After being admitted to the hospital last week, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin transferred responsibility to Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks on Tuesday. But Hicks, who was on ...

Hicks, who was on vacation in Puerto Rico, “keeps a complete suite of communications and capable staff with her at all times, regardless of geographic location,” Ryder said, and she took up ...

Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks, ... But Hicks, who was on vacation in Puerto Rico at the time, was not informed of Austin’s hospitalization until the afternoon of January 4, ...

Defense Deputy Secretary Kathleen Hicks, the second in command at the Pentagon, was not told of Secretary Lloyd Austin's hospitalization until two days after assuming some duties.

On Jan. 2, Ms. Hicks was on vacation in Puerto Rico when she received an email notification that “certain authorities of the Secretary of Defense” were transferred to her.

But Hicks, who was on vacation in Puerto Rico at the time, was not informed of Austin’s hospitalization until the afternoon of January 4, the defense officials said.

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 ...

Lloyd Austin’s Dereliction of Duty: Deputy Hicks Vacations; Biden, Blinken, Sullivan Out of Loop As the world burned, the secretary of defense vanished like Houdini — and no one noticed.

Mr. Austin apologized in a Feb. 1 press conference after he returned to work at the Pentagon. “I did not handle this right. I should have told the president about my cancer diagnosis,” he said.