Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told NBC News that women and racial diversity are vital to the strength of U.S. armed forces.
Said Austin: “I have spent 41 years in uniform, three long tours in Iraq, one in Afghanistan, and everywhere I went on a battlefield, there were women in our formation. I would tell you that, you know, our women are the finest troops in the world.
Quite frankly, some of the finest in the world.”He added: “They do impact readiness. They make us better. They make us stronger. And again, what I’ve seen from our women is quite incredible, and I’m not — this is not hyperbole. This is fact.”