Mattis, James Norman (1950-…), served as secretary of the United States Department of Defense under President Donald J. Trump in 2017 and 2018. Mattis had previously spent more than 40 years in the U. S. Marine Corps , retiring with the rank of general in 2013.
Mattis was born in Pullman, in the northwestern state of Washington, on Sept. 8, 1950. He joined the Marine Corps in 1969 as part of a Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) program at Central Washington University . The ROTC trains students in schools, colleges, and universities to become officers in the United States armed services. Mattis graduated from Central Washington with a bachelor’s degree in history in 1971. He received his commission as a second lieutenant in the Marines in 1972. He later commanded a Marine recruiting station in Portland, Oregon.
As a lieutenant colonel, Mattis led an infantry battalion that helped liberate Kuwait from Iraq during the Persian Gulf War of 1991 . He was promoted to brigadier general in 1998. In 2001, he led an expeditionary brigade in Afghanistan at the start of the Afghanistan War . The brigade consisted of air, land, and sea forces. After a promotion to major general, Mattis led the 1st Marine Division into Iraq at the start of the Iraq War (2003-2011). In 2007, after a promotion to the rank of full general, Mattis led the Joint Forces Command, which coordinated training efforts among branches of the armed forces. In 2010, he became the head of the United States Central Command, which was responsible for U.S. military forces in the Middle East and south-central Asia. The command served as the military headquarters for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Mattis retired from the military in 2013.
A law passed in 1947 forbids former military officers from serving as defense secretary within seven years of leaving the armed forces. The law is designed to maintain civilian control over the armed forces. Consequently, Mattis needed Congress to pass special legislation, called a waiver, to exempt him from the 1947 law and enable him to serve as secretary of defense. Congress granted Mattis the waiver in early January 2017. Trump signed the waiver shortly after his inauguration on January 20.
In December 2018, Mattis announced that he was resigning as defense secretary. The announcement came after Trump had abruptly announced he was withdrawing all U.S. troops from Syria—where they had been combating the radical Islamic militant group Islamic State —and thousands of troops from Afghanistan. Mattis had strongly disagreed with Trump over the moves.
