Walter Reed closing after more than 100 years of treating wounded troops
Wendell Marsh for Reuters:
The U.S. Army’s chief medical facility, Walter Reed Army Medical Center, retired its ceremonial flags on Wednesday, as it closes its historic facility after more than a century of treating wounded American fighters and presidents.
The complex in northwest Washington near the Maryland border shifts most of its operations in August and finally shuts its doors on September 15 as a part of a consolidation with the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.
The new facility will be called the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and will have campuses in Bethesda and Fort Belvoir, Va.
In 2007, there was a bit of a scandal involving patient neglect and poor maintenance, where patients were kept in a building infested by rats, cockroaches, and mold. It may have contributed to the replacing of Walter Reed, but the Department of Defense had started planning a new facility in 2005.
Still though, there’s 102 years of history there. I’ve linked to MSNBC’s page for this story, which includes a slideshow of fourteen pictures of or related to the facility.