Bush Renominates Myers, Pace for Second Terms on JCS
By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, June 20, 2003 – President Bush has nominated Air Force Gen. Richard Myers for a second two-year term as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Marine Corps Gen. Peter Pace to continue to serve as vice chairman.
Both men have served in their positions since Oct. 1, 2001. The Senate must confirm both men.
Myers was the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff prior to becoming chairman.
Myers was nominated as chairman before Sept. 11, 2001. On the day of the attacks in New York and the Pentagon, the general was on Capitol Hill meeting with senators in advance of his confirmation hearings.
He rushed back to the Pentagon and manned his station in the National Military Command Center in the aftermath of the attacks.
Myers, who serves as the principal military adviser to the president, the secretary of defense and the National Security Council, helped plan America's response to the terrorist attacks and then helped in planning the coalition attack on al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Myers also provided advice for Operation Iraqi Freedom. He and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld often brief the press and the American people.
Myers was born in Kansas City, Mo. He graduated from Kansas State University in 1965 and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Air Force.
Myers flew more than 600 combat hours in F-4 Phantom IIs over Vietnam. He is a command pilot with more than 4,100 flying hours in the T-33, C-37, C-21, F-4, F-15 and F-16.
He has served at a number of Air Force and joint command posts, including as the commander in chief, North American Aerospace Defense Command, and U.S. Space Command.
Prior to assuming that position, he was commander, Pacific Air Forces, Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii, from July 1997 to July 1998. From November 1993 to June 1996 Myers was commander of U.S. Forces Japan and 5th Air Force at Yokota Air Base, Japan.
Pace is the first Marine to serve as the vice chairman. Before his assignment he was commander of U.S. Southern Command in Miami.
As the vice he serves as the chairman of the Joint Requirements Oversight Council, as the vice chairman of the Defense Acquisition Board and as a member of the National Security Council Deputies Committee and the Nuclear Weapons Council.
The vice chairman acts for the chairman in all aspects of the Planning, Programming and Budgeting System to include participating in meetings of the Defense Resources Board.
Pace was born in Brooklyn, N. Y., and raised in Teaneck, N.J. He was commissioned a Marine second lieutenant following graduation from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1967.
His first assignment was as a rifle platoon leader with then 2d Battalion, 5th Marines, 1st Marine Division in the Republic of Vietnam.
The experience was a formative one for him. At the DoD ceremony welcoming Pace as the vice chairman on Oct. 15, 2001, he said, "About 34 years ago in the jungles of Vietnam, I learned from lance corporals, corporals and sergeants what sacrifice was all about. It was their blood that gave me a debt that I can never fully repay.
"But I promise to each of you today that as long as I have the privilege of being the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, my efforts will be that you continue to receive the support that you so richly deserve."
Pace served in many Marine and joint-service posts following: several assignments in Washington and others in Seoul, South Korea; Camp Lejeune, N.C.; Somalia; Camp Pendleton, Calif.; and Quantico, Va.
In addition to renominating Myers and Pace, President Bush has nominated retired Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker to be the next Army chief of staff. Gen. John P. Jumper, the Air Force chief of staff, will finish two years of duty in September.
Adm. Vern Clark is already in his second term as chief of naval operations. He assumed his duties July 21, 2000. Gen. Michael W. Hagee is the only newcomer to the elite group, having taken over as the Marine Corps commandant on Jan. 13, 2003.