A lot has been written about the recent retirement of Gen. Pace from the Marine Corps, and public service. My mother actually met the General at a DAR event a couple of years ago, and was overwhelmed by his charisma, speaking skills, and abilities to influence an audience. After that event, I began to play closer attention to Gen. Pace, and the anecdotes floating around out there from folks that had direct dealings with him. I think that it is a given that my research is limited but, I have to say that I have found very little that detracts from the legend that is growing around this man. I can only hope that it is a legend that is becoming institutionalized within our Corps to bring out the best in our new Marines.
Much has been written about Gen. Pace’s September visit to Iraq, the changing of command ceremony, and the notes that were found at The Wall. I will not attempt to provide justice to those events. I do believe that they are illustrative of the values that have guided Gen. Pace, and hopefully are pervasive in our Corps.
Today, over at Threatswatch.org, Steve Schippert has a nice editorial about General Pace. Go over there and give it a read, I’ll wait…
I think his closing statements say so very much:
For General Peter Pace (USMC, Ret.), his four stars rightly belong to Lance Corporal Guido Farinaro. But the empty collars those stars once adorned surely belong to Congress. And worse off are we all for it.
For my own part I can only say to Gen. Pace, “Sir, you make me extraordinarily proud to share the title of United States Marine with you”.