The Mess at Walter Reed

You may have not noticed the news coverage of living conditions at the Walter Reed Medical Center for solders well enough to be outpatients.

The Army and the Defense Department began investigations after The Washington Post published stories that documented problems in soldiers' housing and in the medical bureaucracy at Walter Reed, which has been called the Army's premier caregiver for soldiers wounded in. Even the network news programs picked up the stories.

The problems at Walter Reed pertain not to the quality of medical care for wounded soldiers but rather to the treatment of those who are well enough to be outpatients, living in Army housing at Walter Reed. One building, called building 18, was singled out in the Post reports as being in bad repair, including having mold on interior walls.

The Commanding General at Walter Reed has now been relieved of his command. His firing could very well mean an end to his Army career. I had been hoping that they would treat him like the slum landlord that he is and make him live in building 18.

The investigation is now beginning to look at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, and other military medical treatment facilities around the United States. A blue ribbon panel is looking the housing conditions and the processing of determining disability when soldiers are unable to return to duty.

I spent 23 years in the Navy Medical Department and was stationed at Bethesda in the late 1970’s. As young, new commissioned Medical Service Corps officer at the Naval Hospital, St Albans (in the heart of Queens) New York I had first had experience dealing with patients from all the uniformed services. During the Viet Nam war patients were sent to the military hospial closest to their home. We always had more Army patients and Navy and Marine Corps.

The challenge has always been how to keep these young men and women motivated. They are separated from their units and most are also separated from loved ones. They are in limbo, waiting for the medical and military bureaucracy.

We need to find new and creative ways to make these young men and women feel useful and productive. With all the modern technology there has to be better ways.

Congress says they fully support our troops. Now it is time for them to provide the resources necessary to take care of our wounded warriors. They need more than just the lip service that our politicians are famous for.