Villainous Company

To General Pace!

Agreed...and oddly enough..it feels like it's time to drink.
Heavily.

Thank you, Gen. Pace. Semper Fidelis.

To General Pace!

Fair winds and following seas, General. Your efforts have not gone unnoticed.

A fine man and exemplary Marine.

Whatsup wif dat, anyways? Was he too much a "Rumsfeld" man??

I don't expect an answer from any of the serving Marine wives that may be in the know, but jeez, really.

Don't have an answer, Don.
Will has the day off as our dog needed surgery and he is the only one who can get her there without much of a fight.

I called him at the Vet's office and told him.

He knew nothing about it.

And I agree....jeez...REALLY!!!

A good man. Courageous and definately a role model.

From Homefront Six, 5 Jun 07
General Pace, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, conducted a Town Hall meeting here today. Everything I have heard about the man was confirmed by what I saw today. He is a consummate soldier. He is professional, articulate, disciplined, and (amazingly) warm. The last quality surprised me. It seemed to be in contradiction to the rest of the image yet it fit perfectly.

From CNN.com 8 Jun 07

Pace's renomination to another two-year term had been widely expected, and his nomination papers already had been drafted.

But Gates said some members of Congress warned him that -- despite their respect for Pace -- the focus of any renomination hearing for the general would be on the past, rather than the future, and would be "a very contentious process."

No wonder the world chooses to fight this country in four-year cycles. The US of A is as predictable as sunrise and sunset.

Well done, General. Semper Fi, Sir.

"Everything I have heard about the man was confirmed by what I saw today. He is a consummate soldier."

Wrong! Marines aren't soldiers, soldiers aren't marines. What's so freakin' hard about getting that straight?

Well done Gen. Pace.

Semper Fidelis

Most very well done, General Pace. Thank you, and Semper Fi!

Uh...I think it was intended as a compliment to the profession of arms. While I *know* the difference,
to the civilians out there, as well as lesser informed re: the branches of service, most people think of the military as 'the troops' or 'soldiers.'

The Marines have an awesome rep as it is.

I think she may be an Army wife (not sure), so coming from her that would be quite a compliment. Always take things in the spirit in which they were offered up!

OUTSTANDING! SIR!

SEMPER FI!

Aww crap....
wrong thread for one of my comments..

FYI...Homefront6 is the wife of a deployed Army Aviator. I don't know her but I am certain that she meant only to praise.

Tim ~ I apologize. Thank you for pointing my mistake out here. I will fix it immediately. I meant no disrespect to you, to General Pace, nor to the Marine Corps.

And I meant to add my gratitude for General Pace's service as well. It is a shame, and a huge loss for this country, that politics should end this man's tenure.

I meant no disrespect to you, to General Pace, nor to the Marine Corps.

I think that was apparent from the tone of your post. As I mentioned, I took it as the highest compliment an Army wife could give a Jarhead...err..Marine, and felt we had been honored by it, ma'am :)

Whoops. Sorry.

HF6,
I just sent you an email that said much the same thing as aold cheese danish clad Leia...

We're wives. We speak the same language. Maybe we use different words but the intent comes through just fine.

"Always take things in the spirit in which they were offered up!"

Absolutely!

From a geezer who once upon a time had the privilege to be a squid, Gen Pace, please accept my gratitude for a job well done. Salute!

Go Navy! ;-}

Some people wonder all their lives if they've made a difference.
The Marines don't have that problem. - Ronald Reagan

Thank you Sir for making a difference!

Semper Fi!

General Pace is an inspiration. When he was called a Marine's Marine, we knew we had someone very special! His strength, forthrightness, grace, warm humor, and most of all, his love for our military men and women, has been very welcome in such challenging times.
We are losing an awesome Marine!
We will hold you in our hearts, General.
Thank you, Sir!
Semper Fi!

Let me also add my most heartfelt thanks as well. I liked General Pace based on everything I read and saw. An honorable man. Thank you for your service, sir.

Now onto the real news.....ADM Mullen is the new CJCS. Yeah baby! Navy leads the way!

Pppphhhhhtttthhh :)

I'm sorry..I don't see a reason to celebrate at all about what happened today.

Call me non-pragmatic. It wouldn't be the first time.
I'm unrepentant...and proudly so.
As a country, we didn't win today. We lost.
Adm Mullen might be a great guy but the reason for Gen. Pace's "resignation" was ridiculous.
we are surrendering by degrees.

HF6,
*looks around*

pssst. I am an Army wife too.

Carrie and Sly still like me.

heh.

"Gates said some members of Congress warned him that -- despite their respect for Pace -- the focus of any renomination hearing for the general would be on the past, rather than the future, and would be "a very contentious process."

Gen. Pace screwed because of political correctness. We need warriers, not managers. Don't know Adm. Mullen, but suspect he won't arouse leftist passions which ought to scare all of us.

Godspeed General and Semper Fi

It is a thing of no great difficulty to raise objections against another man’s oration,—nay, it is a very easy matter; but to produce a better in its place is a work extremely troublesome.

-Plutarch: Of Hearing, 6.

Let them talk. You walked.

:)

Oh Carrie...

You know my feelings. Better than anyone else, chica.

If I haven't said it before, I am so proud, and so grateful to have gotten the chance to know you :p

Re: Mullen

Here are some thoughts from people who have worked with him: http://www.neptunuslex.com/2007/06/08/like-ive-said-before/#comments

I appreciate everyone pointing out the spirit of my post. I was so wrapped up in getting the details of his visit and the questions that were asked down on the screen that I missed that detail. For that, I apologize.

And I agree...this is a HUGE loss for our country. I am sorely disappointed in Gates' willingness to fold on this one. My hope is that Admiral Mullen lives up to the reputation that precedes him. (see FbL's link to Lex's post and the comments). If so, this may not be as bad of a loss as it now appears. Sure was nice to have a Marine in the JSC position though...

I ditto Shep's comment.

I am suspicious of anything coming from Gates. Gates contributed to the deterioration of the CIA, and I was stunned (yet, not surprised) when Bush appointed him.

A huge salute to Gen. Pace! He is the consummate leader.

My hope for this country is that Gen. Pace will always be appreciated, never be forgotten, and that Gen. Pace will now have avenues available to him to make a difference in ways that politics heretofore prevented, should he choose to do so.

I would express my hopes for Gen. Pace, but that would be folly. The world has been and will continue to be a better place because of Gen. Pace.

Godspeed, Sir. And thank you. You represent all that is good, strong, and rational in my world.

I'm fine with the new choice. Gen. Pace was great, and I'll be lifting a hard drink after mess tonight. Hell, maybe even before mess!
Don't get mad at Congress. Get even.
Wait til Mrs. Clinton steps up as president, and appoints Cammermeyer from retirement as CJCS. Be very, very afraid.

"HF6,
*looks around*

pssst. I am an Army wife too.

Carrie and Sly still like me.

heh.

Posted by: Cricket at June 8, 2007 08:53 PM

And that, M'selle Cricke', is what stayed my snarktillery regarding the, uh, *mis-spoken* compliment.

We more than like La Femme Crickita.

My best friend at Monterey was an Army wife too. The editorial staff is kinda fond of Donovan, too for some odd reason. Not sure why, the big lug. We hear tell his wife is pretty good people too, but don't quote us on that :p

We don't want to lose our rep for being crabby.

Don't get mad at Congress. Get even.

Now THAT's what I'm talking about!

"Carrie and Sly still like me."

Yes, we do!! We like you!! We really like you!!!

You people are really very silly.

*flying away*

No, now this is silly......

heh

Has anyone seen my brother around here?

He's positively vexing... or vexingly positive.

Good grief. Reading my comment above, I see that I can't even type ACRONYMS properly. JCoS. I need more sleep.

Nice to see that even Army wives are tolerated around here. For the record, I've been around the Marine Corps longer than I've been around the Army. I know the difference and I know how persnickety Marines get when referred to as anything OTHER than "Marines". It was simply a typo made in a rush to get details down on the screen. My mind isn't the steel trap it used to be.

So, Carrie...are your lawyers going to get with General Pace's lawyers about joint custody? heh.

Cricket ~ thanks :)

Aw..shucks.

I am more than tolerated; sometimes KJ, aka the Beastly Toad will deign to tease me and I fall for it every time. Pile On writes wickedly funny satire that fooled me once...I double check the name now just for good measure.

A True Story: Just this past Memorial Day, I made my semi annual contribution to the VFW. Sometimes they have the cutest little old men whose stories would curl your hair and others, they have some seriously wonderful older hunkage.

Well, this fellow was the latter. He must have been 60ish, trim and wearing a red shirt with blue slacks...kinda looked like dress blues.
We got to talking and he thanked me for the donation, and I shook his hand and thanked him for his service. He told me he was a Marine.
I forget about how they refer to themselves once they retire, but the impression is that they are still part of the brotherhood.

He asked me about my family, told him the Engineer was retired...and then I whispered half jokingly, 'We're Army.'

He stepped back, and said "Ma'am, we are all part of the brotherhood of the uniform."

That was truly wonderful.

I sorta had a tear in my eye all the way home...

What worries me is that we are eliminating from high position in the military anyone who have ever seen battle. To say it in an interesting, intriging way, we are elminiating the Military from high military possitions.

Petraeus exceled acadamically, but outside the ivy towers has had no real experience or achievement I can see.

Mullen, too excelled academcially. Harvard Business School. But we aren't running a Fortune 500 company here and even if we were practical experience also accounts for a lot in the business world.

So what I see in this two men are that they are Military in Name Only. Sure they went through the military to get there academic achievement but in the end that's all they got through the military. The didn't get a real world military experience of what it is like to be in battle.

Now, I don't totally dismiss those who are educated (you can be smart but still not educated). Most of our generals were very educated, but they also came from the military background and had practical experiences necessary for them to understand the nature of war. There are just stuff you can't get from a book regardlesss of how smart you are and the mistake I have seen many smart people make is that the have developed all these complex high minded philosophies without even considering the real world practicalities of their ideas. Yeah, they outsmart themselves, and the troops suffer whereas someone with "street smarts" can quickly tell if a plan of action just might not work, even if it got a lot of accolades when presented as a PhD dissertation.

I understand that the constitution puts the ultimate control of the military in the hands of a cilivian. That is most likely a very good idea. But surely they expected that the President would surround himself when making decisions on military manners with good military leaders who could give him a perspective from a military point of view. But when the military leaders themselves are nothing but de-facto business managers, professors, bureaucrats, politicians, where will future presidents go to get the point of view of the Soldier? Where will they go to get the point of view of the warrior.

Bush has made it quite clear. He doesn't want any soldier, any warrior in a leadership position in our military!