In James Mattis, President Donald Trump would get a defense secretary beloved by his troops and respected by his peers, a man as comfortable with books as he is with bombs, and most important, a man who would not hesitate telling the president the truth.

Those are the opinions of Tampa-area men who served under Mattis, 66, a retired Marine general and former commander of U.S. Central Command who interviewed with Trump during the weekend for the top job in the Department of Defense. Mattis, who declined to comment for this story, was widely popular during his time in Tampa, where he was stationed at MacDill Air Force Base from 2010 until he retired in 2013, soon after speaking his mind to President Barack Obama about Iran.

"Jim Mattis is a plain-spoken, up-front guy who would never tell his boss what he wanted to hear, but rather will give him the unvarnished truth," said Mike Jones of Tampa, a retired Army major general who was Mattis' chief of staff at CentCom from 2010 to 2011.

"He truly is a warrior monk, smart and well-read," said Mark Clark of Apollo Beach, a retired Marine major general and former head of Marine Special Operations Command, who served under Mattis in Afghanistan. "He is no-nonsense, common sense, cuts through the crap and does the right thing."

Mattis "was a tremendous leader who cared about his people," said T.G. Taylor of Tampa, a retired Army lieutenant colonel who served as Mattis' press officer from 2011 to 2013. "He was open and honest with the press, and sometimes that may have gotten him in a little trouble inside the Beltway."

All three see Mattis as an excellent choice to run the Pentagon.

Still, for that to happen, Mattis would need not only confirmation by the Senate Armed Services Committee but a waiver from Congress, because law requires any nominee from the military to be retired for seven years. The last defense secretary granted such a waiver was George C. Marshall, a retired five-star general who took the job in 1950 at the behest of President Harry Truman.

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He is known by various nicknames. Mad Dog. Chaos. The Warrior Monk.

Jim Mattis spent 43 years in a Marine uniform, the last several as a four-star commander. He started as a rifle platoon leader and ended up commanding U.S. forces in the Middle East during a tumultuous two years.

The Arab Spring uprisings across the Middle East, which brought down leaders in Egypt and Yemen, began to spread in 2010. The Syrian civil war began as a series of peaceful protests in March 2011 and quickly devolved into civil war. The United States withdrew forces from Iraq in 2011, and by the time Mattis retired, it was beginning the drawdown in Afghanistan. All happened while Iran remained a dangerous influence in the 20-nation CentCom region that also includes nuclear-armed Pakistan and the Gulf States.

As the U.S. military's point man in this volatile region, Mattis had as his biggest challenge "keeping things in balance," said Jones, the retired Army major general, who credits his boss' success to three main factors.

"He is one of those guys who is a strategic thinker," Jones said. "At the same time, he never lost touch with the young Marines, soldiers, sailors or airmen out there."

The second factor, said Jones, is that Mattis is a "deep thinker. He could just as easily give you an example from the Peloponnesian War to make a point that the challenges we faced were not all that new in terms of human experience."

Third, Mattis is "crystal clear" in his directions to his subordinates and does not mince words with his bosses.

"I would tell guys that if you left his office and did not know exactly what he wanted, then you weren't listening," Jones said. When it came to his bosses, "Mattis was not interested in telling folks what they wanted to hear, but to give his best military advice, which is what he did every time I was around him."

Clark, the retired Marine, was a lieutenant colonel in charge of a commando task force at the beginning of the war in Afghanistan when Mattis appeared as one of the first senior leaders on the scene. He saw first-hand Mattis' operational skills on the battlefield.

"What really spoke to his leadership was fighting this new kind of war, and he was put in charge of a task force that had a lot of different parts thrown together without a lot of time to train," Clark said.

There were different nations. Conventional troops and commandos. But Mattis "built them into a cohesive unit," Clark said. "He brought everyone together and made them feel like a team."

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Over the years, Mattis burnished his reputation as a "Marine's Marine" with blunt quotes like this one: "Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet."

But that kind of direct talk to his superiors while he served as CentCom commander ruffled feathers in Washington, said Taylor, Mattis' former spokesman.

"Mattis was vocal about the malign influence of Iran in the region," Taylor said. "That was not a very popular thing to talk about" while the Obama administration was trying to iron out a nuclear weapons deal with Iran.

"There was a ton of pushback" from the White House, which Taylor said frequently expressed its displeasure. The tensions were so high that the command often "went dark" said Taylor, declining to speak with the media.

When things get tough, Taylor said, his old boss is the guy you want as defense secretary.

"If you are looking for a secretary of defense who is a war fighter, you couldn't pick a better person," said Taylor. "Because he understands war fighting."

Marine Gunnery Sgt. Peter Nolan knows well the affinity Mattis has for his troops. In 2003, as part of the Iraq invasion force under Mattis, Nolan received a battlefield promotion from lance corporal to corporal, approved by Mattis. Years later, at a CentCom function, Nolan approached Mattis and mentioned that he knew the signature on his promotion wasn't really from Mattis. The following Monday, Mattis called Nolan into his office and signed his promotion, adding a short note.

"I thought it was pretty cool that after celebrating with his Marines, he remembered our conversation and sought me out," said Nolan, now serving with the 4th Assault Amphibious Battalion, stationed off Gandy Boulevard.

U.S. Rep. Gus Bilirakis, the Palm Harbor Republican, said he would support granting Mattis the required retirement time-limit waiver to be defense secretary.

"As our nation faces threats of terrorism, cyberattacks and more, the next secretary of defense will have a pivotal role in shaping a safer world," Bilirakis said in a statement to the Tampa Bay Times.

"We need a focused leader who will keep Americans safe and strengthen ties with our allies abroad. Gen. Mattis undoubtedly fits that bill."

Contact Howard Altman at haltman@tampabay.com or (813) 225-3112. Follow @haltman.