This viral email from General James 'Mad Dog' Mattis about being 'too busy to read' is a must-read
Just before Marine Gen. James 'Mad Dog' Mattis was getting ready to deploy with the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force to Iraq in early 2004, one of his colleagues asked him about the importance of reading for military officers who sometimes find themselves "too busy to read."
The legendary general sometimes referred to as "The Warrior Monk" carted around his personal library of 6,000 books with him everywhere, and he had plenty to say on the topic. His response went viral over email, in the days before Facebook and Twitter.
Military historian Jill R. Russell unearthed the email and posted it to the blog "Strife" by King's College, London in 2013. With Mattis in the running as a possible choice for President-elect Donald Trump's Defense Secretary, it's worth re-reading again, as it offers keen insight into the mind of Mattis.
Here's what he wrote, on Nov. 20, 2003: