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James Mattis

Secretary of Defense

ames N. Mattis became the 26th Marine Corps Manpower Plans and Policy; as
Secretary of Defense on 20 January 2017. Commanding General, Marine Corps Combat
J A native of Richland, Washington, Secretary Development Command; and as Executive
Mattis enlisted in the US Marine Corps Secretary to the Secretary of Defense.
Reserve at the age of eighteen. After graduating
from Central Washington University in 1971, he As a joint force commander, Secretary Mattis
was commissioned a second lieutenant in the US commanded US Joint Forces Command, NATO’s
Marine Corps. Supreme Allied Command for Transformation,
and US Central Command. At US Central
During his more than four decades in uniform, Command, he directed military operations
Secretary Mattis commanded Marines at all of more than 200,000 soldiers, sailors, airmen,
levels, from an infantry rifle platoon to a Marine Coast Guardsmen, Marines and allied forces
Expeditionary Force. He led an infantry battalion across the Middle East.
in Iraq in 1991, an expeditionary brigade in
Afghanistan after the 9/11 terror attack in 2001, Following his retirement from the US Marine
a Marine Division in the initial attack and Corps in 2013, Secretary Mattis served as the
subsequent stability operations in Iraq in 2003, Davies Family Distinguished Visiting Fellow at
and led all US Marine Forces in the Middle East as the Hoover Institution at Stanford University,
Commander, I Marine Expeditionary Force and US specializing in the study of leadership, national
Marine Forces Central Command. security, strategy, innovation, and the effective
use of military force. In 2016, he co-edited the
During his non-combat assignments, Secretary book, Warriors & Citizens: American Views
Mattis served as Senior Military Assistant to of Our Military.
the Deputy Secretary of Defense; as Director,

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