Interviewing Brother General Jeff Marshall - Director of Analysis & Assessment for US-European Command
by Claudiu Ionescu
General Jeff Marshall, I know you are a Freemason and you are very transparent into this matter. In Romania, we have a lot of politicians, a lot of front people who belong to Freemasonry, but some of them hide this. I like to import this kind of mentality... So what can you tell us about this? First of all, I’d suggest that in America today, it’s probably closer to what you’re finding in Romania than you might think. Twenty-thirty-forty years ago you were probably absolutely right. At one point in time, the president of the United States of America, Harry Truman, was a Freemason. But today you don’t necessarily find that. The American Freemasonry is suffering from an identity crisis? Freemasonry, at least in the United States, and I suspect globally, is suffering from a bit of an identity crisis. Freemasonry right now, especially in the United States, is kind of looked at as a misogynist and a racist organization, because it’s mainly white males and that’s not representative of American society. The Constitution of the United States has been amended over time to enfranchise the entire American populous. Freemasonry has not kept up with that. Freemasonry is resting on its laurels right now, I think. Freemasonry transformed society in a major way in the eighteenth century. It transformed from a society that really did not condone free thought – to one that does. And it has just since then pretty much rested on its laurels and has not transformed as society has transformed. American society transformed tremendously. After the American Civil War, we gave black Americans the right to vote; we did not include that in mainstream Freemasonry. In the 1920s, we gave women the right to vote; we did not include that in mainstream Freemasonry. After the changes of the 1960s, American culture started changing quite a bit. Freemasonry has not kept up with those changes and, therefore, it is behind the times in American society. And therefore you do not find a lot of key leaders, like we had with many of our presidents. Freemasonry can play a tremendous role in society, because the message of Freemasonry is still highly relevant and possibly even as relevant today as it was in the 1700s. But in order to do that, Freemasonry has to understand it has to have the face of global society, and not the face of eighteenth century society. Do you think that nowadays the people – the world needs Freemasonry like in the past? I don’t think people per se have changed individually. I firmly believe Freemasonry is about how you develop a state of higher consciousness. In the Preston Web Fellowcraft Degree, there is a passage that the Master of the Lodge gives to the newly passed Fellowcraft: Symbols and tools of architecture and symbolic emblems most expressive have been selected by the Fraternity to imprint upon the mind certain wise and serious truths and thus through a succession of ages have passed unimpaired the most excellent tenets of our profession. The essential message of Freemasonry, I think, is probably more important today even than it was in the eighteenth century. As military, what’s your point of view regarding the relationship between Romania and the United States? I can only give you my personal view, as an individual, I cannot speak for my government, I can’t speak for the American military, but I can speak for Jeff Marshall. I think there are very healthy relations right now, I can tell you that when I was over in Afghanistan in 2002 and 2003 Romania was with us. Since that time, the relation I think has continued to grow and continued to strengthen, as a matter of fact we have some facilities in Romania. Romania continues to be with us in Afghanistan, to support ISSF – the International Security and Stabilization Force – very strong partners and I am proud to serve with Romanians. I look back with very strong fondness – my relationship with the Romanians that I worked with in Afghanistan – I think it’s a great relationship. Thank you. May I ask you for a Curriculum Vitae? I was born in 1959, when my father was in the Marine Corp. I kind of grew up expecting to go into the military. I grew up actually wanting to go into the naval academy and into the Marine Corp, like my dad. Things worked out that I wound up going to West Point and in the Army. I served five years on active duty in the Army and then I got off active duty and went into our National Guard. But our Guard and Reserve forces are structured very differently than the European reserve forces. For example, I’ve been mobilized twice since 9/11, I commanded a brigade in Bosnia during the stabilization force over there. Two of my sons are also in the National Guard, one’s been mobilized four times, both of them have been in Afghanistan and Iraq twice. In 1994, I kind of went through a bit of a personal change – epiphany if you may, and I felt the need to become a Freemason, and was initiated, passed, and raised ’94 to ’95. Also my father is freemason. I’ve come back on active duty as a result of 9/11 and I’m currently the director of Analysis & Assessment for US-European Command. I am married, I have four children. How is your life here, in Europe? I think the pace of life here in Europe is slower than in the United States. In the United States, we expect – I don’t want to say instant gratification, but we have a higher set of expectations about speed of delivery of services and things like that. Over here in Europe, I think they tend to take a more moderate pace to things. They tend to spend a little more time just enjoying life and I suspect we in the United States could learn a lot about that aspect of European society.
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