From his hospital room, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin first orchestrated and then watched in real time as the U.S. retaliatory attack on Yemen-based Houthi militants unfolded Thursday night.
Austin's hospital-room leadership was the latest in a series of actions the defense chief has carried out from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, where he has been recovering from complications due to treatments for prostate cancer. Austin only revealed he had prostate cancer on Tuesday — the same day that the Houthis launched their most aggressive onslaught to date of 18 drones and missiles at commercial and military vessels in the Red Sea. That attack that set the stage for Thursday's military operation.
