Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin gave the order for the military to carry out dozens of strikes against Houthi targets from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.

The secretary, who has been hospitalized since Jan. 1 due to complications from a surgery he had to treat prostate cancer last month, was “actively engaged in overseeing and directing the strikes that we saw last night,” Pentagon spokesman Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder said on MSNBC on Friday morning.