The most famous Military hospital in America is closing.
No public discussion. No warning. No input or debate from Americans at all. A one hundred year old institution closed by a bunch of faceless bureaucrats in a hidden room.
What pisses me off is the problems at the hospital had been fixed. They just opened a very important rehab center. Our veterans depended on this hospital.
So now we get another huge building that will be empty and crumbling. Before long it will be like that abandoned hospital in Calif. that was a public hazard and had to be demolished with explosives.
Makes me sick to think of Walter Reed suffering the same fate.
Walter Reed Army and Oakland Naval hospitals were giants in our wartime history. WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Gulf War, Iraq all our wounded went there to recover.
I have connections to somebody who works there – they are building TWO new hospitals to replace the old facilities, one at Bethesda and one at Fort Belvoir. The oldest building is not going to be torn down, or otherwise abandoned. It is way too historic. But it does need to be retired.
The currrent buildings are, sadly, entirely out of date. They need to move. This is not a bad thing. This means the patients get even better care in newer facilities.
This was quite thoroughly discussed six years ago.
As historic as the place is, it is… well, kind of a dump. Well, not really a dump, but it just feels like an institution that was designed and built many decades ago. The idea that we have to keep putting sick and wounded people in old, poorly functioning buildings in perpetuity is just nonsense.
Did you read your own link? “On Sept. 15, the Army hands over the campus to the new tenants: the State Department and the District of Columbia. The buildings on campus deemed national historic landmarks will be preserved; others probably will be torn down. The city is expected to develop its section for retail and other uses.”
I missed that part. That’s good news then. At least Walter Reed won’t get disrespected like Oakland Naval.
I’m a bit sensitive because Little Rock AR VA Hospital got abandoned in the 1980’s. They built a new facility in North Little Rock. The old VA was on this big hill and very visible from the road. I watched it decay for over a decade before it was finally demolished. It was a huge, huge hospital. Staff and Nurses used motorized carts to travel around the wards.
Well, I don’t have a cite, but I ride the bus route that crosses through the Medical Center Metro station which is across the street from the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda. They have been doing additions to the hospital for about 2 1/2 years now to accomodate the move of the facilities from Walter Reed to NNMC. I heard about the closure of Walter Reed about seven years ago. IIRC, they’ve been talking about it since 2000 or so. It’s been on the military budget chopping block for quite a while, but the finally decided to pull the trigger on that one.
Amazingly, the construction traffic doesn’t bother the commute on Wisconsin Avenue too much, except during the PM rush when all the construction workers, students and hospital staff are getting off work and crossing the street.
(It’s late, and I’m not going to correct all the comma links. Deal. Nyaah.)
But then again, it was local news. I think I saw it during a happy hour back then.
It might be that the women and men can recover faster when they are around those who have an idea of what they’ve been through. Also, wouldn’t there be more need for treating post stress syndrome, chemical burns, and certain kinds of wounds? I’m just guessing.
