Posted on 09/08/2007 3:48:16 AM PDT by freema
NORTH COUNTY ---- Camp Pendleton's Lt. Gen. James Mattis will be nominated for the rank of general and appointed commander of a high-level military planning and strategy unit based in Virginia, the North County Times has learned.
Mattis, whose present job is commander of Marine Corps Forces Central Command and head of Camp Pendleton's I Marine Expeditionary Force, will become head of the Joint Forces Command and Supreme Allied Commander, Transformation.
Multiple sources within the military and in Washington, D.C., confirmed that Mattis, who has overseen Marine Corps forces in the Middle East for the last 15 months and is regarded as a "warrior monk" for his intellectual acumen and war-fighting skills, will be nominated for a fourth star by President Bush.
An announcement of the nomination is expected to come from the Defense Department within days. The move is subject to Senate confirmation.
[ from your NCTimes link -- rearranged a little ]:Would/Can Gen. Mattis retain authority over the Haditha/Hamdania/Fallujah cases? Should he? In my view, yes, but with the machinations taking place behind his back up the chain, I suspect this is a way to get him out of the way to clear the decks for Murtha's Morons to continue/complete their rail-road jobs.
In line to replace Mattis as head of the 25,000-member I Marine Expeditionary Force is Maj. Gen. Samuel Helland, former commander of the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing at Miramar Marine Corps Air Station. Major elements of the expeditionary force are scheduled to deploy to Iraq later this year.
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Helland, the man designated to replace Mattis as commander of the I Marine Expeditionary Force, began his military career in 1968, when he enlisted in the Army. He spent three years in the Army's Special Forces, later joining the Marine Corps and becoming a helicopter pilot in 1974.
In 2004, he assumed a command in Africa and became commander of the 3rd Marine Aircraft Winter in August 2005, a posting he recently left in preparation for his new job.
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The Joint Forces Command, based in Norfolk, Va., maps out battlefield strategies and plans war game exercises. Its Web site describes its job as being "the leader of change within our armed services, ensuring we fight smarter, with fewer resources and less risk."
John Pike, a military expert and founder of the Washington think tank GlobalSecurity.org, said the position Mattis is assuming is a high-visibility post. Pike said Mattis be working with NATO, an alliance of military powers in North America and Europe.
"They are positioning him to figure out how to fight the next war," Pike said Friday during a telephone interview. "This is where they do all the forward-looking thinking by taking lessons learned and how to apply them and figure out whether proposed solutions will work."
The agency conducted a large-scale war exercise in 2002, for example, that served as a practice run for the March 2003 invasion of Iraq, Pike said.
Michael O'Hanlon, a defense and foreign policy expert at Washington's Brookings Institution, said Mattis will be on the cutting edge of military planning.
"General Mattis is regarded as a thoughtful and very creative guy and a lot of the thinking about the nature of future war comes out of war colleges or the Joint Forces Command," said O'Hanlon, whose research organization analyzes government policy on everything from the military to education. "It's the Department of Defense's most important command for those purposes."
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It was not immediately clear how much longer Mattis will serve as the authority over the Haditha case and other cases involving allegedly unlawful slayings in Iraq and Afghanistan.
I note Maj. Gen. Helland started out in '68 -- I hazard a guess that he had some exposure to Viet Nam and the political debacle that caused us to withdraw. I suspect that experience will not endear him to the Murthas and Schumers or their ilk.
You have to wonder if Mattis’ “nomination” can go one way or the other depending on whether he is willing to sacrifice a couple of Marines to the altar of political correctness. As long as Mattis makes sure all the ‘i’s are dotted and ‘t’s crossed, he can withstand whatever mud the scumbag rats throw at him.
Well! It is refreshing to see Gen. Conway standing up.
Thanks for the ping.
I believe you're correct about Maj. Gen. Helland. I also believe many of us may be too quick to attribute Lt. Gen. Mattis' nomination to get him out of the Haditha cases.
I don't think vacancies arise in the higher ranks due to legal proceedings nor do I think murtha has the power to influence these type things, murtha's a loser and the military knows it.
Mattis still has plenty of time to make the recommendations for Lt. Col. Chessani, SSgt. Wuterich and LCpl. Tatum so his recommendations will say a lot.
Lt. Gen. Mattis deserves this promotion because he's done an excellent job and is a Marines Marine.
Mark Walker got picked up:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20653548
My knees are bloody at this altar.
My
Little
General
oooo!
Thank God, eh? But from the nature of the writing, I couldn’t tell if this was a recent remark or one made some time ago.
I don’t think murtha has enough pull either. But there are plenty of others who could do this. Who/why would witnesses be ‘re-deployed’?
I hear you on the witnesses being re-deployed, Ma, it’s not right, IMO.
However, these are hearings and their testimony has either been heard in other hearings or their depositions have been read by the IO’s.
If it comes to any court-martials, which I truly hope it won’t, these witnesses will be heard in person. The way I understand these hearings is that the rules of evidence and procedure don’t apply as they do in a court-martial.
Brigadier General = 1 star
Major General = 2
Lieutenant General = 3
and
GENERAL = 4
(General of the Army has five stars; but I wasn't gonna' forget that!
)
But I LIKE that movie, too!!!
It immediately made me think of her. I have all the Shirley Temple movies I’ve been able to get my hands on.
If we get to that, I hope you’re right, jaz. I can’t imagine just pulling personnel out of theatre.
When I read the headline to my Marine dh, his response was “That’s awesome! The man’s a WARRIOR!”
We couldn’t be happier for him. He’s one helluva Marine!
My favorite Mattis moments:
“For the missions sake, and the
sake of the men who carried the division’s colors in
past battles - who fought for life and never lost their
nerve - carry out your mission and keep your honor
clean. Demonstrate to the world there is ‘No Better
Friend, No Worse Enemy’ than a U.S. Marine.”
-Major General James N. Mattis
Commanding General, First Marine Division
“I’m not a great general. I was just up against other generals who don’t know shit.”
Major General James Mattis, 1st Marine Division, Iraq 2003
Because he was SET UP.
The News Media (NBC Afilliate, San Diego)pretended to leave, and left a live camera on.
Mattis thought he was only talking to Military Professionals
I apologize, radar. I was actually being a sarcastic biatch : )
Sorry, freema - I misposted that.
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