I had heard about Col Mike Marletto while I was deployed to Iraq in 2004 as part of the Division Staff of the 1st Marine Division led by MajGen James Mattis; everyone who spoke of Col Marletto spoke of him with great respect. I finally met Mike when he sent an email to ALL MARINE RADIO in 2017 introducing himself and telling me what a fan he was of the idea and wishing me all the success in the world. Today you’ll get a chance to meet Mike and hear him in his own words. Some things you’ll hear in this interview:
- Mike was in Beirut, living in the building that was destroyed by a suicide bomber on October 23, 2019; he happened to spend the only night he spent away from the barracks on October 22 and thus was not killed in that incident. You’ll hear him recount that story.
- Mike was the Commanding Officer of the 11th Marine Regiment (the 1st Marine Division’s artillery regiment) during “The March Up” from Kuwait to Baghdad, as such he was the senior fire support planner for MajGen Mattis. You’ll hear him recount the challenges of that phase of the war and what he learned as a result of that experience.
- Mike has strong thoughts about what all leaders ought to know about the use of supporting arms in a peer-to-peer war, we’ll talk about those.
This is a great interview with a professional Marine leader who touched the lives of those he led and continues to do so to this day — I know this because I hear from them.
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