Jim Mattis

This book should be required reading for any persons in a leadership position or going to be in one. Hell, everyone should just read this book. With 40 years in the Marine Corps, Mattis's military experience, razor sharp well read mind, & frankness, General Mattis is a force to be reckoned with. His strategies, instincts, & honing skills from other leaders (such as Napoleon, Grant, & other military stand outs) and implementing his skills into the Marine Corp he was leading garnered respect from the troops, other military leaders, allies, & foes alike. Methodical thinking combined with sharp instincts led to some of the greatest events in wars between the 1990's and now. From his start in the Marine Corps, rising through ranks, head of CENTCOM, & Secretary of Defense, Mattis was a force to be reckoned with. Not always seeing eye to eye with politicians he as stopped at a lot of turns trying to win wars. But alas, wars aren't won on the battlefield anymore when you have politicians with no military experience in Washington overriding military commander's decisions. Chock full of information and an appendix with letters to troops, reading lists, & wartime information this is a must read.… (mais)

The unusually antiquated and quaint presentation of Call Sign Chaos should not put you off from reading this book. At first even I feared that I had picked up another old washed out soldier memoir full of malcontented ramblings.

How mistaken I was. From the first page Mattis' chutzpah infected me. He might be the most relatable and also the most quotable Marine Commander so far in human history. An unflinching warrior who stormed the Middle East with his Marines in tow during Desert Storm as well as Enduring Freedom he is a concise soldier-scholar whose vision (if allowed proper breathing space) would have ended the War on Terror more successfully than the Democrat's lamed retreat from Afghanistan signals.

A leadership bible (augmented by his emphasis on reading, reading and more reading), this is one of those few autobiographies which will be read well into the future by statesmen and warriors alike. Mattis has earned his place alongside Sun Tzu as one of humanity's finest tacticians.… (mais)