Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin departs Pentagon for the last time as leader

(17 Jan 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
 
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Washington – 17 January 2025
1. US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin being cheered by Pentagon employees
2. US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin departs Pentagon for the last time as secretary, shakes hands and drives off
STORYLINE:
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is bidding farewell to the forces and personnel he's led through a tumultuous term.
 
In a ceremony Friday tinged with emotion, Austin heralded his troops as the “most lethal fighting force on Earth.”
 
The nation’s first Black defense secretary spent 41 years in a military uniform and retired as a highly decorated four-star general.
 
Austin is among many Pentagon leaders who have served in combat and has “dust on his boots” — something President-elect Donald Trump’s choice for defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has falsely claimed is his distinction and why he's needed to restore a military hollowed out by “woke” diversity initiatives. 

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