Sec. Austin's aid did a good job and the right thing. He had his boss's back and

[Botany]

… protected his privacy. The Sec. of Defense has rights too and the person who was at
his house and called 9 11 understood that. The Sec. has earned some leeway after a
lifetime of service to America and as far as I can tell the chain of command and or
the readiness of the U.S. Military suffered any damage because of Sec. Austin’s medical
issues

Austin’s man on the spot.

The President should have had better knowledge of the
situation but he will stick by his friend because he can look @ the big picture and
understand what needs to be done.

Btw I think Defense Secretary Austin is back @ home and is starting to do some work for
America …. Mission Driven.

[Walleye]

1. And don't forget it was over a holiday weekend.

Plus I don’t think secretary Austin had an obligation to tell the country about his medical problems. There are plenty of officers in the chain of command, he’s not the president. Transparency is all well and good, but there are some things I really don’t need to know

[Botany]

2. From what I have read was that Austin's #2 person at the DoD waited until The Sec. was released

… from the hospital for his prostate surgery to go on vacation to the Caribbean and was
in electronic contact with the DoD all that time and came back after she* learned the
condition of Sec. Austin.

*. Kathleen Hicks. Deputy Sec. of Defense

This thing is being blown out of proportion.

[brooklynite]

3. December 7, 1941.....Sunday

[Botany]

4. Good point... the Sec. of Defense having a post operative infection is just like Pearl Harbor

[brooklynite]

6. From the OP: " And don't forget it was over a holiday weekend."

[Cha]

9. Yeah, I didn't get that, either?

What?!

[former9thward]

5. He has an obligation to tell the president.

That is why president Biden said he showed a lack of judgement. There are not "plenty of officers" in the chain of command. Austin is number 2 behind the president commanding the military and he is number 2 in the nuclear command.

[Walleye]

7. Point taken. I was just thinking of the nature of his illness and the natural human desire to keep it private

[former9thward]

8. Of course.

But at that level there just is no privacy. Maybe there should be but there is not. The last president which had privacy was John Kennedy where the media kept his life-threatening illness secret and his extra-marital affairs secret. The media took a lot of heat about those things after his death and since then they go after everything.

[Ms. Toad]

10. Neither privacy, nor the nature of his illness,

play a role in whether he informed those above and below him in the chain of command that he was in the ICU I don't know that even Biden needed to know why he was hospitalized (other than potential his capacity to work). That is largely up to them. And certainly the public had no need to know.

But especially under the volatile world circumstances, Sec. Austin needed to inform President Biden, and that was a lapse in judgment (both by Austin and his aid)..

[Mountainguy]

11. The President need to know

if a member of the National Security Council is unable to perform his duties, even temporarily.

I don't think there's any way to get around that. Just the fact that the SecDef had a medical event where emergency services had to be called. Even if you think you know the reason, there is a potential national security issue that the Secret Service should be aware of in case his illness isn't because of the obvious.

[Renew Deal]

12. They were right to keep the ambulance quiet and wrong after that.

The Secretary of Defense doesn’t have much privacy. It’s the nature of the job. The president and the secretaries’ deputy should be informed about any situation where a cabinet member cannot perform their duty. The situation was handled irresponsibly, which you appear to acknowledge. Not sure why the rest of the grandstanding is necessary.

[genxlib]

13. You are conflating two issues

He had no reason to share what was specifically wrong with him.

He had every responsibility to tell his boss about his availability.

It was a dumbass thing to do and I would be pissed at my janitor if he disappeared from his job without notice. That kind of privacy just doesn’t exist when you have responsibilities. Especially responsibilities like his.