What is this Walter Reed situation all about?

[Laker]

Just interested as it has been in the news. I figured I would ask those in "the know".

[DCJenn]

Here's my no holds barred take-

Way back in the dark ages- like around the time that Rumsfeld started his push for a 'leaner and meaner' military, they started talking about completely dismantling Army medicine- anything that could be outsourced was supposed to be the better option. This was to include all outpatient clinics (i.e. anything that the civilian spouses/family members would need) and ALL therapies including OT and PT.

Of course, reality being what it is, it quickly became apparent that 1) civilian providers won't take tricare because of the crappy reimbursement rates and 2) there are some communities that the size of the military base is significantly larger than the town as a whole and therefore there aren't enough civilian providers anyway. Not to mention that if you have soldiers who have families and the families don't feel like they're being taken care of...the soldiers get out of the military. (duh...) and while all this was going on, the VA was chronically underfunded (has been for decades, to be honest). It's been overwhelmed just with the aging Vietnam vets and their issues.

Meanwhile, the talk of the BRAC (Base realignment and closures) starts again. WRAMC is a shithole, no ways around it. The 'new' hospital was stuffed into an existing space and it's not big enough and apparently never has been. Bethesda is a much nicer place in a much nicer environment. (rarely are people mugged going to and from the Metro at Bethesda, unlike WR. Seriously, there are multi-million dollar mansions and Rock Creek Park on one side, and crack houses and prostitutes on the other. Guess which side the 'hotel' that the soldiers were in was on?)

To look good, the commanders at the hospital I have NO DOUBT told their subordinates to eliminate or forgo a lot of the repairs and general upkeep. Ordinarily this is not a problem. However, no one was prepared for the thousands of soldiers with brain injuries and limb amputations. (and often both). Once they were ready for outpatient treatment, they were moved to the outpatient side of the house. There are two very nice places for the soldiers to stay on the WRAMC grounds. They're not big enough to house all of the hundreds of people that are staying there. They overflow them into the hotel that they've owned for years but never properly maintained and voila- here we are.

Adding to this is the fact that the Army is running on fumes. They can deny it all they want to but the reality is that they don't have enough people to do what they need them to do. So, you get around that by creating your own 'Board' system to review people applying to get out of the service and receive retirement and disability. The other three services are able to review their cases and don't have this issue because they're using the standard Board review process. The Army made up an entire new one. Hmmmmm. So, you make a system that is so cumbersome that it's easier to return to the field (assuming that you can) rather than wait the YEARS to be reviewed and then only be turned down...because the disability you would be provided is a very costly proposition as well.

I'm so glad the Post broke the story. I'm not sure that the right guy took the fall, though. Gen. Kiley WAS the hospital commander of WRAMC so I'm not sure how he could not have known (as is being proven now) and the new guy had only been there since August. But, interesting that the Secretary of the Army resigned today, too.

To claim with a straight face that 'no one knew' and to make the junior officers and the enlisted guys take the blame is 100% wrong. I'm quite sure that some of them were responsible for things not being done in a timely fashion (or at all) but I am equally sure that it was designed to be a 'cost saving' measure that ended up completely backfiring.

There's obviously a lot more to this story that is going to come out, I think.

Secretary Gates probably REALLY wishes he was still raising money for the Aggies...