A couple of months ago, when I told General Krulak, the former Commandant of the Marine Corps, now the chair of the Naval Academy Board of Visitors, that we were having General Mattis speak this evening, he said, “Let me tell you a Jim Mattis story.”
General Krulak said, when he was Commandant of the Marine Corps, every year, starting about a week before Christmas, he and his wife would bake hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of Christmas cookies. They would package them in small bundles.
Then on Christmas day, he would load his vehicle. At about 4 a.m., General Krulak would drive himself to every Marine guard post in the Washington-Annapolis-Baltimore area and deliver a small package of Christmas cookies to whatever Marines were pulling guard duty that day. He said that one year, he had gone down to Quantico as one of his stops to deliver Christmas cookies to the Marines on guard duty. He went to the command center and gave a package to the lance corporal who was on duty.
He asked, “Who’s the officer of the day?” The lance corporal said, “Sir, it’s Brigadier General Mattis.” And General Krulak said, “No, no, no. I know who General Mattis is. I mean, who’s the officer of the day today, Christmas day?” The lance corporal, feeling a little anxious, said, “Sir, it is Brigadier General Mattis.”
General Krulak said that, about that time, he spotted in the back room a cot, or a daybed. He said, “No, Lance Corporal. Who slept in that bed last night?” The lance corporal said, “Sir, it was Brigadier General Mattis.”
About that time, General Krulak said that General Mattis came in, in a duty uniform with a sword, and General Krulak said, “Jim, what are you doing here on Christmas day? Why do you have duty?” General Mattis told him that the young officer who was scheduled to have duty on Christmas day had a family, and General Mattis decided it was better for the young officer to spend Christmas Day with his family, and so he chose to have duty on Christmas Day.
General Krulak said, “That’s the kind of officer that Jim Mattis is.”
The story above was told by Dr. Albert C. Pierce, the Director of the Center for the Study of Professional Military Ethics at The United States Naval Academy. He was introducing General James Mattis who gave a lecture on Ethical Challenges in Contemporary Conflict in the spring of 2006. This was taken from the transcript of that lecture.
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Hoorah! Gen.Mattis. USMC ’68-72
Certainly hope Mattis will be successful. However, there is a reason for separation from active duty and holding this position. Not sure any leader can help with the mess in the Middle East we helped create.
My son is a Marine and he would crawl thru hell, with a broke back, wearing kerosene under-ware for Mad Dog Mattis. General Mattis is respected that much not only by marines, but by all branches of military.
An officer, and a gentleman, and a sympathetic human being.
My late husband, a 22 yr USMC vet, would have LOVED ‘Mad Dog’….He is a REAL man, not a disgusting faker like the current WH occupant – who cannot make a decision favorable to America.
It is a common thing to do for ***leaders***. The world is full of managers and bosses, but precious few leaders.
God speed Mattis! Please keep our country safe! From a retired Air Force combat veteran.
As a former combat Marine in Vietnam, I salute and wish Gen. Mattis Gods Speed.
GOD BLESS GENERAL MATTIS
General James Mattis,
many times the answer to your prayer will come by helping somebody else.
God bless you GENERAL…….