General Pace retires on 1 October. This site and company is not about politics in any manner or fashion and this is probably the closest I want to get to politics but the fact that General Pace is being forced to retire is wrong and sad on so many levels. General Pace is not responsible for the war in Iraq and it would take a long time to explain the role of the Chairman JCS and now is not the time. As a member of the Joint Staff, General Pace was my top boss. I briefed him once and listened to him talk for about 20 minutes and then sat at the table and gave him my briefing on Afghanistan and left the room. I was impressed and to be honest, senior officers don't tend to impress me. A year or so ago while working in the Pentagon, I got a tasker from General Pace that kind of circumvented the normal process because he wanted us to look at what could be called an out of the box concept. I agreed with his assessment and recommended further study, alas the folks above me did not agree with my judgment and the status quo was maintained. General Pace is an amazingly honorable and competent man, if you are in the US military or if you would like to see the words of a real leader, watch this video, it's 20 minutes long.
- General Pace, on 1 October, you will stand relieved....we have the watch.
About Otto
Edward "Otto" Pernotto is President and founder of EXCALIBUR Research and Development, LLC.