Former Defense Secretary James Mattis said that an enterprising young marine once hacked Mattis’s computer to impress a girl.
Mattis, a retired Marine general, told the story in a speech to Washington state’s Tri-City Regional Chamber of Commerce, according to the Tri-City Herald. Mattis is originally from nearby Richland.
Mattis’s speech focused on the leadership and the traits he attempted to cultivate in the servicemen under him. He used the story of one young private to show the initiative and aggressiveness it takes to be a Marine.
When Mattis was a two-star general, the Marine hacked into Mattis’s email account and sent a message to a girl pretending to be Mattis.
“By the way, Private First Class so-and-so is the greatest Marine in the entire division,” the Marine’s message said, trying to impress the girl he liked.
“Great initiative, not the best judgment. A private first class does not want to see a two-star general,” Mattis told the crowd. “He was young enough to make a mistake like that, which would have been an ethical mistake up above. … He got punished by being assigned to my personal staff.”
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