Honor, Courage, Commitment: An Evening with General Jim Mattis USMC (Ret.)

For over 20 years, Coloradans have been Honoring Marines by Educating Their Children. Come join us for a dinner and program with the 26th Secretary of Defense, General Jim Mattis USMC (Ret.). The Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation is proud to have served as a source of consistency and comfort for Marine families since 1962 and with your support, will continue to do so.

Secretary Mattis was raised in southeastern Washington and enlisted in the Marine Corps Platoon Leader’s Course in 1969 while attending Central Washington State College. He earned a bachelor’s degree in 1971 and was commissioned as a second lieutenant.

During his more than four decades in uniform, he commanded Marines at all levels, from a 40-man infantry platoon to a 42,000-man Marine Expeditionary Force. He led an infantry battalion in the liberation of Kuwait; a naval task force in Afghanistan after the 9/11 terrorist attack in 2001; 1st Marine Division in the initial attack and the following stability operations in Iraq in 2003 and 2004; and subsequently led all U.S. Marine Forces in the Middle East as Commander of I Marine Expeditionary Force and Marine Forces Central Command.

During his non-combat assignments, he served on recruiting duty; as the Battalion Officer at the Naval Academy Preparatory School; Executive Secretary to the Secretary of Defense; Director of Marine Corps Manpower Plans & Policy; Senior Military Assistant to the Deputy Secretary of Defense; and Commanding General of the Marine Corps Combat Development Command.

In joint assignments he commanded U.S. Joint Forces Command; NATO’s Supreme Allied Command for Transformation; and U.S. Central Command. At U.S. Central Command he directed military operations of more than 250,000 soldiers, sailors, airmen, Coast Guardsmen, Marines, and allied forces in combat across the Middle East.

He served as the 26th Secretary of Defense from January 2017 through December 2018. His eligibility for this position was contingent upon a congressional waiver, as amendments to the National Security Act prohibited active duty commissioned officers from serving as defense secretary for a period of seven years after service. The only previous waiver granted was for the appointment of George C. Marshall in 1950.

Currently he is the Davies Family Distinguished Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University where he lectures and writes on domestic and international security policy. He is the author of Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead, an exploration of his career and vision of leadership, and the co-author of Warriors and Citizens: American Views of our Military, a collection of writings on the state of civil-military relations in the United States.

General Mattis is also a member of the Board of Directors of General Dynamics and the Board of the Tri-Cities Food Bank in his hometown of Richland, Washington.