Washington Post’s Walter Reed story

Dana Priest and Anne Hull have a widely circulated story in the Washington Post today about the horrible condition of Building 18 at Walter Reed Army Medial Center, in DC. I haven’t been in the building, but I can imagine they aren’t exagerating much. Having spent two decades in the Army myself, I’m familiar with these kinds of conditions – the conditions that the Carters and Clintons of the world handed us.

I’m certainly not excusing the Army from culpability here. They should have known that in a city where half of the population are journalists, it seems at times, they were going to get caught at this.

The main facility at WRAMC is state of the art. I eat breakfast there every Saturday morning (the only place in town that serves SOS on a biscuit – the main thing I missed when I retired). It’s clean and relatively quiet and one of the reasons we moved here back in 1999 – the medical service is the best of any military or Veterans’ facility I’ve seen. My wife and I have both been under the knife at Walter Reed and a better bunch of surgeons and staff you’ll find no where.

But, the Army has always treated soldiers to bad living conditions for extended temporary assignments. Always. I’m not excusing it, just saying it. And it’s one of the reasons that Walter Reed is closing its doors and moving to the Bethesda Naval facilities. Aside from the horrible labor force available in the area, the out buildings, apart from the main hospital, are nearly 100 years old. Its too expensive for the Army to repair them, especially with leftists who’ve suddenly become “fiscally responsible” and demanding that the government spend on social programs while facilties neccessary for defense are crumbling.

I could go on-and-on about facilities where we had to live and work because the priority has always been on equipment, training and bullets, but I won’t bore you (if you promise not to bore me with “I walked ten miles through snowdrifts to get to school” stories).

But I will take exception with one particular part of the story;

Family members who speak only Spanish have had to rely on Salvadoran housekeepers, a Cuban bus driver, the Panamanian bartender and a Mexican floor cleaner for help. Walter Reed maintains a list of bilingual staffers, but they are rarely called on, according to soldiers and families and Walter Reed staff members.

My wife, a native Panamanian on the full time medical staff in one of the wards there, regularly helps spanish-only family members, nearly daily at Walter Reed. There are only a few Salvadorans employed at Walter Reed, and no bartenders (what’s a bartender doing at a hospital?) or cuban bus drivers that I know of, so is this just literary liscense? Going on the story of one Puerto Rican lady (how’d she get to Washington – sign language?) is fairly disengenuous.

“They’ve been behind from Day One,” said Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.), who headed the House Government Reform Committee, which investigated problems at Walter Reed and other Army facilities. “Even the stuff they’ve fixed has only been patched.”

Who is “they”, Congressman? The Army, the Administration? So Congress already knows about this? So what are they doing about it – since they’re the ones who fund this stuff. Maybe Murtha, et al. should do their jobs instead of trying to be generals.

When the war first started, I made the rounds a coupla times and wrote down soldiers’ names and hometowns then faxed their congressmen that their constituents were in town. I got few responses and some responses came too late (Republicans were just as guilty as Democrats, by the way). Maybe if Congress got off it’s lazy ass for a change, things would be different. Maybe if they’d focus on THEIR JOB instead everybody else’s.

And where was the Post seven years ago on this? Building 18 didn’t fall into disrepair beginning January 20, 2001. Oh, that’s right they were too busy writing stories about the wonderful job that the Clinton Administration had done lowering the budget deficit on the backs of the military.

Category: Media, Walter Reed