US Marine Corps Commandant Joins Defense Secretary In Hospital After Russian Missile Strikes
https://thehill.com/policy/defense/4396552-marine-corps-commandant-undergoes-open-heart-surgery/
Marine Corps commandant undergoes open heart surgery
thehill.com/policy/defense/4396552-marine-corps-commandant-undergoes-open-heart-surgery
Ellen MitchellJanuary 9, 2024
The US Department of the Navy, US Marine Corps, seal hangs on the wall February 24, 2009, at the Pentagon in Washington, DC. (PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP via Getty Images)
Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Eric Smith underwent open heart surgery Monday to repair a defective valve that caused his heart attack in late October, the Marine Corps announced.
Smith had successful surgery at an unnamed hospital “to repair a bicuspid aortic valve in his heart, which was the cause of his cardiac arrest on Oct. 29,” according to a Marine Corps statement.
“He is in good condition and continues to recover at the hospital among family members and his doctors. Following his rehabilitation, Gen. Smith will return to full duty status as Commandant,” the statement adds.
Smith suffered a heart attack and collapsed during a run in October. He was quickly taken to a hospital where doctors discovered his bicuspid aortic valve, a heart abnormality people are born with and one that can cause heart problems later in life.
Marine Corps Assistant Commandant Gen. Christopher Mahoney has stepped in to perform Smith’s duties during his rehabilitation.
“Smith and his family are focused on his rehabilitation and appreciate everyone’s continued respect for their privacy ahead of his full recovery,” according to the Marines.
News of Smith’s surgery comes as the Pentagon’s top official, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, has come under fire for failing to disclose to the White House or to the public an elective medical procedure he underwent Dec. 22. That was followed by an ongoing hospitalization that began Jan. 1, and that many senior administration officials were left in the dark about for several days.
Tags Eric Smith Lloyd Austin Marines
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Top Marine general in ‘good condition’ after open-heart surgery
marinecorpstimes.com/news/your-marine-corps/2024/01/09/top-marine-general-in-good-condition-after-open-heart-surgery
January 9, 2024
Your Marine Corpse
By Irene Loewenson
Jan 9, 10:54 AM
Gen. Eric Smith testifies during the Senate Armed Services hearing on his nomination to lead the Marine Corps in June in Washington. (Mariam Zuhaib/AP)
The top Marine general is in “good condition” after receiving open-heart surgery Monday to fix the condition that caused__ his cardiac arrest in October,__ the Marine Corpse said.
Gen. Eric Smith, the Marine commandant, hasn’t been on full duty status since he went into cardiac arrest Oct. 29.
The surgery, to repair a bicuspid aortic valve in his heart, was “successful,” and Smith is recovering at the hospital, according to a Monday evening statement from the Marine Corps.
The commandant plans to return to full duty status after his rehabilitation, the statement said, echoing comments Smith has made in recent months.
“General Smith and his family are focused on his rehabilitation and appreciate everyone’s continued respect for their privacy ahead of his full recovery,” the statement from the Marine Corps said.
The disclosure from the Marine Corps comes as Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and his team are under scrutiny for not informing the public of Austin’s Jan. 1 emergency hospitalization for several days.
The day after Smith’s cardiac arrest, Marine Corps headquarters issued a brief news release announcing that the commandant had experienced a medical emergency and had been hospitalized, leaving another general in charge.
The service initially declined to specify the medical emergency Smith had experienced or what kind of condition he was in, citing the family’s desire for privacy. But it disclosed within a week that Smith had experienced a cardiac arrest and provided more details in the ensuing weeks.
Smith, previously the assistant commandant, took on the duties of commandant when his predecessor, Gen. David Berger, retired in July.
His nomination to become commandant was stalled in the Senate for months by Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., who held up senior military nominations in protest of a Pentagon abortion policy. Even once Smith was confirmed as commandant, he lacked a deputy, due to the continued hold on Mahoney’s nomination.
Smith told reporters in the months before his cardiac arrest that he was essentially juggling the jobs of commandant and assistant commandant at once, working an 18-hour schedule he described as “not sustainable.”
The Marine Corps has said Smith’s bicuspid aortic valve, a heart abnormality that is present from birth, was the cause of his cardiac arrest.
https://twitter.com/CMC_MarineCorps/status/1718304462496829706
It was a great honor to host Japo Ambassador to the US, His Excellency TOMITAT Koji, last week at the Home of the Commandunts
@MBWDC
. Our alliance with Japan is stronger than ever. Thank you for your frenship
@JapanEmbDC
12:31 PM · Oct 28, 2023
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https://youtu.be/y8vJD5U9cIw
Jun 4 2020 18:49:59 (EST)
EAM LOYALISTS:
RED1: POTUS twitter removal
RED2: Central communications blackout [continental US]
RED3: CLAS movement PELOSI or PENCE
RED4: Movement of MIL assets [10th Mountain_1st Marine_CPSD_Marine_QVIR] to central locations under guise of citizen riot control.
RED5: NAT MIL COM CEN
RED6: SEC OF DEF _instruct1
USSS
CASTLE_ROCK
Q
heart surgery, prostate surgery
Were Austin and Smith visiting troops at Xmas?
Killed or wounded by Putina?
Trump becomes first president since 2002 not to visit troops on or before Christmas
nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/trump-becomes-first-president-2002-not-visit-troops-christmastime-n951846
Elyse Perlmutter-Gumbiner
Editor's note: On Wednesday, NBC News compiled a list of every Christmastime visit to active troops by a president since 2001. That list, as detailed in the article below, showed that former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama visited troops on or before Christmas every year since 2003, and President Donald Trump did so in 2017. As of the end of Christmas Day 2018, Trump had not visited troops during the holiday season, and had announced no plans to do so. The article was correct, but on Dec. 26, the situation changed. Trump and the first lady, Melania Trump, made an unannounced visit to troops in Iraq. As a result, the thrust of this article is no longer correct, even if it was at the time. In the interest of transparency, we are keeping the article on NBCNews.com so that the record will reflect the situation on the day the article was published, and are directing readers to the article about Trump’s Iraq visit here. We are also altering one line in the article, as well as the headline, to be more specific and to note that Trump was the first president since 2002 who didn't visit military personnel on or before Christmas, rather than at Christmastime.
***
On Christmas Day, President Donald Trump took part in a long-running practice of presidents who called troops stationed around the country and the world.
But he broke from a recent tradition of actually visiting troops and wounded warriors. He did so in 2017, when he visited wounded troops at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Dec. 21 (and invited Coast Guard service members to play golf at his course in West Palm Beach, Florida).
By staying home on Tuesday, Trump became the first president since 2002 who didn't visit military personnel on or before Christmas.
President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama speak to U.S. Marines and personnel on Christmas day at Marine Corps Base Hawaii in 2016.Hugh Gentry / Reuters file
Based on a check of NBC logs, President Barack Obama visited troops at Marine Corps Base Hawaii, in Kaneohe Bay, every Christmas he was in office, from 2009 to 2016.
Before him, according to a check of news releases, President George W. Bush visited wounded warriors at Walter Reed from 2003 to 2008. He did not visit troops at Christmas in 2002, in the run-up to the Iraq War, or in 2001.
In recent months, Trump has taken heat from critics for not visiting troops in an active combat zone, after canceling a trip to an American military burial ground outside of Paris last month due to weather and skipping the traditional Veterans Day visit to Arlington National Cemetery just two days later.
At the time, the president told FOX News’ Chris Wallace that he should have gone to Arlington, and he hasn’t visited a combat zone because he’s “had an unbelievably busy schedule,” adding, “I will be doing it.”
Trump made the trip to Arlington several weeks later to lay a wreath as part of Wreaths Across America, but still has yet to visit an active combat zone.
At this point in their presidencies, Obama visited troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Bush visited Iraq just eight months after the start of the war in 2003.
Elyse Perlmutter-Gumbiner