{"id":40197,"date":"2017-07-19T19:06:05","date_gmt":"2017-07-19T19:06:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2017\/07\/19\/high-school-journalist-calls-mattis-chaos-actual-calls-back\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T07:26:02","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T07:26:02","slug":"high-school-journalist-calls-mattis-chaos-actual-calls-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/your-navy\/2017\/07\/19\/high-school-journalist-calls-mattis-chaos-actual-calls-back\/","title":{"rendered":"High school journalist calls Mattis, Chaos Actual calls back"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It pays to be from Defense Secretary Jim Mattis’ home state, at least that seems to be at least one of the lessons for a\u00a0student from Washington’s Mercer Island High School.In May, the world saw Mattis’ private cellphone number in a Washington Post photo that inadvertently showed President Trump’s bodyguard carrying a stack of papers with the number clearly visible on a sticky note. Eagle-eyed sophomore Teddy Fischer saw the photo and called the number, according to BuzzFeed News<\/a>. He didn’t leave a message, but decided to text Mattis instead:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The text mentioning Fischer was from a high school in Washington state worked. Mattis grew up in\u00a0Richland, Washington, and is a Central Washington University graduate. After some back and forth to schedule a time to conduct an interview, the two eventually connected on Memorial Day.\u00a0The interview\u00a0\u2014\u00a0originally set for 15 minutes or so, but ran about 45 minutes\u00a0\u2014\u00a0was heavy on foreign policy and national politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the interview, Fischer asked the obvious question about why would Mattis call him back out of all of the media requests he must get. Mattis’ reply: “You left a message there and I was going through listening to the messages and deleting them. But you\u2019re from Washington state. I grew up in Washington state on the other side of the mountains there on the Columbia River. I just thought I\u2019d give you a call.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fischer’s story about how he landed an interview with the normally press-shy retired 4-star Marine Corps general\u00a0\u2014\u00a0who is affectionately known in military circles as “Mad Dog Mattis,” “the Warrior Monk,” and “Chaos” \u00a0\u2014 garnered the attention of national outlets like the Washington Post<\/a>and NPR<\/a>, and the\u00a0Seattle-area media like King 5 News<\/a>and the Seattle Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n