General Peter Pace: Why we serve

Decision Brief     No. 05-D 18                                        2005-04-21

(Washington, D.C.): The Center for Security Policy is delighted by President Bush’s reported intention to nominate the current Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Marine Gen. Peter Pace to be the Nation’s senior military officer as that organization’s next Chairman.

The Center has long believed that General Pace is an exceptional human being and a remarkable leader of men and women. These qualities were much in evidence last October when General Pace accepted the Center for Security Policy’s 2004 “Keeper of the Flame” Award on behalf of the Defenders of Freedom.

In extemporaneously delivered remarks on that occasion, the next JCS Chairman delivered one of the most extraordinary addresses in memory. Highlights of his address, which spoke movingly about the reasons the Defenders of Freedom serve as they do included the following:

• “If you go to Iraq or Afghanistan and you look [great young men and women in the field] in the eye they will not ask you about personal things. There may be one or two questions about when that unit might be going home. That’s natural. What they want to know is: are the American people behind us? They want to know that what they are doing is as honest and as good, and is recognized to be as honest and as good, as they understand it to be. They get it.

They may not be thinking every night about their oath, but they understand because they’re living amongst people who have never understood freedom, and are living in an environment that reminds them every day of how lucky each of us is to be an American and how wonderful it is to serve this country. They just want a little assurance every now and then that the folks back home appreciate it….

• A vital part of who we are as your military is our families. Now when you’re in combat you have days that are really intense and there are days that are very dangerous, but you know when you’re in trouble and you can fight your way out of it. Our families don’t know that. If we’re gone a year, our families every day are thinking today their son, their daughter, their husband, their wife, their mom, their dad is being shot at or is in some kind of danger. In Pete Pace’s mind it is so much more difficult to be a family member than it is to be the one in uniform. We owe our families an incredible debt. My wife and daughter are here tonight; there’s no way that I can thank them. Jim Jones’ wife and son and daughter-in-law are here tonight. There’s no way he can thank them. But these families of ours are patriots in a quiet, strong way that promises the tomorrow that we all strive for….

• [Supreme Allied Commander General] Jim Jones has said some amazingly nice words tonight. I am probably the only guy in the room, who truly knows in his heart of hearts, I do not deserve those words. I stand before you tonight because in 1968 and 1969 young men – Lance Corporal Guido Farinaro, Lance Corporal Chubby Hale, Corporal Mike Witt, Lance Corporal Whitey Travis, Staff Sergeant Willie Williams, Lance Corporal Little Joe Arnold — and the list goes on. Those men took my orders in combat and as a result, died for their country. I owe them a debt I can never repay.

People say to me today, how do you do it? The implication being there’s some burden here. This is not a burden. This is a privilege to serve this country, to do it in their honor and their memory.

I will accept this award tonight in their memory and the memory of all who have served this country and died, and in tribute today and tonight for the incredibly wonderful young men and women who serve our country right now.

I thank you for this opportunity to publicly say to them we love them, we cherish them, and we support them.