Walter Reed to Close

Commission Votes to Close Walter Reed Army Medical Center

The Pentagon's Proposal Would Expand Bethesda's National Naval Medical Center

Thursday, August 25, 2005; 10:21 AM


A federal panel voted unanimously Thursday to close the District's Walter Reed Medical Center, the flagship of military medicine and hospital to several U.S. presidents, as part of the Pentagon's plan to restructure hundreds of military bases and facilities across the country.

The federal Base Closure and Realignment Commission voted to move most of Walter Reed's services to the Bethesda military hospital or to a new hospital in Fort Belvoir.

For almost a century, wounded combatants have arrived at Walter Reed after returning from war. Recently, it has housed more than a thousand troops coming from the front lines in Iraq.

As part of its plan to eliminate about 180 military installations nationwide with the goal of saving nearly $49 billion over 20 years, the Pentagon recommended closing Walter Reed because it is old and underused.

Before the vote, Commission Chairman Anthony Principi described Walter Reed as an aging facility that needs to be modernized. He said soldiers coming back from Iraq "deserve to come back to 21st century medical care." He said that building a new state-of-the-art hospital was a "no-brainer."

The Pentagon had proposed closing Walter Reed and expanding the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda into a new facility called the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. The District would lose 5,630 jobs in the move.

The Pentagon would also build a 165-bed community hospital at Fort Belvoir to handle some of Walter Reed's functions.

Although the commission supported plans to update current military medical facilities, they questioned whether the $170 million the Pentagon had earmarked for a new state-of-the-art hospital at Bethesda would be sufficient.

Still to be decided by the commission is whether Arlington and Alexandria will lose almost 23,000 defense workers housed in leased office space.

[AmericanGirl]

Its kind of sad, my Dad spent several months recovering from his wounds at Walter Reed, but if it is done to open a better place for our wounded heroes, then I guess I can't argue.

[Brad]

I agree - hard to argue with the rationale or the move, but at the same time it sure seems like bad pr...

[Curt]

As long as the level of care doesn`t take a drop. If they can do better in a different building, thats fine