# Walter Reed Hospital Closing **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 24, 2011, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/walter-reed-hospital-closing/590125 "2011-07-24T00:25:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2011, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/walter-reed-hospital-closing/590125/1 "2011-07-24T00:25:38Z")
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. > [@](#): > > In addition to improved living conditions, one of the other upgrades after the scandal was the opening of an advanced rehabilitation center for troops with amputations. On a recent day, several amputees, including some who had lost three limbs, were exercising in the room, one even on a skateboard. > **[Army's Famed Hospital to Close After More Than a Century](https://www.foxnews.com/politics/armys-famed-hospital-to-close-after-more-than-a-century)** > > Walter Reed Army Medical Center, the Army's flagship hospital where privates to presidents have gone for care, is closing its doors after more than a century. 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. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2011, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/walter-reed-hospital-closing/590125/2 "2011-07-24T00:47:34Z")
**Update** that was the Oakland Naval hospital that had to be demolished in April. [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/04/08/BAN71IT46O.DTL](http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/04/08/BAN71IT46O.DTL) > [@](#): > > Neighbors have long been pressuring SunCal and city officials to clean up the site. Homeless people moved into the buildings, and vandals stripped copper and other valuable materials. Finally, a judge ruled last year that Lehman Bros. must pay to clean up the property. 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. ---
**Author:** ![whiterabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/cab0a1/32.png) [@whiterabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whiterabbit)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2011, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/walter-reed-hospital-closing/590125/3 "2011-07-24T01:08:18Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2011, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/walter-reed-hospital-closing/590125/4 "2011-07-24T01:38:39Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > The most famous Military hospital in America is closing. ☹ > > No public discussion. No warning. No input or debate from Americans at all. This was quite thoroughly discussed six years ago. > **[Walter Reed Army Medical Center](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Reed_Army_Medical_Center#2005_replacement_proposal)** > > The Walter Reed Army Medical Center (WRAMC), officially known as Walter Reed General Hospital (WRGH) until 1951, was the U.S. Army's flagship medical center from 1909 to 2011. Located on 113 acres (46 ha) in Washington, D.C., it served more than 150,000 active and retired personnel from all branches of the United States Armed Forces. The center was named after Walter Reed, a U.S. Army physician and Major who led the team that confirmed that yellow fever is transmitted by mosquitoes rather than... 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. ---
**Author:** ![Shayna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shayna/32/17976_2.png) [@Shayna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shayna)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2011, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/walter-reed-hospital-closing/590125/5 "2011-07-24T01:45:14Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > **Update** that was the Oakland Naval hospital that had to be demolished in April. > [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/04/08/BAN71IT46O.DTL](http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/04/08/BAN71IT46O.DTL) > > Makes me sick to think of Walter Reed suffering the same fate. ☹ 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.” ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2011, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/walter-reed-hospital-closing/590125/6 "2011-07-24T01:52:45Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Uncle\_Brother\_Walker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f08c70/32.png) [@Uncle\_Brother\_Walker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncle_Brother_Walker)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2011, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/walter-reed-hospital-closing/590125/7 "2011-07-24T05:28:43Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2011, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/walter-reed-hospital-closing/590125/8 "2011-07-24T16:35:25Z")
Why does the military need hospitals? Why not send wounded soliders to regular hospitals? ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2011, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/walter-reed-hospital-closing/590125/9 "2011-07-24T17:15:07Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Taters](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/taters/32/2845_2.png) [@Taters](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taters)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2011, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/walter-reed-hospital-closing/590125/10 "2011-07-24T17:43:56Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Why does the military need hospitals? Why not send wounded soliders to regular hospitals? Because it’s more expensive to send military and their dependents to civilian hospitals. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2011, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/walter-reed-hospital-closing/590125/11 "2011-07-24T18:14:23Z")
> [@Taters](#): > > Because it’s more expensive to send military and their dependents to civilian hospitals. It also allows the institution to develop a high degree of specialization in combat-related trauma and recovery.