Major General Bill Mullen
Marine Corps Training & Education Command
William F. Mullen III holds a BA and MA in Political Science from Marquette University, as well as an MA in National Security and Strategic Studies from the Naval War College. He is a graduate of the Airborne, Ranger, Summer Mountain Leader and Royal Marine Arctic Warfare Survival courses. He was commissioned into the Marine Corps through the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps program at Marquette.
He served as a platoon commander and training officer in Hawaii, then transferred to the Marine Corps Security Force Battalion at Mare Island, California, taking on additional duties.
He was deployed for Operation Desert Shield and was also involved in counter-narcotics missions with Joint Task Force 6. He attended an Advanced Artillery Officer Course at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, before serving as a company commander. He took part in Operation Sea Signal, the military’s humanitarian mission to the Caribbean. He later led a counter-narcotics mission in the Los Padres National Forest in California.
He served as the Marine aide to President Bill Clinton for a year, then attended the School of Advanced Warfighting. He deployed to Fallujah, Iraq, holding several commands. He co-authored a book on his experiences in Iraq and the struggles with al Qaeda. He would later be assigned as the Commanding General, Education Command, and President of Marine Corps University. In 2018, Major General Mullen assumed command of the Marine Corps Training and Education Command.
In the News…
Marine Corps recruits are being met with olive green face masks to help keep them from contracting the coronavirus, but quarantines, social distancing, and limited housing have reduced throughput.
“We know we will be short,” said Marine Corps Major General Bill Mullen, the commanding general of training and education, at a Pentagon press briefing.
Mullen said that mandatory two-week quarantines at home before they arrive, followed by an additional 14-day restriction of movement upon arrival, COVID-19 testing, social distancing, and mask wearing have all helped to limit the spread of the virus at Marine Corps training facilities in San Diego and Parris Island.
“So far, it’s been working because for the recruits that are showing up, we’re having very, very few test positive,” he said, with fewer than 500 cases in more than 30,000 Marines who have trained this year. “Of those cases, the majority had no symptoms whatsoever,” Mullen added.
No training standards or requirements have been reduced, and recruits must still take and pass the physical fitness tests.
