James Norman Mattis is the 26th and current US Secretary of Defense under the administration of President Trump. He is a former general from the United States Marine Corps.
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Early Life and Education
Mattis was born in Pullman, Washington on 8th September, 1950 to merchant mariner John West Mattis and of Lucille Mattis nee Proulx. His mother Lucille emigrated from Canada to the US as a toddler and had served in South Africa in Army Intelligence during WWII. The household was bookish and did not have a TV.
Jim attended Columbia High School and graduated in 1968. He then went to Central Washington University and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in history in 1971. He has attended the National War College of National Defense University and in 1994 received a Master of Arts degree in international security affairs.
Mattis is also a graduate of the U.S. Marine Corps Command and Staff College and the U.S. Marine Corps Amphibious Warfare School.
Career
Jim enlisted in 1969 in the Marine Corps Reserve. On 1st Jan, 1972, he was commissioned via the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps as a second lieutenant.
He served as a lieutenant in the 3rd Marine Division as a rifle and weapons platoon commander. He served as Battalion Officer at the Naval Academy Preparatory School as a captain. He served as a major at then Recruiting Station Portland located in Oregon.
Mattis commanded the 7th Marines 1st Battalion during the Gulf War as a lieutenant colonel. As a colonel, he served as commander of the 7th Marine Regiment. As brigadier general, he was the commanding officer of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Brigade during the War in Afghanistan. Jim was commander of the 1st Marine Division as a major general during the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the proceeding stability operations. He was involved in many major roles, including Operation Phantom Fury, Operation Vigilant Resolve negotiations, and Fallujah combat operations. He also ordered the 2004 bombing now referred to as the ‘Mukaradeeb wedding party massacre.’
Jim took charge of the Marine Corps Combat Development Command after becoming a lieutenant general. In 2006, he took charge of Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton-based I Marine Expeditionary Force. In September 2007, he was confirmed by the US Senate to the rank of a general, was promoted to a 4 star general, and in November 2007, he took charge of JFCOM/SACT. Mattis was confirmed by the Senate as United States Central Command commander after nomination by President Obama in July 2010. He was in charge of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars and of some areas in Iran, Syria, and Yemen. Jim retired in 2013.
After retirement Jim served as General Dynamics Board of Directors member and had a job at FWA Consultants. He became a member of the advisory board of the nonprofit organization Spirit of America. He was a Theranos company board member from 2013 to Jan 2017. He was appointed an Annenberg Distinguished Visiting Fellow in 2013 at the Hoover Institution and later became their Davies Family Distinguished Visiting Fellow. He is also the co-editor ‘Warriors & Citizens: American Views of Our Military’ book published in 2016.
On 1st Dec, 2016, Trump chose Mattis as his nomination for US Secretary of Defense. He was confirmed 98-1by the Senate on 20th Jan 2017 on a waiver of the 1947 National Security Act which required retired military personnel to wait for 7 years before they could be appointed as US Secretary of Defense. He is the second person to get the waiver, the first being George Marshall. The only Senator to oppose his appointment was Senator Kirsten Gillibrand who later stated that she respected the service of Mattis but was opposed to the waiver.
As the US Secretary of Defense, Jim has opposed teaming with Russia on matters concerning the military and has stated that Russia was a threat to order in the world. He has affirmed the commitment of the US in defense of South Korea during the 2018 crisis with N. Korea. He has occasionally disagreed with certain policies of the Trump administration; he disapproved of the budget cuts that impede the process of monitoring climate change impact and he opposed the intended withdrawal of the US from the Iran nuclear deal.
Personal Life and Trivia
Mattis has been a bachelor all his life. He has never married and does not have any children. He had proposed once to Alice Gillis, but she called off the marriage much before it was to happen. She did that as she did not want marriage to burden the career of Jim.
His nicknames are ‘Warrior Monk,’ ‘Mad Dog,’ and “CHAOS” which is also his call sign. He earned the CHAOS nickname during his tenure as a regimental commander; it is short for ‘Colonel Has Another Outstanding Solution.’
Robert John Burke plays the character of Mattis in ‘Generation Kill,’ a 2008 HBO miniseries. It depicted the events of the 2003 Iraq invasion.
Jim was regarded an intellectual by those in the higher ranks during his service in the military. All through his varied deployments he used to carry ‘Meditations of Marcus Aurelius’ book, which reinforced others’ belief of him being an intellectual personality.
Mattis was/is deeply interested in study of world history and military history and has a personal library with more than 7,000 volumes. He is also known for writing lists of ‘required reading’ for Marines who served under him. Before the Iraq deployment, he had made his Marines go through training in cultural sensitivity.
Jim is a supporter of the two-state solution plan for bringing peace to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He maintains that the present situation is not sustainable; he has stated that the settlements damage hopes of peace and may eventually result in an apartheid-like scenario in the region’s West Bank area. He specifically believes that no implementation of the two-state model has upset the Arab allies of the US and had deteriorated their esteem for America.
Jim Mattis – Salary and Net Worth
As a US Secretary of Defense, Mattis earns an annual salary of $210,700 as a Level I United States federal employee. His net worth is estimated to be around $5 million to $7 million.
