Austin, The First Black Defense Secretary, Ends His Term Marred By Afghanistan But Buoyed By Ukraine

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will bid farewell Friday to the forces and personnel he has led through a tumultuous term that had three major military crises, a global pandemic and a personal brush with cancer that became a flashpoint for the way it was mishandled.

Austin, 71, spent 41 years of his life in a military uniform. He retired as a highly decorated four-star general who earned a Silver Star - an award given for gallantry in action - for leading troops from the front in the initial 2003 invasion of Iraq.

He is one of the 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 is needed to restore a military hollowed out by "woke" diversity initiatives.

"There have been a lot of narratives out there about how capable, how weak our military is," Austin said in an interview with The Associated Press. "You've just got to look at the things we have done, that we continue to do, at a moment's notice."

Austin retired from the Army in 2016 only to be asked to return to the Pentagon by President Joe Biden in 2021, making history as the nation's first Black defense secretary .