Gen. Pace and star-studded troupe visit Anaconda for New Year's

Photo By Staff Sgt. Engels Tejeda | The military's top officer, Marine Gen. Peter Pace (center), the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, meets troops at LSA Anaconda during a surprise visit Jan. 1, 2006. Servicemembers cheered while the Chairman made his way through the crowd.  

01.01.2006

Courtesy Story

207th Public Affairs Detachment

America's top military officer welcomed the New Year along with a star-studded show for U.S. servicemembers at Logistical Support Area Anaconda, Jan. 1.

Marine Gen. Peter Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and his top enlisted adviser, Army Sgt. Maj. William Joseph Gainey, toured with American Idol finalist Diana DeGarmo, comedian and actor Reggie McFadden, country star Michael Peterson, and retired Army Col. Jack Jacobs, who received the Congressional Medal of Honor in Vietnam. The group visited Qatar, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Afghanistan, Iraq, Kuwait and Djibouti.

Throughout the trip, Pace thanked servicemembers for all their work during the past year.

"Thank you and happy New Year to all the troops across the globe," Pace said to the troops while conducting a live interview from Iraq with news organizations back home. "They've done such a great job in 2005 for our country not only here in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in Djibouti, but also in tsunami relief out in the Pacific, in hurricane relief at home, in earthquake relief out in Pakistan. Everything we've asked them to do this year they've done amazingly well and we owe them a great deal of gratitude."

He said to servicemembers, "I don't have a clue what's coming our way in 2006 . . . I do know this about 2006, it will be a bad year for the enemies of the United States."

Gainey, who recently returned to the Pentagon from serving in Iraq, told the crowd that the services must work together to win the war. He left the crowd saying half jokingly, "You know what you do when you are out there in those convoys. When in doubt, you know what to do, you shoot!"

DeGarmo serenaded the audience, while McFadden and Peterson performed comic routines that brought the crowd down with laughter.

"I don't even know why you guys are here man, [when] we got all these healthy criminals that's chilling in jail. Send their [butts] to Iraq," McFadden joked.

"Ya'll are over here rebuilding Iraq . . . Get Martha Stewart over here. Bring Martha over with the Extreme Makeover crew," McFadden continued.

Though McFadden was "hilarious," according to one of the Soldiers in the audience, the jokes that really hit home were those told by Vietnam war veteran Jacobs. He told the servicemembers several anecdotes about life as a veteran, including having had the opportunity to chat with the commander in chief during a reception at the White House.

"I have a tendency to tell the truth, even if it's painful," Jacobs said. So when President George W. Bush asked how his brother Jeb Bush performed as an officer candidate under his command, he responded, "Sir, not worth a [lot]. I expected to be driven like a tent peg right through the floor of the White House and he looked down at me and said, "Well, that's Jeb for you.""

All joking aside, Jacob shared some pearls of wisdom with the young servicemembers.
"I'll tell you how times have changed," Jacobs said. "Not only are ya'll better equipped than we were, and smarter than we were, and better educated than we were, you are better trained as well. The first time I was ever in a live fire exercise was in combat. We don't do that any more."

The incident he referred to took place in Vietnam, and from the middle of the fire fight he called his commander and asked for help.

"And I told him â?¦ "I don't know what to do. I need some guidance. You"d better tell me how to act." And he said, "Well I'm not there so I can't make a complete evaluation, but I will give you one piece of advice." He said, "You better do something even if it's wrong." That was not the detailed assistance I was looking for at that time. In retrospect that turned out to be pretty good advice. Often doing nothing is an option, and sometimes it's a good option. But in a crisis it's the worst possible option. You've got to do something even if it's wrong."

Pace also commented on progress in Iraq. He said he was optimistic about the results of the Dec. 15 elections, and that he still expects some insurgents to disrupt the peace.

"There are certainly a number of insurgents who are not going to quit the battlefield and they are going [to] need to be either killed or captured by Coalition forces or by Iraqi armed forces," Pace said. "But I think there is a large number of those who might become part of the insurgency who, when they see the Iraqi government taking shape after these most recent successful elections, as they see their armed forces taking over responsibility in their country, will see that being part of the future of Iraq is going to be much better for them than becoming part of the insurgency."

Pace said that his first trip as chairman left him with the impression that there is much confidence in the new Iraqi government. Pace and Gainey presented coins to dozens of the servicemembers who attended the show. Soldiers said they enjoyed the break.

"I think that General Pace's USO show boosted the morale of the Soldiers because it made us take our minds off Iraq and made us think of back home," said Cpl. Lisa Michelle Williams, a medical supply specialist with the 226th Medical Logistics Battalion. "It also gave us a break away from work."

• Date Taken: 01.01.2006
• Date Posted: 01.12.2006 11:17
• Story ID: 5088