General
Mattis is the
Secretary of
Defense in the
new
administration.
What
a great way to
start
rebuilding our
military. His
nickname is
Mad Dog Mattis
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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