President George W. Bush has nominated an Italian American to serve as the Joint Chiefs of Staff … head of our nation’s armed forces.  The Joint Chiefs Chairman is the senior military adviser to the President as well as the Secretary of Defense.  Marine General Peter Pace was born in New York City and raised in Teaneck, New Jersey, Pace graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and earned a master's degree in business administration from George Washington University.

After basic training in 1968, he was sent to Vietnam as a rifle platoon leader. He later served in Korea and was a commander for two years during the Somalia intervention that ended in a U.S. withdrawal.

Earlier in his career Pace's assignments included an unusual combination of staff and command jobs. After his return from Vietnam in 1969 he served as head infantry writer at the Marine Corps Institute in Washington, then security detachment commander at the Camp David, Maryland, presidential retreat.

He also served as a presidential social aide at the White House and later was commanding officer of the Marine Corps recruiting station in Buffalo, New York. After he reached the rank of brigadier general in 1992 he became president of Marine Corps University. It was during that assignment that he was sent to Somalia as deputy commander of Marine forces. He reached four-star rank in 2000.

General Peter Pace has quietly helped shape the Pentagon's role in the global war on terrorism since shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.  He is known to be 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.

Pace is described by subordinates as warm and sincere, with a humble charisma and sense of humor. In conversation, he drives home a point by putting it in terms of the common soldier, describing things "from Pfc. Pace's point of view." His devotion to his troops is legendary. He keeps under the glass on his desk at the Pentagon a photo of Lance Corporal Guido Farinaro, the first Marine he lost in combat in Vietnam, thirty-six years ago.

General Pace's personal decorations include: Defense Distinguished Service Medal, First Oak Leaf Cluster; Defense Superior Service Medal; the Legion of Merit; Bronze Star Medal with Combat V; the Defense Meritorious Service Medal; Meritorious Service Medal with Gold Star; Navy Commendation Medal with Combat "V"; Navy Achievement Medal with gold star; and the Combat Action Ribbon.

General Pace 59, and his wife, Lynne, have a daughter, Tiffany Marie, and a son, Peter, a captain in the Marine reserves.