In Farewell, Milley Calls for Loyalty to Constitution, Not ‘Fealty to Any Person’

Departing Pentagon Chief retires after four often-rocky years of entanglements with former President Trump and heated criticism from House conservatives.

U.S Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen. Mark Milley delivers a speech during a ceremony to mark the 79th anniversary of the assault that led to the liberation of France and Western Europe from Nazi control, at the American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, Normandy, France, on June 6, 2023. Thomas Padilla/AP Photo

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin was the commanding officer of the 10th Mountain Division in Iraq in 2004 when he joined one of his brigade commanders on a late-night run to visit a recently wounded soldier in a hospital.

“So we took Route Irish in Baghdad, which was known as the most dangerous road in the world, and we promptly got hit by an IED,” he recalled, describing how they narrowly avoided death or traumatic injury in an explosion that shredded their Humvee.