From Aug 2005: Panel Approves Plan to Close Walter Reed Army Hospital

[cyberpj]

So whatever happened to all of this - there are lots of articles from 2005 on it.

Any bets on who would build it (Can you say Halliburton?) (I knew you could.)


Panel Approves Plan to Close Walter Reed Army Hospital
By DAVID S. CLOUD
Published: August 25, 2005

WASHINGTON, Aug. 25 -The independent commission reviewing the Pentagon's plan to close or reorient hundreds of military bases agreed today to close the aging Walter Reed Army Medical Center, which has been treating many of the most severely wounded soldiers from Iraq.

The Base Closing and Realignment Commission voted 8 to 0 with one abstention to close the nearly 100-year-old hospital in Washington's outskirts and combine its operations with the nearby Bethesda Naval Medical Center, which would be expanded to include a new 340-bed hospital.

Commissioners said they believed that the Pentagon's $989 million estimate for building the new hospital understated the likely cost, but said they were endorsing the move anyway because of the opportunity to build a state-of-the art facility for treating wounded troops.

"Whatever it costs, we need to incur that cost to provide that world-class care to an extraordinary group of men and women in harm's way," said the commission's chairman, Anthony J. Principi, a former secretary of veterans affairs.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/25/national/25cnd-bases.html?ex=1282622400&en=cae5b02ce2f496e2&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

[Monkeyman]

1. The Commission from hell

They are closing 18 VA Hospitals by 2010

[Raven]

2. My son was born in WR

in the early '70's. We were in the Army and that was the hospital assigned to us. It was a fabulous place and a beautiful campus. It cost us $5.35 for the birth and 3 days in the hospital. Wonderful doctors and great treatment. Boy have times changed! They decided to close the place and they just let it rot and let our wounded troops rot with it. Just another example of how the government considers our service men and women fungible.

PS. The presidents used to be taken care of at WR. I wonder where GWB goes?

[Monkeyman]

3. I laid up in Reed for two years after being hit in Vietnam

The hospital was great. Now it seems to be a rat hole. that was from 1970 to 1972

[Atman]

4. Wow...now I need to don my tin-foil!

"How could they have let this happen?" I keep asking myself. It suddenly is becoming clear...let this story ferment (foment?) and then get it out to the press. Congressmen will be tripping over themselves to "remedy" this horrible situation by throwing money at it. And who will catch that thrown money?

Unca Dick.

.