Secretary of Defense James “Mad Dog” Mattis sure wasn’t pussyfooting around.

The secretary of defense channeled his gruff inner Marine with a few choice words to a group of sailors whom he thanked last week for sticking with the Navy.

“That means you’re not some p— sitting on the sidelines, you know what I mean, kind of sitting there saying, ‘Well, I should have done something with my life,’” Mattis told the crew of the submarine USS Kentucky on Aug. 9 at Naval Base Kitsap in Washington.

“Because of what you’re doing now, you’re not going to be laying on a shrink’s couch when you’re 45 years old, say, ‘What the hell did I do with my life?’ Why? Because you served others; you served something bigger than you,” according to the official Pentagon transcript.

It was unclear if there were any women among the group assembled from the Ohio-class ballistic missile sub.

The Navy has allowed women to serve on subs since 2010 – though a spokesman for Submarine Group 9 said the Kentucky does not currently have any female sailors assigned to it, Business Insider reported.

Mattis also said he wished he were young enough to go out to sea with the submariners, though he quipped, “I was in the Marines, and there’s a world of difference between a submariner and a Marine, you know what I mean?”

The retired four-star general is known for his salty language, which he also used while addressing his Marines once in western Iraq.

“The first time you blow someone away is not an insignificant event. That said, there are some a—-holes in the world that just need to be shot,” he said.