The Defense Secretary's Curious New Year's Hospital Stay

I confess to being curious about what elective surgery it was.
Also annoyed no one was told.

If a military member has a procedure coming up, elective or not, you inform the chain of command, ensure duties are covered, estimate sick leave required, keep CoC updated on any departures from planned absence days.

Unhealthy shadow of the leader being cast.
 
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Surely WRNMMC has a system in place which informs a patient's chain of command of hospital admissions. That should be easy since there's only one above the SECDEF in the org chart.
 
tkinion said:
He was AWOL and needs to be held to the same standard as his subordinates.
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Actually, I think the article said he did have the procedure during scheduled leave. So, he may have been "on vacation" during the time this took place. Still, he was obviously incapacitated for at least a couple days and would not have been able to execute his duties should an emergency situation have arisen.

Given that, it seems the most generous way to characterize his handling on the situation is that he demonstrated a serious lack of judgment in not informing the President and others at the Pentagon of the situation. Without full details, it does make the average person wonder whether there is more to the story that is being intentionally hidden.
 
Devil Doc said:
Surely WRNMMC has a system in place which informs a patient's chain of command of hospital admissions. That should be easy since there's only one above the SECDEF in the org chart.
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So why would the Biden Administration say they didn’t find out until days later?
 
Pure conjecture here but it sounds like the Secretary had a minor elective procedure which could be a number of things. He developed an infection, went to Walter Reed, and was admitted to the ICU. Just guessing but he's probably being treated for septicemia.
 
Capt MJ said:
If a military member has a procedure coming up, elective or not, you inform the chain of command, ensure duties are covered, estimate sick leave required, keep CoC updated on any departures from planned absence days.
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I was thinking along those same lines. If my DS had a planned surgery over his Christmas leave, he might not necessarily tell his CoC but if anything that caused him to not be available, as planned, and he didn't let his CoC know asap, he would (at a minimum) be reamed a new orifice. And he's a lowly ensign and of little consequence.
 
It’s all puzzling.

Including that his 2nd in command was delegated as ‘in charge’, and she didn’t even know. And in Puerto Rico?? Weird.
 
Other than potentially some poor subordinate getting canned, nothing is going to happen so don't see the need in talking about it.
 
First thing that came to mind was what happened to poor George Brett years ago. Thankfully, those problems are all behind him now.
Hopefully Secretary Austin makes a full recovery.
 
Scheduled surgery or not, there should be COOP in place so there is no gap. No single point of failure. And with his position being what it is, everyone who needed to know should have been told. I saw one report where someone said he was at home when he was in the ICU. That's troubling.
 
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