Biography of Lloyd Austin: Lloyd Austin is the secretary of defense for the United States. He was born in Mobile, Alabama, on August 8, 1953. He took up this role in January 2021, just two days before the inauguration of President Joe Biden. 

Austin headed U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), was the director of the Joint Staff, and supervised U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq all through his 41-year career in the U.S. Army. The first African American to hold the position of defense secretary is him.

Early Life

Austin’s mother was a housewife, and his father worked for the postal service. When Austin was in the third grade, the family relocated to Thomasville, Georgia. When his Georgian primary school was segregated, the district had been integrated by the time he graduated from Thomasville High School in 1971.

 Lloyd Austin notified the local newspaper that he had joined the United States Military Academy at West Point two years after graduation from high school to make his mother proud. 

Upon his graduation in 1975 as a second lieutenant in the infantry, he continued to advance through the ranks, ultimately holding leadership of soldiers at the battalion, brigade, division, and corps levels. 

Career

He commanded the 10th Mountain Division in Afghanistan after serving as a co-leader of the army’s 3rd Infantry Division during the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

In 2008, Lloyd Austin returned to Iraq. Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Pres. Barack Obama, then stated he was floored the first time he met with Austin; Austin showed him what the American military was doing on every piece of disputed territory throughout Iraq.

 “I hadn’t run into anybody who had the in-depth knowledge of the ground war that he had,” Mullen told The New York Times in 2020.

In 2009, Austin was appointed director of the Joint Staff, a group of senior officers that support the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The Times characterized Austin’s role as director of the Joint Staff as “one of the most powerful inside positions in the military.”

He became the commanding general of US and coalition troops in Iraq the following year. His relationship with Biden started at this time. Austin, a devoted Roman Catholic, regularly sat next to Beau Biden, the son of Joe Biden, at mass while Beau was in Iraq. 

When American soldiers left Iraq in 2011, Austin stayed in command of those forces.

Obama selected Austin as the head of CENTCOM in 2013. During a period of unrest in the military’s senior leadership, which included the resignations of generals John Allen, David Petraeus, and James Mattis, this occurred.

 Lloyd Austin was in charge of all military operations in Afghanistan and the Middle East in that role. In the spring of 2016, he declared his retirement from the armed forces while accepting posts on the director boards of Tenet Healthcare, Raytheon, and Nucor.

In December 2020, Biden announced that he planned to name Austin as his defense secretary. In January 2021, the Senate confirmed Austin’s appointment. Directing the American military’s withdrawal from Afghanistan was one of Austin’s first duties as a cabinet member. 

The process ended on August 30, the year that the last American service member left. The invasion of Ukraine by Russia and Israel’s fight with Hamas are the two other international wars that shaped Austin’s time as defense secretary.

Lloyd Austin has a track record of using blunt language when talking about Russia. In the spring of 2022, he informed reporters that he wanted to see Russia “weakened to the degree that it can’t do the kinds of things it has done in attacking Ukraine.” 

He has backed American aid to Ukraine in the form of cash and weapons, and while he was in charge, American intelligence helped the Ukrainians kill about 12 Russian generals by May 2022. 

At the same time, the Pentagon, led by Austin, blocked the Biden administration from providing intelligence for an investigation into Russian war crimes by the International Criminal Court. According to reports, Austin has contended that the court’s inquiry would create a precedent that would allow Americans to be punished.

Austin has also played an essential role in the Biden administration’s backing of Israel throughout the country’s armed action against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. 

Six days after the roughly 1,140-person Hamas attack on October 13, 2023, Austin traveled to Israel and stated that American support for the nation was “ironclad.” The Biden administration approved the sale of weapons to Israel in December by avoiding Congress.

On getting the news of prostate cancer in December 2023, Austin had a prostatectomy—the surgical removal of any or all of the prostate gland—at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, on December 22. 

Austin was readmitted to Walter Reed after suffering issues, and on January 2, 2024, he was placed in intensive care. Though she was appointed interim secretary of defense, Austin’s deputy Kathleen Hicks was unaware of his hospitalization until a few days later. 

The Pentagon comes under intense scrutiny for its lack of openness in not alerting Biden or other government officials of Austin’s illness.