managed to lose two world wars for the Vaterland.
The Marine Corps struggled to make clear that it was not part of the U.S. Navy, but a separate service, along with the Navy itself, in the Department of the Navy, but this was too close a distinction to be understood by most. What emerged after much debate and many legislative shenanigans was the National Security Act of 1947, which, among many things including the separate Air Force, established formally the Joint Chiefs of Staff. General Omar N. Bradley, no friend to the Marines, became the first chairman of the now permanent Joint Chiefs of Staff in August 1949. The status of the Marine Corps was left unclear and the Corps was given no voice in the JCS, but that was soon to be alleviated, at least in part.
The Douglas-Mansfield Bill—both Senator Paul Douglas and Congressman Mike Mansfield were Marine veterans—enacted as Public Law 416 in August 1952 decreed that the Marine Corps should include “no less than three combat divisions and three aircraft wings.” It also provided that the commandant have co-equal status with the other members of the JCS when matters of direct concern to the Corps were under consideration.
General Lemuel C. Shepherd, by then the commandant, did not abuse this new privilege. He expressed direct concern in only nine percent of the items appearing on the agenda that first year. Succeeding commandants found reason to expand this percentage. General Wallace M. Greene, in particular, managed to find virtually every item on the agenda of “direct concern.” Even so, in the early years the commandant and his operations deputy were seated at a small table separate from the large table in the “Tank” occupied by the full members.
Successive waves of legislation moved the Department of Defense closer and closer to the original Marshall- Collins plan. Friends in the Congress, however, saw to it that the interests of the Marine Corps were protected. Probably the most significant of these steps was taken when General Louis H. Wilson, a holder of the Medal of Honor and a very politically savvy commandant, gained full membership on the JCS in 1978.
The most important piece of legislation since the National Security Act of 1947 was undoubtedly the Gold- water-Nichols Act of 1986, which did several things. It solidified the authority of the secretary of defense, and specifically designated the chairman of the JCS as the senior ranking officer of the armed forces and as such the principal military advisor to the president. It also created the position of vice chairman as second senior uniformed officer. The service chiefs were taken out of the operational chain entirely and reduced to advisory status. For the Marine Corps there was a compensating benefit. The Fleet Marine Forces, Atlantic and Pacific, which had always been subordinated to Navy fleet commands, were elevated to full component status, which gave them an equal voice with the larger services in the unified and specified combatant commands.
Indirectly, this has led to the occasional assignment of Marine four-star generals as commanders of combatant commands, as in the case of General James L. Jones, a former commandant, who is now Supreme Allied Commander, Europe, another almost unbelievable assignment for a Marine.
Through the years, as successive service chiefs moved up to chairman, there had been a number of feckless boom- lets prophesying that an outgoing commandant might be the next chairman. These, of course, never materialized. Donald H. Rumsfeld, indisputably the first secretary of defense to make full use of his expanded powers, broke the pattern. Obviously he saw no bar in advancing a Marine general serving as vice chairman to chairman. The current chairman, Air Force General Richard B. Myers had been vice chairman before his elevation, so Rumsfeld was following a precedent he had already set.
The nomination of General Peter Pace was announced by President Bush on Friday, 22 April 2005, by which time Pace had served almost four years as vice chairman- Before that he had been short-toured after just one year as commander of the U.S. Southern Command.
Bom in Brooklyn, the son of an Italian immigrant, Pace had been raised in New Jersey. His military service had begun with the Naval Academy from which he graduated in 1967. A year later, after a year at The Basic School at Quantico, which molds all new second lieutenants, he was on his way to Vietnam. He arrived in time to be assigned as a platoon leader in Golf Company, 2d Battalion, 5th Marines, then involved in heavy fighting in the Battle for Hue City. It was an experience that marked him forever more. He was the third platoon commander in as many weeks. When he joined it, there were only 14 men remaining in the platoon instead of the authorized 43- Under the glass on his desk he keeps a photo of Lance Corporal Guido Farinaro, the first Marine to die while under his command. There would be many more to die. After 37 years he can still reel off their names. He himself escaped unscathed in his 13 months of Vietnam combat.
Five days after the announcement of his nomination- honoring a commitment made almost a year earlier, he spoke to members of the senior class at West Point taking Law 403, Constitutional and Military Law. He told the cadets that he had worried over how he might perform in battle and that he “presumed that you are wondering about the same things.” He reassured them, “If yon feel fear, it is natural.” He went on to say that soldiers want to follow their leaders: “They want you to be good. They will cling to leaders who care about them.”
In a speech given a year or so ago to a group of veterans from the Battle for Hue, he said, “This is an amazing country. My dad was born in Italy. His son is the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. You can’t do that any place else in the world.” He soon will be able to amend that to read that as an immigrant’s son, he is now the first Marine to be chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Today we are a nation at war with terrorism around the globe. We have a significant portion of our forces, both active and reserve, deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan prosecuting this conflict. We get casualty reports daily; losses since the proclaimed end major combat operations two years ago now top 1,400 American service men and women. We have other size-able forces at sea and on land around the globe. We are led by a president committed to taking the war to the enemy; he is seconded by the most powerful secretary of defense in the modern era.
The American people by almost every public measure are losing confidence in our ability to finish the business. The war has taken a huge toll on personnel and equipment, which will have a ripple effect in the years to come. The Army, the National Guard, Army Reserves and even the Marine Corps are showing signs of strain in reaching recruiting goals. The defense budget is at almost half a trillion dollars and under fire in Congress.
With that, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is continuing his pursuit of the most radical changes in defense organization since the immediate aftermath of World War II—he will hold a senior staff summit this summer to tackle the business of reforming the entire department structure less the operational commands. Many are calling it Key West II in recognition of the potential impact it could have on service roles and missions—but the impact could be even more pervasive within the massive DoD agency structure.
Other than this. . . just another day at the Pentagon.
Into this most challenging arena will come General Peter Pace, the 16th man to serve as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. After four years in the vice chairman’s position, he brings the complete confidence of his boss, considerable support and admiration from the Congress, and a clear understanding of the role that awaits him. With that, Peter Pace the man is a study in contradictions—at once self-effacing, yet intensely focused; a quick study, but also a thoughtful advisor not given to hip-shooting; a serious student of the warrior profession, but with a finely tuned sense of humor. He has the rare ability to call ‘em straight without appearing threatening or pompous. Most of all, Pete Pace comes across as someone with whom you would trust your sons and daughters in harm’s way. In his own words, “Being a general is fun…but when a man in the audience where I speak comes up to me with a beer in his hand and says, ‘Hey. Lieutenant’ . . . that’s an honor.”
Some folks professed surprise at General Pace’s nomination. Where have they been? The secretary of defense has been turning the three-star and four-star nomination Process into his own personal meritocracy since his arrival. You might not like his measures of merit, but you can easily see that he continues to defy the conventional Wisdom of selection by service for key military leadership positions. And, when paired with the nomination of Admiral Edmund Giambastiani, Secretary Rumsfeld has kept within his inner circle two known players in whom he has great confidence and upon whom he can depend for support in his quest to transform the armed forces.
Other folks have opined that General Pace and Air Force General Richard Myers, the outgoing chairman, have not “stood up” to Secretary Rumsfeld in the past and that the new chairman will continue to allow the erosion of good” military advice in the future. As an advisor, any Joint Chiefs chairman will be forever identified with his civilian boss and will be held at least partly accountable f°r military operations during his tenure. Standing up implies either public disagreement or private undercurrents
in the press. Neither is Pete Pace’s style. The public will never know what advice he gives the secretary because such disclosure is not part of the job description. And he will never resign unless his leaders prove their moral corruption (even Secretary Rumsfeld’s detractors recognize his integrity), or they cross that line that Pete Pace drew as a young infantry lieutenant in Vietnam when he sent Marines to possibly die in combat under his orders. Dutiful as he is, Pete Pace would find that a bridge too far.
Steven Pressfield in his novel. Gates of Fire, described this ethos: “A leader does not abide within a tent, not while his men bleed upon the field, nor sleep while his men stand watch upon the wall. A leader does not command his men’s loyalty through fear, nor purchase it with gold. He earns their love by the burdens that he endures for their sake. He serves them, not they him.”
Peter Pace has lived by that creed every day of his military life. I know because I have served with Pete since we were 17-year-old plebes in the Naval Academy Class of 1967. He is a leader and he represents the very best that the American military services can produce.
THE ROLE OF THE CHAIRMAN
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs, like all 3- and 4-star officers, is a political appointee—nominated by the president and subject to Senate confirmation. When the Joint Chiefs of Staff were formally established by the National Security Act of 1947. there was no chairman's position, and there were no provisions for Marine Corps membership. The chairman's position was added in 1949 and the Marine commandant became a full-time member of the Joint Chiefs in 19S6, under the Goldwater-Nichols Act.
The chairman serves at the pleasure of the president for a two-year term that begins 1 October of odd-numbered years. There have been 15 chairmen, starting with General of the Army Omar Bradley, famous in Marine circles for publicly testifying that amphibious operations were a thing of the past, just prior to the Inchon landing of the Korean War.
The most significant statutory duties of the chairman are:
To be the principal military advisor to the president, the secretary of defense, and the National Security Council.
To transmit communications between the president or the secretary of defense and the combatant commanders.
To speak for the combatant commanders, especially on operational requirements, and to oversee the activities of the combatant commands.
To assist the president and the secretary of defense in providing for the strategic direction of the armed forces, to include the preparation of strategic plans and their supporting logistic and mobility plans.
Most important, the chairman is by law the ranking U.S. military officer, but he is an advisor, not a commander himself. The chain of command runs from the president to the secretary of defense, and from the secretary of defense to the combatant commanders.