Bush Picks Marine to Lead Joint Chiefs of Staff

President Bush named Marine Gen. Peter Pace to be the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Pace, 59, would succeed Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers. Pace was expected to win easy Senate confirmation. The first Marine selected for the top military post, he also is the second vice chairman to rise to chairman. Myers, due to retire Sept. 30, was the first.

Bush also said he was nominating Navy Adm. Edmund Giambastiani Jr. as vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs. Giambastiani, 56, was Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld’s senior military assistant before being named commander of U.S. Joint Forces Command in 2002.