BCE to close Walter Reed Hospital???

[FORD]

Pentagon Proposes Shutting Walter Reed
180 Facilities, Including 33 Major Bases, Recommended for Closure Nationwide

By William Branigin and Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, May 13, 2005; 12:54 PM



The Pentagon today proposed eliminating about 180 military installations across the country in a new round of base closures and realignments aimed at saving nearly $49 billion over 20 years. One major proposal calls for essentially moving Walter Reed Army Medical Center from Washington, D.C., to a new state-of-the-art, jointly staffed facility in suburban Maryland.

Among the installations targeted for closure are 33 major bases, including Fort Monroe in Virginia, Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota, the 200-year-old Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Maine, Fort McPherson in Georgia and Naval Submarine Base New London in Connecticut.

In addition, Pentagon officials announced at a news conference, 29 major installations are recommended for "realignment," meaning they would remain open but with fewer personnel. These include the Walter Reed hospital, which would be transformed into a new facility called the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on the site of what is now the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, across from the National Institutes of Health, officials said.

Housing and some research facilities at the Walter Reed site in Washington would stay open, but the facility as it exists today would practically be shut down, and it would lose 5,630 military, civilian and contractor jobs.

A total of 49 other major installations are slated for gains of more than 400 military or civilian personnel.

"Our current arrangements, designed for the Cold War, must give way to the new demands of the war against extremism and other evolving 21st century challenges," Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said in a statement. He said that when the domestic base changes are combined with realignments overseas, the projected net savings increases to $64.2 billion.

The Pentagon's proposal would result in a net loss of more than 29,000 military and civilian jobs at 839 installations large and small that are slated for closure or realignment. Besides the major bases, 775 smaller military locations would be either closed or lose personnel in a realignment under the proposal.

In the Pentagon news conference, Michael W. Wynne, undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, said that communities affected by the closures and realignments would be offered support and assistance through the Pentagon's Office of Economic Adjustment.

He said the gross cost of the proposal is $24 billion and that the savings amount to about two dollars for every dollar invested, or about $48.8 billion over 20 years.

The total of 181 facilities targeted for closure does not include listed closings for leased spaces.

Among the luckiest states on the list is Maryland, which gains 9,293 jobs -- more than any other state. The District loses 6,496 jobs under the proposal -- mainly from the loss of Walter Reed -- while Virginia loses 1,574.

The hardest-hit states include Connecticut, which loses 8,586 jobs; Maine, with a loss of 6,938 jobs; and Alaska, which stands to lose 4,619. Overseas, a total of 13,503 jobs would be cut in the closure or realignment of U.S. military installations in Germany, South Korea and elsewhere. Many of those jobs would move to the United States.

The proposal now goes to the nine-member Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) commission, which will hold public hearings, visit military sites and gather information on the listed facilities. The commission can add facilities to the list with a vote of seven of the nine members and remove bases from the list by a simple majority.

The commission is scheduled to report its recommendations to President Bush in September. Under the law, he must either accept or reject the recommendations in their entirety.

Congress then takes up the recommendations, which become final unless the lawmakers reject them in their entirety within 45 legislative days or by the end of the 2005 session.

Full listing of base closings and "realignments" here (Adobe PDF format)

[FORD]

**Paging Ollie North!!**

Hey Col. Shredder! Let's see you speak up for the hospital you defended just a few months ago. Tell your good buddies in the BCE how incredibly fucking lame they are for even thinking about closing a hospital with thousands of wounded vets on a goddamned waiting list!........


Heroes helping heroes
Oliver North


December 31, 2004


WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A few weeks before Christmas, I had the opportunity to once again visit some of America's finest young men and women who were wounded in Operation Iraqi Freedom or Operation Enduring Freedom. These young warriors were recuperating in two of the finest medical institutions in the country -- the National Naval Medical Center and Walter Reed Army Medical Center. It is not the infrastructure, the architectural design or the budget that places these among the best. Like any first-rate institution, it is the people who make them great.

They are staffed by soldiers, sailors and Marines. Doctors, nurses and administrators -- both military and civilian -- ensure that the patients get the best medical care and are treated with respect. Understanding the healing power of love, they also care for the visiting family members.

These institutions also attract some of the finest volunteers on the planet.

They need to be, because their patients are the best and bravest of a new generation of Americans putting their lives on the line for the right to remain free. At this time of year, when we count our blessings, it is appropriate to pay tribute to the men and women -- from the corpsman on the battlefield to the doctor in the operating room -- who keep our troops alive and nurse them back to health.

Marine Capt. Brad Adams was riding in a Humvee near Fallujah in October when a boy riding a bike approached the vehicle. Hidden in the bike's basket was a bomb. It detonated and littered Adams' body with shrapnel. Adams has now undergone nine surgeries and has been recuperating for a month at the National Naval Medical Center. "The level of treatment we're getting here is outstanding," he said.

That sentiment is echoed by Cpl. Nicolas Roberts, who was badly injured from a gunshot wound in Ramadi. So far, he has undergone seven surgeries. Of his stay at Bethesda, he says, "I'm getting great care here -- this is the best hospital in the world."

The site for the National Naval Medical Center was chosen on July 5, 1938, by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who said the spring-fed pond on the land reminded him of the healing pool of Bethesda in John's Gospel. Today, the facility is commanded by Rear Adm. Adam Robinson Jr. and is known as "The President's Hospital," because sitting presidents receive their medical care there. In the past year, 1,200 wounded troops from both Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom have passed through Bethesda's wards for quality care.

Thanks to the advancements in battlefield medicine and body armor, fully 90 percent of the troops who are wounded in Iraq or Afghanistan survive hits from gunfire or explosives that would have killed soldiers in previous conflicts. The nature of the enemy's explosives, however, is causing some troops to undergo amputations of an arm or a leg. Most of them are sent to Walter Reed to be fitted with prostheses and to rehabilitate.

Walter Reed has been caring for America's wounded heroes since World War I. It is named in honor of Maj. Walter Reed, who conducted groundbreaking research on yellow fever. His discoveries enabled workers to survive in the tropical climate and complete work on the Panama Canal.

Not only do the wounded go to Walter Reed, but the hospital has sent more than 200 of its personnel into the field in Afghanistan and Iraq. Today, the medical staff at Walter Reed is perfecting the ability of amputees to return to active duty service.

That standard of commitment was set by Navy diver Carl Brashear, who while serving on the USS Hoist (ARS-40) in 1966, was injured so severely that his left leg had to be amputated. Brashear refused to give in to demands for his retirement, was fitted with a prosthesis and went on to make history, continue diving and eventually retire with the prestigious titles of master diver and master chief.

Thanks in large measure to the medical professionals at Walter Reed, such stories are becoming the norm, not the exception.

Col. Jonathan Jaffin, commander of the Walter Reed Health Care System, said of the soldiers, "We view these patients as world-class athletes, (and) our goal is to restore them to world-class status."

Major advancements in the field of prosthetics are being made at Walter Reed. "We are receiving some of the first systems available in the world," says Joseph Miller, Walter Reed's chief prosthetist. One of those is the C-Leg system, which houses a computer system in the knee that responds to movement and can make adjustments up to 50 times a second.

Millions of dollars are being invested to update and expand Walter Reed's Amputee Center to continue to improve the way these soldiers are taught to walk, climb stairs or ride a bike with their new leg.

We Americans owe a great debt of gratitude to our troops who are fighting to protect us. We also owe a great deal of thanks to the military personnel, medical professionals, doctors, nurses, administrators and volunteers who are caring for our wounded heroes in these two facilities, and all the medical and rehab facilities our wounded heroes visit along their way.

[Warham]

'In the 1993 BRAC round, California had seven major military installations closed and two realigned, leading to the loss of 29,683 Department of Defense jobs.[34] Nationally, this round of closures closed 28 major bases, realigned 13 major installations, and eliminated 62,426 jobs.

In the 1995 BRAC round, California had five major military installations closed and three realigned, leading to the loss of 15,058 Department of Defense jobs.[38] Nationally, this round of closures closed 28 major bases, realigned 22 major installations, and cut 31,420 military jobs.'

That was during Clinton's term. So in those two total rounds, we lost 56 major bases and some 100,000 jobs.

I wish you guys wouldn't be so blind from your hatred of George W. Bush to do some research. This has happened for the last ten years. It ain't anything that Bush concocted to get hose veterans.

courtesy of: http://www.calinst.org/defense/base4...#_Toc100473769

[FORD]

The military cuts started under George Bush Sr in 1991/1992 actually.

But neither Poppy or Clinton were supposedly "at war" at the time.

And Clinton certainly never closed hospitals with large numbers of casualties awaiting medical treatment

[Nickdfresh]

Originally posted by Warham
'In the 1993 BRAC round, California had seven major military installations closed...

Oh spare me! We weren't fighting a major war then! This is merely a ploy to deny veterans disabled by Operation Iraqi Freedom the chance to have access to proper medical and thus save money in the long run...DISGUSTING!!

From Time Magazine

The Lucky Ones
By NANCY GIBBS

Mar. 21, 2005

You have to stand a ways back, but from a certain angle these look like the lucky ones. In any other war, they would be dead, having bled to death on the battlefield or died in a hospital from wounds so grievous that their armor could not protect them and the doctors could not save them. In World War II, 1 in 3 wounded soldiers died; in Vietnam, 1 in 4. In the Iraq war, the rate is 1 in 8. As of last week, just over 1,500 U.S. military personnel had died in Iraq and 11,285 had been wounded. The Pentagon does not keep counts of dead or wounded Iraqis. Human-rights groups and academics have tried to estimate the number of Iraqi deaths, speculating it could range from 15,000 to 100,000. No one has even tried to guess the number of Iraqis who have been wounded.

It is so much easier, of course, to call the U.S. wounded unlucky, the double and triple amputees maimed in a war that has not always gone as planned. If Kevlar and ceramic plates are the great lifesavers of modern warfare along with quick-clotting powders and ultrasound units that fit in backpacks, how many more lives and limbs might have been saved if the humvees that were meant for transport in noncombat zones had been equipped with the armor necessary for a guerrilla war that has no front lines, no safe havens?

Many of these men and women owe their lives to the Critical Care Air Transport Teams (CCATs), the flying intensive-care units that treat the troops as they are lifted by helicopter within minutes from the kill zone to the combat hospital. From there they are flown 6 1/2 hours to the military's Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, which has evolved from a small backwater military hospital into a top-line trauma center.

Every war mutilates in its own way, leaves its distinctive marks. In this war, unlike battles past, only 16% of injuries were caused by gunshots, according to a study; 69% were from explosions--the roadside booby traps, the car bombs, the rocket-propelled grenades. The vast majority of injuries are to arms and legs left vulnerable even as body armor is protecting vital organs. The amputation rate of 6% of wounded soldiers is twice that of earlier wars. But in addition, doctors are seeing new injuries, some of them inconspicuous compared with the shredded flesh of bombing victims. Traumatic brain injury occurs when the shock from an explosion damages neurological fibers. Soldiers may survive a blast with scarcely a cut, only to find over time that they suffer coordination and memory loss, dizziness, insomnia. Some have to learn to walk again--or to recognize their wives and children.

From Landstuhl the next stop is often Walter Reed Army Medical Center outside Washington or Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas, which was originally set up to handle the military's worst burn cases but is now taking the overflow amputees from Walter Reed. TIME correspondents Amanda Bower and Cathy Booth Thomas and photographer James Nachtwey spent time with the doctors and patients who together are writing the next chapter of their lives--and of combat medicine.

We name and honor the dead, but the wounded return home more quietly, privately. They are beginning to walk and wheel among us, visible reminders of the cost of war and the courage it takes to fight it. More than half of those injured cannot return to duty. Yet there are also soldiers so committed to their comrades and their calling that they have petitioned to go back to Iraq the moment they learn how to work a new hand, a new leg. And many who say, even knowing what they have to lose, that they would sign on to the fight if they had it to do all over again. --With reporting by Douglas Waller/Washington and Vivienne Walt/Landstuhl

We already don't have enough beds for these people!

[Warham]

It's not a ploy, Nick. This shit started in 1990, before the first fucking Gulf War!

If a Democrat did this, it'd be OK, because we'd be saving money, but if Bush does it, he's the antichrist.

[FORD]

Originally posted by Warham
It's not a ploy, Nick. This shit started in 1990, before the first fucking Gulf War!

If a Democrat did this, it'd be OK, because we'd be saving money, but if Bush does it, he's the antichrist.

Junior's already the Antichrist, but that's beside the point.

The stupid motherfucker declares war on 1/5 of the goddamned planet, then he puts 8 of 9 divisions in the field, along with reserves and guard who were never trained for such things, and now wants to cut not only the bases where said troops are stationed, but the very medical facilities that attempt to repair their broken bodies when they come back from "serving their country"*

It's appalling


* (serving the BCE corporatist fascist state and the Likud "Greater Israel" expansion plan in reality)

[Warham]

Our National Guard isn't trained for battle? What are they trained for then, FORD?

They better be trained for battle, if that's what our tax money goes toward.

[Nickdfresh]

Originally posted by Warham
Our National Guard isn't trained for battle? What are they trained for then, FORD?

They better be trained for battle, if that's what our tax money goes toward.

They are not prepared nor are they equipped to nearly the minimum of the regular Army standard!

In fact, during the first Gulf War, I believe there was talk of completely doing away with USANG combat arms units after several NG divisions such as the 42d Infantry, from some southern state, had numerous problems during training.

[Warham]

If Lyndie Englund can handle the Army standard, I think most of these Weekend Warriors can handle it.

[FORD]

Originally posted by Warham
If Lyndie Englund can handle the Army standard, I think most of these Weekend Warriors can handle it.

And if that brain damaged cunt is your idea of the model soldier, then we're all in deep shit, because it would mean the ones that weren't as good as her were the few that were actually left to defend THIS country while the Chimp is scaring the shit out of people with lies about a "world wide terraist network"

[DrMaddVibe]

Originally posted by Nickdfresh
They are not prepared nor are they equipped to nearly the minimum of the regular Army standard!

In fact, during the first Gulf War, I believe there was talk of completely doing away with USANG combat arms units after several NG divisions such as the 42d Infantry, from some southern state, had numerous problems during training.

They have the same training as regular army. In some cases they have more!

The rest is pure rumor...In fact vs. I believe. Present the facts or shut the fuck up about matters you can't comprehend without your political baggage! You post your article and we'll decipher it from there!

[steve]

FORD - don't you think you're over-reacting in this case?

BLURB:
"One major proposal calls for essentially moving Walter Reed Army Medical Center from Washington, D.C., to a new state-of-the-art, jointly staffed facility in suburban Maryland."

I don't know much about the base closures, but it does say in the second sentence of the article that there is another - better - hospital nearbye - it could be a net gain for wounded soldiers if there are more beds, physical therapy centers, etc. in the new place a few miles away.

I'm not saying I think GW can really empathise with anything a soldier is going through, but the base closures seem to be more outside of the rhelm of politics.

[Warham]

Originally posted by FORD
And if that brain damaged cunt is your idea of the model soldier, then we're all in deep shit, because it would mean the ones that weren't as good as her were the few that were actually left to defend THIS country while the Chimp is scaring the shit out of people with lies about a "world wide terraist network"

Never said she was a model citizen, FORD. But I DID say that if the Army was OK with her being in Iraq, warts and all, I think that these Weekend Warriors can make the cut just fine.

There's enough terrorists in the world, believe me. Otherwise, there wouldn't be a fresh supply of suicide bombers going into Iraq every other week to kill their civilians and our troops.

[Warham]

Originally posted by steve
FORD - don't you think you're over-reacting in this case?

BLURB:
"One major proposal calls for essentially moving Walter Reed Army Medical Center from Washington, D.C., to a new state-of-the-art, jointly staffed facility in suburban Maryland."

I don't know much about the base closures, but it does say in the second sentence of the article that there is another - better - hospital nearbye - it could be a net gain for wounded soldiers if there are more beds, physical therapy centers, etc. in the new place a few miles away.

I'm not saying I think GW can really empathise with anything a soldier is going through, but the base closures seem to be more outside of the rhelm of politics.

As long as it fits with his liberal thinking, it's OK to over-react.

Just like it's OK if I over-react when I say that Howard Dean is a racist who has no understanding of what kind of people really work at hotels as bellhops.