Star Treatment

On the morning of Oct. 1, Marine Gen. Peter Pace spent an hour on the Fort Myer parade ground, listening to President Bush and Defense Secretary Robert Gates pay him tribute as the outgoing chairman of the Joint Chiefs Of Staff and for his 40 years of uniformed service. Then Pace, still wearing his medal bedecked dress uniform, climbed into a car with his family and drove across the Potomac River to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the National Mall. He walked to panel 50W and placed at its base an index card on which he had pinned a set of his silver four star rank insignia. Handwritten on the card were these words " For Guildo Farinaro, USMC - these our yours not mine !! with love and respect your platoon leader Pete Pace. Pace had laid down his rank for the first man killed under his command, back when he was a green rifle platoon leader in Viet Nam. Farinaro, a 19 year old lance corporal, was standing next to Pace when he was felled by a snipers bullet on July 30, 1968, in Quang Nam. Pace kept a photo of Farino on his desk during his years in the Pentagon. In his own remark earlier in the day at Fort Myer, Pace had mentioned Farinaro and three other Marines he lost in Viet Nam. Then he went to the Wall to remember and honor all four. Two panels to the right of the one bearing Farinaros name, he laid down three similar cards each also pinned with his four stars. Photos of the cards snapped by an unknown tourist quickly bounced around the internet, and more than a few friends and admirers sent copies to Paces former spokeswoman, Marine Col. Katie Haddock. She confirmed that the cards were indeed left by Pace. A tribute from one Marine at the end of his career to the men who fought and fell alongside him almost 40 years before. It really touched a lot of people, I think Haddock said.