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Retired Marine Gen. James Mattis makes his case to lawmakers Thursday for why he should be confirmed as the nation’s first Defense Department secretary who has served as a war-time commander.

The Senate will consider Mattis’s qualifications to lead the department and whether to give the general a waiver to allow him to serve despite not being out of uniform for seven years, as required in the 1947 law that created the civilian-led department.

It will not be an easy sell, even for the renowned commander who wore the uniform for four decades. New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand has said she will not vote for waiver.

And on Wednesday, Outgoing Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus told reporters that while he respected Mattis, he had concerns about putting a recently retired general in charge of the Pentagon, according a Navy Times report.

“I have worked closely with Jim Mattis over almost the whole time I was [Secretary] and I have an enormous amount of respect for him,” Mabus said. “I do have concerns over [his nomination]. I think civilian control of the military is one of the bedrocks of our democracy and there was a reason that was put in. I think they are right to raise that again, and that’s saying nothing about Jim Mattis.”

Mattis, 66, who last served as the head of U.S. Central Command and was known by the callsign “Chaos,” retired from the military in 2013. His reputation for tough talk earned him the nickname, “Mad Dog,” often used by President-elect Trump. Mattis is one of the most revered generals in decades, despite being pushed out of his last job by President Obama.

He is both cerebral and decisive. His home library includes 10,000 books, nearly each of which he has read and yet his is known in the military for his personally penned aphorisms, such as: “The most important six inches on the battlefield is between your ears.” He has called Russia and Iran the top threats but, in wartime, he has been cautious about the use of military force during his tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Mattis will also have to answer questions about how he plans to deal with threats as varied as the self-proclaimed Islamic State, North Korea, Russia and China. He also will likely to be asked how he views some of the top issues within the department now, including women joining combat units, whether he supports President-elect Trump’s call to expand the size of the ground forces and the U.S. cyberwar.

Even as he is beloved within the military and on Capitol Hill, his career has not been without controversy. A 2008 Pentagon Inspector General report singled outMattis, then commander of Marine Corps Combat Development Command, for not recognizing the urgency in getting vehicles with V-shaped hulls that deflect bombs, known as MRAPs, to US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan fast enough. MRAPs were credited with saving hundreds of lives.

When Marines, angry about an attack that killed a popular Marine, stormed into five homes and killed 24 unarmed Iraqi civilians in the homes in the city of Haditha, including women and children, Mattis, then head of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Pendleton, Calif., dismissed much of what happened as the cost of war.

If confirmed by the Senate, Mattis would become the nation’s 26th Defense chief in the department’s 69-year history.

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