Retired Gen. James Mattis, one of the most revered Marine Corps generals of this generation, will be presented with an award for tremendous public service on Monday night. Mattis was named the 2013 recipient of the Benjamin Franklin Award for Public Service. He’ll be the ninth recipient to receive the award, which is sponsored by the Foreign Policy Research Institute, a Philadelphia-based think tank. The general will be recognized for serving more than four decades in the Marine Corps, before retiring in May. He led the 1st Marine Division, during the initial invasion of Iraq and served as head of U.S.…
Browsing: Gen. James Mattis
You’ve heard some of the motivating remarks by Gen. James Mattis, but did you know about the memes floating around the Internet that showcase some of his best quotes? Marines love Mattis, this we know. One launched a presidential campaign for the outgoing head of U.S. Central Command. And another got fired over having one of the “Warrior Monk’s” famous quotes tattooed on his arm. Mattis simply motivates today’s generation of Marines, and that has spread to the digital sphere. So in honor of this week’s profile on Mattis, as he prepares to pass the CENTCOM torch to Army Gen. Lloyd Austin,…
Like no other officer in a generation, Gen. James Mattis has inspired those around him with his wisdom, candor and appreciation for rank-and-file U.S. service members. Now, he’s planning to retire, wrapping up a 41-year career in which he led Task Force 58 during the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan and 1st Marine Division during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. I examine Mattis’ place in history in Marine Corps Times’ cover story this week. The story is currently available online on Marine Corps Times Prime. Since 2010, the general known by the call sign “Chaos” has run U.S. Central Command, overseeing…
Marines love Gen. James Mattis so much that there’s even a special Christmas tale about the “warrior monk” that makes the rounds on the Internet each holiday season. As the story goes, Mattis stepped in for a young Marine who had guard duty at Marine Corps Combat Development Command in Quantico, Va., on Christmas Eve back in 1998. Mattis — then a one-star — is rumored to have told the Marine on duty to go home and spend the holiday with his family. Mattis took over and spent the night pulling guard duty. Now, we know Marines love Mattis. We’ve seen…
In April, a New York Times piece on the U.S. military’s PowerPoint culture generated a fair amount of buzz, especially considering it included a simple, cutting indictment from Gen. James Mattis, then-commander of U.S. Joint Forces Command: “PowerPoint makes us stupid.” The military still relies heavily on PowerPoint presentations, however. And while that may never change, one Army colonel assigned to an International Security Assistance Force headquarters in Kabul, Afghanistan, has had enough. His brutal critique of military culture is burning up the Web today after being published by the UPI news service. An excerpt: For headquarters staff, war consists…
Thursday morning, the Marine Corps will bury one of its own. Retired Maj. Gen. Fred Haynes wasn’t just any Marine, though. As a captain, he served as an operations officer for Combat Team 28, participating in the bloody Battle of Iwo Jima that resulted in nearly 7,000 U.S. combat deaths. In 1967, he served as the top operations officer of Marine forces in Vietnam. Haynes died in March, and will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery following a service at Arlington’s Fort Myer Old Post Chapel. The delay in his burial is likely the result of the time and resources…
