More questions about Secretary Austin’s absence

As more information continues to trickle out of the Biden administration about Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s illness and absence from the Pentagon, three questions are still unanswered.

First, how extensive was the knowledge of Austin’s health issues? Second, why did three days pass before Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks learned about the secretary’s return to Walter Reed Hospital? Finally, why did Hicks not immediately return to Washington from her Puerto Rico vacation?

According to official Pentagon and White House statements, only a handful of officials were aware that Austin had developed complications from what the Pentagon described as his Dec. 22 “elective medical procedure” and had to return to Walter Reed hospital on the night of Jan. 1. Leaving aside the fact that an operation for prostate cancer is hardly “elective,” as for example cosmetic surgery would be, the question remains: How small was the supposedly small number of officials who knew of Austin’s emergency? Brig. General Pat Ryder, the Pentagon’s chief spokesman, stated that “the secretary and the deputy secretary’s staff as well as the Joint Staff were notified that the transfer [of authority to Hicks] had occurred through regular email notification procedures.”

While one might conclude that the emails were sent out on Jan. 2, that is not exactly what Ryder said. It is not at all clear when the emails were sent. The Pentagon operates on a 24-hour basis — yet Ryder gave no indication as to how many hours passed after Austin was admitted on the night of Jan. 1 before the emails were circulated. Nor did Ryder make clear who exactly received the emails.

The deputy secretary has a number of staffers in addition to her military assistant. Similarly, the joint staff’s front office (which includes the chairman, the vice chairman and the executive secretary to the chairman and their immediate staff), comprises a not insignificant number of people. Did they all receive the emails, or have access to them?

Indeed, the number of Pentagon officials who had knowledge of Austin’s emergency return to Walter Reed probably extended far beyond the Joint Staff and Hicks’s immediate office. Military assistants to senior officials, including the department’s under and assistant secretaries as well as service secretaries and under secretaries, have a network of their own. Information about anything momentous circulates within that network at the speed of light. The network of executive assistants to these officials circulates information equally as quickly. It is therefore likely that dozens, rather than a handful, of people knew about Austin’s emergency as early as Tuesday morning, Jan. 2.

It is true that these networks tend to be closed to outsiders, and those who belong to them are sworn to silence, which explains why there were no leaks about the secretary’s status for two days after he was hospitalized. Yet that raises the question of why not a single staffer or assistant who was aware of the situation advised his or her superior that Hicks should be contacted in Puerto Rico immediately, as should National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan. That Austin’s chief of staff, Kelly Magsamen, was ill and could not contact either Hicks or Sullivan does not explain why no other senior official — especially top level personnel in Austin’s immediate office — who were aware of Austin’s hospitalization failed to contact them.

Washington was fortunate that no major crisis exploded somewhere in the world while Hicks was unaware of Austin’s status. While Hicks remained in the dark, there was a gap in the chain of command between the president and his combatant commanders in the field. One can only hope that, had a military crisis materialized, Hicks would indeed have been contacted and have flown back to Washington immediately.

Yet why should Hicks not have flown back anyway? Surely senior Pentagon leaders could have contacted her and asked her to return home on Jan. 2. I vividly recall that during my tenure as under secretary of defense, while I was on a family vacation on the West Coast, the secretary’s office informed me that Donald Rumsfeld wanted me to cut my vacation short and return to the Pentagon. Naturally I did so. Yet the issue in question was of far less significance than the need for the deputy secretary to exercise her authority in the absence of her boss, especially as it was unclear how long that absence might persist.

The chairman and ranking members of both the Senate and House Armed Services Committees have expressed alarm at the communications lapses surrounding Secretary Austin’s hospitalization. Calls for an investigation are rightly growing. Perhaps some legislation may also be in order.

Given the threats that America faces in Europe, East Asia and the Middle East, no administration can afford a gap in the chain of command even for a few short hours.

Dov S. Zakheim is a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and vice chairman of the board for the Foreign Policy Research Institute. He was undersecretary of Defense (comptroller) and chief financial officer for the Department of Defense from 2001 to 2004 and a deputy undersecretary of Defense from 1985 to 1987.