Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on the strength of a diverse military
CBSN
Earlier this month, Lloyd Austin, the nation's first African American secretary of defense, returned to West Point, the institution that forever changed his life. "When I first came to West Point," he told the corps of cadets, "I had never been north of Georgia."
He spoke to the nation's next generation of Army officers about what it means to lead in combat: "Artillery was exploding all around us. The troops in the TOC [Tactical Operations Center] were watching me intently, waiting to hear what I had to say. And at that moment, I realized that they would follow me through fire if they trusted that I knew the way forward."
When the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003, Austin was giving the orders for the lead Army division. "I was calling the shots in terms of where brigades were moving, and so I needed to be right up at the front of the formation," he said.
