Walter Reed Army Medical Center, the crown jewel of Army medicine, celebrated its 100th anniversary Friday with a ceremony and a formal ball, but the celebration was bittersweet because the storied leader in care for wounded soldiers soon will be wrecker-balled into oblivion.
Although the center has spacious grounds of its own where new buildings could be erected, the premier Army hospital will be moved to Bethesda Naval Medical Center, where new buildings have to be erected to replace those of Walter Reed, a move forced by the Base Realignment and Closing process (BRAC).
While BRAC was initiated with the argument that base closings would save taxpayers money, construction of new buildings for Army patients at Bethesda will come at a cost to taxpayers exceeding $1 billion, meaning the move is a costly money loser.
After the patients are moved to Bethesda, the historic Walter Reed hospital center and its 130-plus acres in the heart of Washington, D.C., likely will be turned over to real estate developers, unless a public purpose can prevail over their interests. Whether developers will erect in its place a housing project (in one of the highest-priced housing markets in the nation), a shopping center or other use is unknown now.
While proponents of the deal said Walter Reed provided substandard care, that was based on recent news stories about poor structural conditions in one building that isn’t even on the Walter Reed campus.
In fact, some Walter Reed buildings are recent additions, including a $9 million rehabilitation center to aid soldiers seriously wounded in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The new center especially assists soldiers who have suffered devastating injuries caused by improvised explosive devices (enemy roadside mines), and now must learn how to use prosthetic limbs.