We woke up to some upsetting news Monday morning. Our Ebola sent an overnight flash he’d received in Germany. Our relatively new Marine Corps commandant, Gen Eric Smith, had been hospitalized with a “medical emergency” Sunday evening.

While concerning, we thought it was probably one of those things they’re overly cautious with as far as the big brass or politicians are concerned – too high a fever, heart palpitations, active as the general is the potential for running injuries, etc., always there. None of us is getting any younger.

Surely it was something of that ilk.

But as the day went on, there were no updates – not a word leaked out and I started to fidget about it, because that’s very, very strange.

And, frankly, ominous.

Yesterday…still nothing official, update-wise, on his condition from the Corps or the hospital.

As the senior general officer assigned to Headquarter Marine Corps, Lt. Gen. Karsten Heckl will serve as acting Commandant of the Marine Corps in the interim, according to Statute 10 U.S.C. § 8044.

Full press release: https://t.co/86phBSAAzF

— U.S. Marines (@USMC) October 30, 2023

Truly scary.

Still just a “medical emergency” as Gen Heckl temporarily stepped into the breach.

A message from Lieutenant General Karsten S. Heckl

Full Press Release:https://t.co/5OfSZkWAK4 pic.twitter.com/rB8aZmUhWI

— U.S. Marines (@USMC) October 31, 2023

But word had started leaking to the press that the 58 year old Gen Smith had suffered a heart attack while jogging Sunday evening, after spending the morning cheering on runners at the Marine Corps Marathon.

…The Times reported that Smith collapsed while running near his residence at Marine Barracks Washington.

Noah Gray, a spokesman for D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services, said in a statement Tuesday that emergency service personnel “responded to a cardiac arrest” near an intersection a block away from Smith’s residence at Marine Barracks Washington on Sunday at 4:58 p.m.

…“Bystanders called 911 and began CPR after witnessing an adult male collapse on the sidewalk while running” in the area of 7th Street and G Street Southeast, Gray said.

Gray said that EMTs and paramedics performed CPR on the man and took him to a nearby hospital.

…Earlier in the day of his medical emergency, Smith was supporting runners at the Marine Corps Marathon in Arlington, Virginia. The weather was so warm and muggy that marathon organizers closed the race early.

I’ll be danged if I know what the point of all the secrecy is. I’ve never seen anything like it in my life, not to mention the strange little message sent out from the SgtMaj of the Marine Corps.

A Message to the Force from the Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps, Carlos A. Ruiz. pic.twitter.com/0FKXdhvvm9

— U.S. Marines (@USMC) October 30, 2023

That was just weird. I’m afraid it tipped me over the edge. Gen Smith isn’t some third world tinpot dictator, where they’re worried about succession and a revolution if word leaks out.

What in the Sam Hell are these people thinking?

The Marine Corps’ tapdancing was awful enough until Senator Jack Reed saw a political opening in Gen Smith’s misfortune. And man, did Reed ever jump into it with both feet up to the knees trying to score.

A top Senate Democrat said that the Marine Corps commandant’s recent medical emergency may be due in part to the fallout from Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s hold on top military promotions, which has forced several top officers to hold down multiple jobs.

Senate Armed Services Chair Jack Reed (D-R.I.) leveled the accusation a day after the service disclosed that Gen. Eric Smith, a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was hospitalized on Sunday. There was no immediate word of when Smith would be released or return to work.

“One of the reasons, I think contributed to his condition was he was doing two jobs at once,” Reed said in a brief interview. “I’ve read where he was working from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m. As a result, if he had, as is normal, an assistant, he could switch off.”

Sen Cardin of Maryland hopped on the blame train, too. They’re both sending a pretty clear message – Tuberville did this to Gen Smith.

I'd like to wish @CMC_MarineCorps a speedy recovery.

Gen. Smith has been working 18+ hour days without a confirmed Deputy, another consequence of @SenTuberville's military holds.

When our top military leaders are impacted, so is our national security.https://t.co/k0Dda0CVzu

— Senator Ben Cardin (@SenatorCardin) October 31, 2023

Yowsahs. That’ll put a chill on “howdies” when they pass in the senate lunch line.

And it is true the commandant’s been putting in some hours, as he himself admitted to reporters in September.

Marine Gen. Eric Smith gets up around 5:30 a.m. and starts reading intelligence reports from the secure communications setup in his house.

If he’s not traveling, the acting Marine commandant — who also is the assistant commandant — is at the Pentagon by 7:45 a.m.

…“Nobody should feel bad for me,” Smith told reporters Sept. 6 at the Defense News Conference in Arlington, Virginia, in response to a Marine Corps Times question about his schedule. “I make plenty of money, and nobody usually yells at me, so that’s good. But it is not a sustainable thing when the last thing you do is flip your computer off at 11:30 at night and you’re getting up at 5 o’clock in the morning.”

But I guess we’re at the point where animosities are so great and self-control is so underrated, that pointing explosive accusation fingers is the avenue of choice for expressing one’s self.

Tuberville’s asking for a quick confirmation of the Corps’ No. 2 man, Lt. Gen. Christopher Mahoney, but the pressure’s really on now to blow up Tuberville’s “logjam”

…Some of Tuberville’s Republican colleagues are trying privately to persuade him to refocus his blockade on civilian nominees at the Pentagon rather than uniformed officials.

The group includes Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who reiterated on Tuesday that he still disagrees with Tuberville’s tactics of delaying military picks.

…Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said Tuesday he would, in the wake of Smith’s hospitalization, push his colleagues even more vigorously to break Tuberville’s logjam. He also pointed to nine open positions at Central Command, where there have been attacks on U.S. troops by forces supported by Iran.

“I am so angry as much as I am saddened that the Marine Corps will be handicapped by the absence of a commandant, potentially,” said Blumenthal, another senior Senate Armed Services member. “The potential as well for an absence in the commandant position just reemphasizes how the Tuberville hold is a desperate threat to our national security.”

Gen Smith’s serious condition and the consequence of the vacancy, whether created by overwork or act of God regardless, has given Tuberville foes the emotional ammunition they need to go after him and his DoD abortion-blockade.

And they obviously intend to use it.

We pray for your quick healing, Gen Smith.

General Eric Smith, Commandant of the US Marine Corps, threatens to kill anyone targeting his men near Israel.

The families of the 378 Marines killed and 4,955 wounded, in the calamitous US defeat in Afghanistan, may ask why they are going there in the first place? pic.twitter.com/7JSVws8lEo

— Chay Bowes (@BowesChay) October 25, 2023

#SemperFi