Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin returns to work at the Pentagon after cancer surgery complications

By LOLITA C. BALDOR
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has returned to work at the Pentagon after nearly a month’s absence because of prostate cancer. Austin met with NATO’s secretary general Monday and then went to the White House Situation Room for a meeting of the national security team to discuss the drone attack in Jordan that killed three U.S. troops. Austin says he’s “still recovering.” Austin was last in the Pentagon on Dec. 21. The defense secretary had prostate cancer surgery Dec. 22 and went by ambulance back to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Jan. 1 because of complications from the surgery. Austin didn’t tell President Joe Biden about his hospitalization until days later.