A retired Marine general found dead on the Twentynine Palms training center died of a pulmonary embolism hours before he was set to leave the base, a coroner found.
Maj. Gen. William F. Mullen, 59, was found by base authorities June 29 in guest housing at Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms in San Bernardino County, California. The county’s coroner released its report on his death Thursday.
“Major General Mullen’s dedicated service to our nation and the Marine Corps will always be remembered. Our thoughts and prayers are with his loved ones,” said Major General Thomas Savage, the Commanding General of the Marine Air Ground Task Force Training Command in a statement released soon after Mullen’s death.
Military.com was the first to report Mullen’s autopsy results.
Mullen graduated from the Army’s Airborne and Ranger schools, the Marine’s Summer Mountain Leader course, and the Royal Marine Arctic Warfare Survival courses.
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As a combat leader, he led a battalion in Fallujah, Iraq, from 2005 to 2007. He led a counter-drug operation in Los Padres National Forest in California and served as a Marine Aide to President Bill Clinton.
Mullen was commissioned in 1986 from Marquette University and served initially as rifle platoon commander. During Operation Desert Shield, he worked in counter-terror and counter-narcotics positions. Mullen later deployed with the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit as the small boat raid and cliff assault company commander in the former Yugoslavia.
He retired in 2020 and lived in Arvada, Colorado, where he became a board member of the University of Colorado’s leadership center.
As a general, Mullen was photographed taking the Marine Corps Combat Fitness Test as a one-star general, including a fireman carry during the movement under fire portion in 2016.
In retirement, Mullen was an avid advocate of supporting Ukraine, visiting the country to advise on the training of its military early into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He dedicated 34 years to serving the U.S., with his last role as the Commanding General of the Marine’s Training and Education Command, which oversees the service’s professional curriculums and training centers.