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Gates taps new JCS chairman, vice chair

Saying he feared a contentious re-nomination hearing in the Senate that would focus too heavily on six years of war rather than the way ahead, Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced Friday that he will recommend that President Bush seek to replace Marine Corps Gen. Peter Pace as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, the current chief of naval operations, is Gates’ choice to replace Pace as the nation’s top military officer. If confirmed, he would be the fourth Navy officer to hold the position.

Gates also announced he will recommend that Bush nominate U.S. Strategic Command chief Marine Gen. James Cartwright as the next vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs. He would replace Navy Adm. Edmund Giambastiani, who earlier this week announced his intention to retire in the summer.

Gates, speaking at a news conference at the Pentagon, said he wanted to keep Pace, the first Marine to serve as Joint Chiefs chairman, in that job. But Gates said he changed his mind because of the highly charged atmosphere in Congress over the length and direction of the Iraq war, which blew up this spring into a tough battle between Congress and the administration over war funding and ultimately unmet demands for measurable benchmarks of progress on the part of the Iraqi government.

“It had been my intention, from early in my tenure, to recommend to the president that General Pace be re-nominated for another two-year term as chairman,” Gates said.

“However, after consultations over the course of several weeks with both Republican and Democratic senators, I concluded that because General Pace has served as chairman and vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff for the last six years, the focus of his confirmation process would have been on the past, rather than the future. And further, that there was the very real prospect the process would be quite contentious.

“I am no stranger to contentious confirmations,” Gates continued. “And I do not shrink from them. However, I have decided that at this moment in our history, the nation, our men and women in uniform and General Pace himself would not be well-served by a divisive ordeal in selecting the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.”

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich, the Senate Armed Services Committee chairman, said it would indeed have been hard for the Senate to separate the debate about Pace from the fate of President Bushs Bush Iraq policy.

“In response to a request from Secretary Gates, I solicited the views of a broad range of senators,” Levin said in a statement. “I found that the views of many senators reflected my own, namely that a confirmation hearing on General Pace’s reappointment would have been a backward-looking debate about the last four years.”

Gates said he did not consider the congressional feedback to mean that support for the Iraq war, even among Republicans, is waning.

But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said nominating someone other than Pace does not meant that the confirmation process for the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs won’t include a harsh look at Iraq.

“Senators will be looking very closely at Admiral Mullen and General Cartwright to make sure they are committed to changing course in Iraq,” Reid said. “Both men must be advocates for our troops, not for a failed policy. It will require strong leadership to transition the U.S. mission in Iraq so our troops are not policing an Iraqi civil war. They must also refocus on the resurgence of al-Qaida, rebuild the readiness of the United States military, and fix major problems with the delivery of health care to our troops and veterans.”

Levin called Mullen “well-qualified” to take over as Joint Chiefs chairman.

Sen. John Warner, R-Va., the former committee chairman, also gave an early endorsement to the Navy chief. “In Admiral Mullen, we will have a new hand on the helm, a steady, well-trained hand that will guide and protect the men and women of all of our Services, and their families,” Warner said.

Gates said “no decision has been made at this point” on Mullen’s replacement as chief of naval operations. Defense analysts quickly floated the names of Adm. Gary Roughead, chief of U.S. Fleet Forces Command; Adm. Timothy Keating, the chief of U.S. Pacific Command; and Adm. Robert Willard, commander of U.S. Pacific Fleet, as potential candidates to replace Mullen.

Gates said that, as with Pace, he had intended to ask Bush to re-nominate Giambastiani as the vice chief but that such a move became impossible once he’d decided on Mullen because by law, the chairman and vice chairman cannot be members of the same service.

Gates said he asked Giambastiani to take “another senior position” but that the admiral decided to retire instead.

Gates vehemently denied that his decision anything to do with the way Pace had performed as chairman, and he also declined to characterize the two high-level moves as a “shakeup.”

“I think that this is an effort to do what I think is in the long-term interests of the services and the country, as well as the individuals involved,” he said.

In fact, he gave Pace high praise, saying the general “has served our country with great distinction, and deserves the deepest thanks of the American people for a lifetime of service to our country, and for his leadership.”

Gates said he didn’t think making such major changes at the top of the Joint Chiefs, with only 1½ years remaining in the Bush administration, would complicate his job.

“The people I’m recommending to the president are very experienced,” he said. “We have three other chiefs of staff who are experienced people. We have, I think, a ‘deep bench’ in the Department of Defense.”

Mullen, who has served as CNO since July 2005, is a 1968 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy that associates have described as “dynamic” and a technical, analytical sort, yet an officer who also is a “people person.” Gates noted that Mullen has broad experience, having served in allied, joint and Navy positions, overseas, and both the Atlantic and Pacific fleets.

“I have become well-acquainted with Admiral Mullen over the past six months,” Gates said, “and believe he has the vision, strategic insight, experience and integrity to lead America’s armed forces.”

Cartwright has commanded StratCom since July 2004, where Gates said he is responsible for global command and control of U.S. strategic forces, computer network operations and Defense Department information operations. That experience, on top of his previous job as director for force structure, resources and assessment on the Joint Staff, make him “exceptionally well-qualified” for the vice chairman position, Gates said.

Pace, who was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., and grew up in Teaneck, N.J., graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1967 and served as an infantry officer with 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines, in Vietnam. In the years since, according to his official biography, he “has held command at virtually every level.”

He has been a relatively low-key Joint Chiefs chairman, although he made headlines in March when, during an editorial board meeting with the Chicago Tribune, he referred to homosexual acts as “immoral” when asked about the Pentagon’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that allows gays and lesbians to serve in uniform only if they keep their sexual orientation secret and do not engage in homosexual acts.

“I believe homosexual acts between two individuals are immoral and that we should not condone immoral acts,” Pace told the newspaper. “I do not believe the United States is well served by a policy that says it is OK to be immoral in any way.”

He later expressed regret — but did not apologize — for his comments after coming under fire from gay rights activists.

Staff writers Rick Maze and Philip Ewing contributed to this report.

Past JCS Chairmen

General of the Army Omar N. Bradley, 1949–1953

Adm. Arthur W. Radford, U.S. Navy, 1953–1957

Gen. Nathan F. Twining, U.S. Air Force, 1957–1960

Gen. Lyman L. Lemnitzer, U.S. Army, 1960–1962

Gen. Maxwell D. Taylor, U.S. Army, 1962–1964

Gen. Earle G. Wheeler, U.S. Army, 1964–1970

Adm. Thomas H. Moorer, U.S. Navy, 1970–1974

Gen. George S. Brown, U.S. Air Force, 1974–1978

Gen. David C. Jones, U.S. Air Force, 1978–1982

Gen. John W. Vessey, Jr., U.S. Army, 1982–1985

Adm. William J. Crowe, U.S. Navy, 1985–1989

Gen. Colin L. Powell, U.S. Army, 1989–1993

Gen. John M. Shalikashvili, U.S. Army, 1993–1997

Gen. Henry H. Shelton, U.S. Army, 1997–2001

Gen. Richard B. Myers, U.S. Air Force, 2001–2005

Gen. Peter Pace, U.S. Marine Corps, 2005-2007