A Tribute to MajGen Bill Mullen, USMC (Ret)
2024 IDB Executive Fellow
Submitted by Mark Susnis
Do you know why the Ukraine and Russia are fighting? Major General Bill Mullen, USMC (retired) posed this question to the 23 leaders in the audience for the May 2024 Institute for Defense and Business LOGTECH Advanced program. Our LOGTECH Advanced program had the honor of hosting MajGen Mullen in what would be his first and only time in his capacity of an IDB Executive Fellow from the Class of 2024. When I learned that MajGen Mullen had recently advised the Ukrainian General Staff I asked him if he would be willing to dedicate an evening session in the LOGTECH program by sharing his personal observations of the Russo-Ukraine War. His answer was a resounding yes and he proceeded to ask me what I knew about the Winter War between the Soviet Union and Russia. He then proudly showed me a graphical map by French engineer Charles Minard that depicted Napolean’s disastrous invasion of Russia. I knew right there our participants would be in for what turned out to be a very special session in the LOGTECH program.
MajGen Mullen had spent the previous week in the capital city of Kyiv advising the Ukrainian Armed Forces general staff. I knew he was fatigued from his overseas travel but he enthusiastically spent over two hours sharing the historical context of the Russo-Ukraine War and discussing the massive logistics challenge facing the Ukrainian Armed Forces, and the innovation that is taking place on the battlefield. We could have easily spent another hour in the classroom listening to MajGen Mullen’s observations and I made the decision to continue the discussion upstairs in the lounge. Half of the cohort headed upstairs and joined MajGen Mullen where he graciously continued his dialogue well past 9:30 pm.
On Friday morning MajGen Mullen joined IDB President LtGen Mark Faulkner, USMC (retired) to receive the small group report outs from the 23 leaders in cohort. The participants demonstrated their learning journey throughout the week on topics ranging from contested logistics, data fluency, risk management, and Artificial Intelligence. In his capacity as an IDB Executive Fellow, MajGen Mullen provided coaching and recommendations to the group of leaders as they demonstrated the application of the new perspectives and approaches, they took away from the one-week LOGTECH program.
What I remember most about MajGen Mullen and short time we worked together was his passion for learning and reading and the impact he had on the program participants. He shared his personal reading list of over 3,400 books with topics ranging from Abraham Lincoln to the Zulu War and organized by author and his personal rating along with two articles that he authored titled “Advanced Reading Skills” and “A Warrior’s Mind”. I think MajGen Mullen would want all of us to pick up a book and be a lifelong learner.