Call Sign Chaos

I think this book diverged enough outside from the trite military memoir that doesn’t really say anything “new” for it to be worth the time investment. Mattis is one of the figures in the last two decades of military history I am most interested in one a personality level, given his directness, how he has challenged some of the ill-fated decisions made during the post 9/11 period, and how closely he has operated with troops.

He is also perhaps the biggest reader, or at least is publicized as such, in the US military, which is highly apparently in his writing, as he cites a quite diverse array of concepts and historical figures each time he makes a decision. He is a precedent guy, and it’s clear how his significant bank of historical knowledge has allowed him to prevent himself and others from making mistakes that have been made before, even if it was thousands of years prior.