U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis is seen at the Pentagon in Arlington, VA Thomson Reuters

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis enjoys talking to the news media, he just doesn't like being quoted.

The retired Marine general and legendary battlefield commander is known to be a fearless and intrepid leader, and unlike his boss, the commander in chief, he does not consider the press the enemy.

But while Mattis may be a rock-star in the Trump administration, he is a comparative shrinking violet when it comes to dealing with the reporters who cover him regularly.

"He sees no value in having his name in the paper," said one official, who like Mattis preferred not to be quoted by name.

"He's been known to say, 'I'm the kinda guy who likes to climb the Matterhorn at night,' " the official said.

Since being sworn in as defense secretary on Jan. 20, President Trump' first day in office, Mattis has held only one formal news conference in the Pentagon briefing room.

And while he has allowed a full complement of defense reporters to accompany him on overseas trips, he has adopted a policy on his plane of taking only one question from the traveling press on the record, and talking the rest of the time off the record, which under journalism convention means not for reporting in any form.

"It was a battle to get him to do that," said one aide. "He wanted to do everything off the record."

The problem with that, it was explained to Mattis, is that reporters traveling with the defense secretary need to have something to report.

Mattis does do joint press conferences with his foreign counterparts when he travels overseas, but these events are highly orchestrated, and usually allow for only two questions from the American press, with no chance for a follow-up.

That leaves reporters firing off multipart questions with numerous lines of inquiry, and leaves Mattis free to answer only the parts he wants.

Mattis' staff has had to push him to do open press events and recently began inviting a small pool to cover the short welcoming remarks he makes when hosting foreign defense ministers in his third floor Pentagon office.

Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis answers questions from the press during a flight to South Korea., Feb. 1, 2017. Sgt. Amber I. Smith/US Army

These events usually consist of friendly non-controversial remarks, and rarely make news, but Pentagon reporters have insisted they have a chance to ask a question before they are ushered out the door.

And occasionally Mattis will then acquiesce and give a short answer.

People who know him say the retired general, who is known for his quotable quips, enjoys the give-and-take with reporters, but his reticence about being the public face of the Pentagon goes back to his days as a military commander, when it was the role of generals to provide advice to their civilian overseers in private.

Unlike Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and national security adviser Lt. Gen H.R. McMaster, Mattis has yet to appear on any of the Sunday talk network talk shows, and sources say he's fine with that.

"If you want to get Mattis to speak in public, you're going to have to go through the White House," said one aide. "Because short of being ordered to do it, he's just not inclined."

And these days Mattis' stature is such that no one at the White House, except the president himself, is ordering him to do anything.