THOMASVILLE — As retired Gen. David Perkins acknowledged, you can learn a lot about somebody from serving in combat alongside them. 

Both Perkins and retired Maj. Gen. Will Grimsley found out plenty about President-elect Joe Biden’s nominee to lead the Department of Defense — and both men are effusive in their praise for Gen. (ret.) Lloyd Austin.

President-elect Biden announced Tuesday he has chosen Austin, a Thomasville native and Thomasville High School graduate, as his choice to be the next secretary of defense. 

“I know he will do an outstanding job,” President-elect Biden wrote of Gen. Austin in an op-ed piece published in The Atlantic. “In his more than 40 years in the United States Army, Austin met every challenge with extraordinary skill and profound personal decency. He is a true and tested soldier and leader. He is a true patriot.”

Perkins and Grimsley echoed the president-elect’s words and remarked on the kind of the selfless servant leader Austin was in uniform.

“He is a true patriot,” Perkins said. “I think we’re extremely lucky to have him and have him become secretary of defense.” 

Perkins was the commander of the 3rd Infantry Division’s 2nd Brigade during Operation Iraqi Freedom and the 2003 Iraq invasion, and Grimsley led the 1st Brigade. Austin, then a brigadier general, held the post of assistant division commander-maneuver, meaning he was in charge of the 20,000-man division’s combat forces. 

Perkins called Austin “an inspirational leader.” In fact, Perkins said, Austin had a sign on his headquarters — “Inspirational Leaders Required.”

Later, Perkins was the commanding general for the U.S. Army’s Training and Doctrine Command, called TRADOC, when Austin was serving as the Army’s vice chief of staff, its number two position. As TRADOC commander, Perkins oversaw such entities as the Army’s boot camps.

“When I was at TRADOC, he said, ‘what I need you to do is to not only motivate but to inspire,’” Perkins recalled. 

“There is not a more genuine, sincere and solid person I know than Gen. Lloyd Austin,” Grimsley said. “That comes through into how he leads.

“If you were looking for someone who is thoughtful and puts everyone before himself, he is the one.”

Austin, Perkins pointed out, is both thoughtful and thought-provoking.

In April 2003, Perkins was given the task of taking a force of fewer than 800 men into Baghdad, a city of millions of people and, at the time, with an unknown number of defenders. Perkins’ “Thunder Runs” as they came to be known allowed U.S. forces to take the Iraqi capital and end Saddam Hussein’s regime. 

“He was absolutely the first person I wanted to get in contact to get his wisdom and his judgement,” Perkins said.

Austin’s demeanor and countenance had a calming effect, Perkins acknowledged, especially as bullets and other ordnance were flying at his soldiers and at him.

“He’d ask, ‘how are you going to get fuel, how are you going to get solders medevac’d?’ He was thinking three or four steps down the road. He’s thinking ‘what can I do to help you?’”

Perkins said Austin has a “unique skill borne out of his true concern for those in his command.” 

“He is really good at situations for which there is no precedent,” Perkins added. 

Grimsley said Austin’s disposition and presence are powerful tools for leaders, “especially in combat, which is essentially chaos.”

Perkins served under Austin three times in combat. Along with their tour of duty with the 3rd ID, Perkins was in charge of strategic effects in Iraq when Austin led the XVIII Airborne Corps there and he was commander of the 4th Infantry Division when Austin was commander of the Multi National Force-Iraq.

“Combat is leadership on steroids,” Perkins said. 

Austin can see through “the fog of war, the fog of chaos.”

“He allows you to see through that and think three to four moves ahead,” Perkins added.

When Perkins commanded the 4th ID, headquartered in Tikrit, Iraq, the Army’s battle tracking system picked up the movement of Peshmerga tanks and artillery toward Kirkuk, in the heart of Iraq’s oil-rich north. 

“I said, ’This is our worst nightmare,’” Perkins recalled. “‘This could turn into civil war.’”

Austin told him he could see the same things, but asked Perkins not just what was happening but what was the intent of those forces.

“He’s so good at asking the right questions,” Perkins said. “He understands what is going on, not just digesting data. He sets the future up for success.” 

Grimsley, now the state of South Carolina’s secretary for veterans affairs, was deputy division commander when Austin led the XVIII Airborne.

“At his heart, he is a soldier first,” Grimsley said of his former boss. 

Grimsley also was military assistant to the secretary of defense and said he knew several of the people reported to be on President-elect Biden’s short list.

“I’m happy for him. I’m happy for our nation,” Grimsley said. “I think the president-elect had some great options and opportunities.

“There aren’t many people I’d go back to Washington to work for,” Grimsley said, “but (Gen. Austin) is one of them.”

Grimsley said Austin’s wife Charlene also can play a big part, if the soon-to-be first lady Dr. Jill Biden resumes the effort she placed on veterans and soldiers’ families she had during the Obama administration.

“Charlene is going to be a very big force in soldier and family matters,” he said. 

Both former combat commanders said running the Pentagon is perhaps the most challenging task in the executive branch of federal government. 

“It is a daunting challenge,” Grimsley said. “But he has faced those before. I am excited for him. I think he is more than well equipped to take on the fight.”

They also said Austin’s reputation, his experience working abroad and his ability to build trust and teamwork will serve him — and the nation — well.

“He is going to take that experience and expertise and filter it through the lens of his values and servant leadership and out of that, you get extraordinary judgement,” Perkins said. “I think our nation is begging for leaders like that. His judgement, demeanor and thoughtfulness and his ability to build teams and inspire people is exactly what our nation needs.”

Editor Pat Donahue can be reached at (229) 226-2400 ext. 1806.