Call Sign CHAOS: Gen. Jim Mattis and the U.S. Marine Corps

like most young Americans in the 1950s Jim mattis idolized the American heroes of world war two generals Douglas MacArthur George Patton and Dwight D Eisenhower an Admirals Chester Nimitz bull Halsey and Ray spoons but there was always a place of honor reserved for the tens of thousands of Marines who fought and were killed in the horrific battles of Saipan guada canal and Iwo Jima these were the Leathernecks the Marines who hit the beaches first and planted the flag atop Mount Suribachi the only American joins the army the that very day he can call himself a soldier if he joins the Navy he's a sailor parama same thing what if a young person joined submarines he damn well better not call himself a marine he hasn't earned the title and that's where the difference starts if you're going to be a United States Marine you know damn well have to earn the title and that's not easily done this was the standard teenager Jim mattis set for himself here are the stories of few marine Mavericks who likely inspired him and who fought valiantly with the OSS during World War two beauty's a French Foreign Legion Air parachuted twice into France as part of OSS Jedburgh Union missions 1 & 2 once when his team was surrounded ortiz surrendered to gestapo to spare villagers severe reprisals brutally interrogated he revealed nothing rorty's was awarded to Navy crosses and was the most highly decorated marine to serve in OSS recruited into OSS by general Donovan Frank Farrell recruited japanese-american nice say to convince enemy soldiers to surrender and local Melanesians to serve as Coast Watchers in Solomon Islands chesty puller said Ferrell was the finest young marine officer I ever knew an anthropologist Charlotte Chapman served an OSS as a Far East analyst and was recognized as a field researcher in the Anthropology of warfare and terror now known as applied anthropology Charlotte retired as a lieutenant colonel and was the only female marine to serve in OSS colonel bill Eddie led OSS intelligence operations in the invasion of North Africa General Patton eyeing at his many medals said I don't know who he is but the son of a [ __ ] sure has been shot out enough that he was no saint saying the OSS was in a death struggle at the Gestapo and like Churchill aligned himself with Devils to survive we deserve to go to hell when we die [Music] sterling Hayden was a lifelong sailor a free spirit he became a Hollywood legend starring in dr. Strangelove in The Godfather operating an OSS maritime unit predecessor to the Navy SEALs Hayden sailed across the Adriatic to equip Yugoslavia syns earning a Silver Star for his courage in making hazardous sea voyages and reconnaissance and enemy infested waters Jim mattis is cut from the same cloth as these legendary OSS Marines [Music] general mattis is an extraordinary military leader just as natural charisma and connects with his troops he was you know a truly legendary inspirational highly competent sometimes profane battlefield commander mattis was born in 1950 in eastern Washington his mother had worked in army intelligence and his father had worked at a plant supplying fissile material to the Manhattan Project mattis grew up as a rough-and-tumble Western hitchhiking throughout the Pacific Northwest climbing in the mountains of the Cascade Range and getting out of few scrapes along the way mattis was fascinated by military history with a library of 7,000 books he later drew a breeding list for his Marines and insisted they be familiar with the culture of where they were deployed general mattis has been absolutely dedicated to the profession of arms and he's used his passion for reading military history and in particular but history of various regions of the world cultures wealth to inform his professional development in his career during the Gulf War Lieutenant Colonel mattis commanded 1st battalion 7th Marines one of Task Force Ripper's assault on people's mattis later took command of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Brigade and earned his nickname chaos an acronym for Colonel has an outstanding solution he would say be polite be courteous have a plan to kill everyone you meet and again this actually does capture some realities by the way you actually do need to be polite you need to be courteous you need to be ready for a handshake or a hand grenade and ready to respond appropriately to either and he absolutely got that Marine officer Nathaniel Fick once all mattis sitting in a foxhole in Afghanistan talking with a sergeant on Lance Corporal no one would have questioned mattis if he slept 8 hours each night in a private room woken each morning by an aide who ironed his uniforms and heeded his MREs but there he was in the middle of a freezing night out on the lines with his Marines particularly as a division commander in the invasion of Iraq in 2003 he was really known for speed and boldness of maneuver maddis demanded first Marine Division in the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the Iraq war matt has played key roles in Fallujah negotiating with the insurgent command inside the rebel-held city the unique ability that general mattis had was to actually ensure that his intent was conveyed down to the lowest level inside of a Marine Division so in this case we had more than 20,000 Marines fighting with the 1st Marine Division and Operation Iraqi Freedom and I can tell you that every single one of those 20,000 individuals knew exactly what the commanding general expected and and was let free than to accomplish the mission mattis popularized the first marine divisions motto no better friend no worse enemy originally chiseled into the epitaph of roman strongman lucius cornelius sulla in 2010 madis was nominated by President Obama to replace David Petraeus as commander of the United States Central Command as head of CENTCOM mattis oversaw Iraq and Afghanistan and worked a counter Iran including ramping up covert operations and the disruption of Iranian arms shipments to Syria and Yemen what also makes him unique besides being one of our preeminent warriors of the past several decades is he's a very shrewd grand strategist he understands other elements of national power is a big supporter of intelligence special operations forces seize forces last-resort understands the relationship between force and diplomacy and the importance of allies in November 2016 mattis was nominated by President Elect Trump to serve as the 26 United States Secretary of Defense mattis was quickly confirmed and took strong and principled positions throughout his tenure he warned North Korea that any attack on the United States or our allies will be defeated and any use of nuclear weapons would be met with an effective and overwhelming response [Music] Matt is fought for US troops to remain in Iraq saying we go out of our way to always do everything humanly possible to reduce the loss of life or injury among innocent people Matt is called the April 2017 Syrian chemical attack a heinous act and warns Syria it would pay a very very stiff price for further use of chemical weapons on December 19th 2018 President Trump announced a full US withdrawal from Syria maddis had said the US would remain in Syria after the defeat of Isis so that they did not recruit the next day secretary mattis submitted his resignation his resignation letter praised NATO and the defeat Isis coalition Madison firmed the need for treating allies with respect and also being clear-eyed about both malign actors and strategic competitors and remaining resolute and unambiguous against China and Russia I absolutely share Jim's view that we want as many allies as we can we want as many folks with guns from as many countries all there with us when the shooting starts it's not always easy Alliance maintenance coalition maintenance is a time-consuming sometimes painful task but Winston Churchill was right when he said that the only thing worse than fighting with allies is fighting without them John mattis was a student history and I think one of the takeaways he has from the study of history is that the end of day leadership is about character and gentleman mattis embodied those characteristics of great leaders throughout history James Madison and devoted to his Marines he embodies simplify he displays the austere demeanor and stoic virtues of Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius who said waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be be one [Music] in 76 years of being a marine I have never found one person to say to me gee I wish I hadn't been a Marine they're all proud of it they're brothers they believe in something something very special it's right at the heart of his country [Music] you [Music]

Channel: The OSS Society

Views: 325,600

Keywords: mattis, jimmattis, genmattis, umsc, marines, callsignchaos

Id: KzvYCIUhAt0

Length: 11min 48sec (708 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 17 2019