Army relieves Walter Reed general of command
posted at 3:52 pm on March 1, 2007 by Allahpundit
They lost confidence in his leadership ability to phone exterminators and have mold removed. Problem is, it sounds like they fired the wrong guy. Or at least, not the first guy they should have fired:
[A]s far back as 2003, the commander of Walter Reed, Lt. Gen. Kevin C. Kiley, who is now the Army’s top medical officer, was told that soldiers who were wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan were languishing and lost on the grounds, according to interviews…
Kiley lives across the street from Building 18. From his quarters, he can see the scrappy building and busy traffic the soldiers must cross to get to the 113-acre post. At a news conference last week, Kiley, who declined several requests for interviews for this article, said that the problems of Building 18 “weren’t serious and there weren’t a lot of them.” He also said they were not “emblematic of a process of Walter Reed that has abandoned soldiers and their families.”
But according to interviews, Kiley, his successive commanders at Walter Reed and various top noncommissioned officers in charge of soldiers’ lives have heard a stream of complaints about outpatient treatment over the past several years. The complaints have surfaced at town hall meetings for staff and soldiers, at commanders’ “sensing sessions” in which soldiers or officers are encouraged to speak freely, and in several inspector general’s reports detailing building conditions, safety issues and other matters.
Retired Maj. Gen. Kenneth L. Farmer Jr., who commanded Walter Reed for two years until last August, said that he was aware of outpatient problems and that there were “ongoing reviews and discussions” about how to fix them when he left. He said he shared many of those issues with Kiley, his immediate commander…
Beverly Young said she complained to Kiley several times. She once visited a soldier who was lying in urine on his mattress pad in the hospital. When a nurse ignored her, Young said, “I went flying down to Kevin Kiley’s office again, and got nowhere. He has skirted this stuff for five years and blamed everyone else.”
Rumsfeld’s wife makes a cameo towards the end of the piece, suggesting that he knew things weren’t shipshape there, too.
The new acting commander at Walter Reed as of this afternoon? Lt. Gen. Kevin C. Kiley. Although maybe not for long:
Last week, the Army relieved of their duties several low-ranking soldiers who managed outpatients at Walter Reed. The soldiers were not publicly identified, and details of their alleged transgressions were not released.
Disclosing the action, Gates hinted to reporters after a visit to Walter Reed that higher-ranking officers also could face disciplinary measures. “We will be looking and evaluating the rest of the chain of command as we get more information,” he said.
Update: There’s an interesting essay at Slate about buck-passing in the military that might explain some of this.
Walter Reed’s problems also illustrate just how bad the Army has gotten at passing information—particularly negative information—up and down its chain of command. Typically, subordinate units submit reports on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis to their headquarters. At each level of command, these reports get filtered, collated, combined, and resynthesized. Like the children’s game of telephone, the message frequently changes in transmission. The result can be a terribly distorted picture of reality at the higher echelons of command.
In Iraq, where I advised the Iraqi police, I saw this reverse filtration system (whereby excrement is added to the final product, instead of being removed) in action. Reports on police readiness were aggregated, generalized, and stripped of their facts as they moved up the chain of command. In one report, I included an anecdote about an Iraqi police colonel picking his nose to show his displeasure with a new U.S. reporting system for police readiness, a detail I thought illustrated the depth of Iraqi contempt for U.S. bureaucracy. This detail squeaked through, but I earned a sharp reprimand for including it, and I learned to keep such facts out of future reports. By the time our reports reached the national level, they contained little of the detail so essential for explaining our progress in standing up the Iraqi police force. This problem exists in many military organizations.
Blowback
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Did he get canned because of the problems at Walter Reed or because he allowed news of the problems to leak?
JayHaw Phrenzie on March 1, 2007 at 3:59 PM
The scapegoat has been found.
Will the next scapegoat please step forward. Thank you.
Somethings never change.
fogw on March 1, 2007 at 4:03 PM
I hope they nail these guys to the walls, and I hope there’s a call for more investigations on other VAs as well.
One Angry Christian on March 1, 2007 at 4:14 PM
Look they have already relieved the 1st SGT and all of the Platoon SGT’s for that section and they are just now getting around to the officers. There is simply no excuse and to my great shame, and every American who truly cares, for this story not being made public before now. While they are chopping legs let’s hope they are also taking direct, immediate, and positive action to rectify the problems so not another wounded soldier, sailor, airmen or Marine has to endure these conditions again.
Forming exploratory committees and holding fact finding sessions is not what I am talking about either.
LakeRuins on March 1, 2007 at 4:14 PM
Normally I tend to agree with you but the buck does stop with that at the general level office of that facility. I mean its not like some analyst f’ed up and the General is taking the heat. He should have been aware of the conditions at Walter Reed. (His hospital) You can delegate authority but not responsibility.
x95b10 on March 1, 2007 at 4:14 PM
Scapegoat or not, we will probably see few other officres relieved in this because a significant number of the officers there are doctors. Kinda hard to go and fire all your doctors at your primary hospital without a plan to replace those doctors.
Regardless of the reason, maybe they made the right decision by mistake, but relieving this general of command is the right place to start.
Lawrence on March 1, 2007 at 4:17 PM
While relieving the general may or may not be the correct move where are all of the soldiers who worked in that ward? It seems they can get on “60 Minutes” to yap about an illegal war, and they can refuse movement and they are given a ton of ink regarding chemical weapons in Fallujah and their sex capades are the subject of newspaper headlines for 400+ days, but a real group that needed attention, well I guess just piss on them until it looks like maybe there is good news from the war and then make it public.
LakeRuins on March 1, 2007 at 4:24 PM
Your point is well taken.
Hidden in my point was the implication that a changing of the guard doesn’t change the system. Bureaucracies, of any kind, tend to settle back into their failing ways once the dust has cleared.
We’ll revisit this same problem again in a decade or so, and heads will roll again.
fogw on March 1, 2007 at 4:41 PM
Walter Reed is run by the Army, correct?
As AP knows, I’m a retired Air Force NCO. On the occasions when I had temporary duty at any given Army post and stayed in the barracks which housed the post’s equivalent-ranking permanent personnel, the Air Force would pay me extra money for having to stay in sub-standard housing–usually Korean War-era buildings and that’s being generous. The outpatient building in question sounds about right. (There are many reasons that AF personnel are considered spoiled; this is one of them.)
Additonally, I have been an inpatient at one of the local VA hospitals in recent years. (On one occasion–after a minor surgery and after ringing the nurse button several times over a period of two hours–I got up out of my bed, walked down the hall and lit into them. I was bleeding and my bed needed changing and, yes, I left a trail of plasma from my room to the nurse station. Since the average VA inpatient is 60, they’re used to those who aren’t as ambulatory and…um…energetic as I was.)
So none of these revelations surprised me in the least. However, these anecdotes let neither the commanders nor the Army off the hook. These GIs have to recover from infinitely more serious injuries/illnesses than those from my peacetime Active Duty/retiree boo-boos and they should be treated accordingly.
Consider these reports (and my story) as examples of socialized healthcare in action.
baldilocks on March 1, 2007 at 4:47 PM
So, they seem to be voting against spending before voting for spending. Makes me sick.
Mazztek on March 1, 2007 at 5:00 PM
But this is Government run health care! It can’t possibly have problems, it must work, it must work….
billy on March 1, 2007 at 5:01 PM
This is one of those stories where you want to be real careful about the conclusions you reach.
This story is also a perfect example of why a skilled bureaucrat spends so much time documenting what was done, how, when, by whom, at what cost, and under whose orders; [CYA].
This is not the first time this charge, poor treatment of wounded military veterans has been made to stick, nor will it be the last.
Getting all outraged, indignant, and getting caught up in the lynch mob hysteria is falling for a media provoked frenzy, whether it is bombs in Boston, police brutality, disgraceful treatment of senior citizens in nursing homes, unsanitary conditions at your favorite restaurant, or outpatient treatment at Walter Reed.
Fix the problem, but make sure you understand what the problem is, and the cause of the problem, before you try to fix it.
rockhauler on March 1, 2007 at 5:03 PM
My horror story, although not combat related ….
I was admitted to a base hospital in the middle of winter, with an upper respiratory infection and a temperature of 103. What was prescribed to bring me back to health? Drink lots of koolaid and take two aspirin four times a day. I went through three days of that treatment, never saw a doctor once, and at the end of three days my temperature was still over 102. As a youngster I had contracted pneumonia, so my immediate concern was that my URI could deteriorate into something much worse, possibly life threatening.
I managed to get myself discharged from that hospital by removing the thermometer from my mouth every time the nurse left my room, eventually convincing the staff my fever had broken. I had to drag myself out of bed and get my discharge paperwork from a doctor so I could return to my company. I found the doctor at the end of the hall sitting with his feet perched on a table, while puffing on a cigarette. The doc asked how I was feeling, I said fine, and he signed my papers without ever feeling my forehead or looking down my throat. I was still sick as a dog, but I escaped.
Fortunately I was stationed about 200 miles from home at the time, so I made a beeline for home as fast as I could to see my family doctor. My doc looked down my throat and all he said was “Damn!”. He shot me full of penicillin with a syringe the size of a horseneedle. It did the trick. Go figure.
That was 40 years ago, in another run down base hospital.
fogw on March 1, 2007 at 5:37 PM
x95b10, the big question is how far up do you go? Was the Commanding General of the 101st responsible for 5 of his soldiers raping that Iraqi girl? There needs to be common sense test applied. There were several layers of command between Weightman and these problems. I started my military career at Walter Reed. When I left in 2000 I hated that place. I volunteered for a deployment to the Balkans to get out of there. There is a mentality at WRAMC you can never understand. Entrenched civilians working there for 30yrs you can’t fire because of stupid liberal labor laws, a 9-5 attitude of field grade officers who are collecting a paycheck but not doing anything, the bureaucracy was incredible… these are problems you can’t fix in 6 months.
I also have commanded under then BG Weightman in Iraq during the initial 2003 invasion and again when he was the commander of 44th MEDCOM. I have found him to be the best medical General Officer I have ever served under. Also, he was not just in charge of the hospital. He was the NARMC (North Atlantic Regional Medical Command) Commander… he is based out of Walter Reed, but is in charge of all the medical facilities in the North East United States. When I left in 2000 there was a COL that commanded the Hospital itself and a one star that commanded the “Walter Reed Healthcare system” (ie the hospital and all the outpatient/research/extraneous activities). Wonder why were not reading about them? Woudln’t they be more directly responsible?
If you really look at this, this may be more MG Weightman’s reaction to the report than the actual report… but I firmly believe this is a political action by the new SECDEF. If you read the reports this was done with much input directly by Gates. They needed a Scapegoat… MG Weightman was it.
BadBrad on March 1, 2007 at 5:52 PM
People who believe in socialized medicine need to get a clue as to why TRICARE is a 4-letter word.
ReubenJCogburn on March 1, 2007 at 5:55 PM
I hate mixing politics and military. But one thing should remain clear. This was not done out of apathy toward the wounded soldiers. Read this by a reporter I have met who lost a hand in Iraq.
The reason they have had all the problems is they were trying to do too much and rather than release them to the VA (which we all know sucks), they kept them longer than ever.
I know one of those soldiers who lost a leg and is still on active duty. This was bad, but a lot of it came from them trying too hard to do too much and not being able to keep up with the demand that they themselves had created. This started before Weightman too command. As I see it Walter Reed was a scandal waiting to happen… unfortunatley for Weightman, he was left standing when the music stopped…
BadBrad on March 1, 2007 at 6:03 PM
]
Don’t you mean TRY-CARE?
BadBrad on March 1, 2007 at 6:04 PM
I saw Kiley interviewed on television. He said that he lived across the street from Bldg 18, but had never been inside. Sorry, that’s just bad management. If the hospital is his responsibility, there’s no excuse for not at least once walking through each building.
John from WuzzaDem on March 1, 2007 at 7:01 PM
It’s been pointed out before, and the VA’s themselves certainly need to be looked at but, Walter Reed is a military hospital, not a VA.
91Veteran on March 1, 2007 at 7:29 PM
When I was in the VA hospital in Houston years ago, the security was a joke. They cared more about vets who might bring in a plastic bag of pogey bait than they did about WHO might be coming in.
One night, I saw a guy who obviously was not a patient, and not visiting anyone sneak in a back door. There were cameras, but security must have been sleeping.
I went after him, but lost him when he ran up a stairway.
All I could think of was all of the older vets there who were not ambulatory, or were asleep most of the time, and this guy getting into their rooms and stealing them blind.
91Veteran on March 1, 2007 at 7:33 PM
You better start canning all the Indians who are running VAs. The one in Wilkes-Barre is ran by a couple of Indians and they treat EVERYONE like crap. I was dating a girl there while she was a doctor there and she let me visit and see the crappiness of it.
Tim Burton on March 1, 2007 at 8:13 PM
I agree, but I was talking about MG Weightman. I’m not familiar with a building called “Bldg 18″… but they describe it as a former hotel on GA ave. That sounds like what used to be the “Walter Reed Inn” (it was the transient officers quarters) and I stayed there in 1997. Back then it was not that bad. And it WAS right across the street from some generals quarters.
I agree, but I question the fact that MG Weightman was responsible, but not Kiley (who commanded the place and lives across the street) or his subbordinate commanders who ACTUALLY command the hospital. Maybe it has changed… but as I said before in Dec2000 when I left WRAMC there was a COL in command of the Hospital and a one star in charge of the “Walter Reed Healthcare System” (which I believe was the hospital, plus outpatient clinics, Ft Belvoir, the pentagon clinic… etc). The two star command (the one who was relieved) was the NARMC “Commanding General” (the proper term… Sorry Allah don’t mean to nitpick). He was in charge of all medical centers/activities in the North East United States.
BadBrad on March 1, 2007 at 10:57 PM
Any questions people?
PinkyBigglesworth on March 1, 2007 at 11:53 PM
Point 1: The commanding general is completely responsible for everything that happens in his command. That’s why they pay him or her the big bucks.
Point 2: I personally have had similar experiences of official apathy, IN A CIVILIAN HOSPITIAL, some caused by insurance company practiced, but also caused by sheer incompetence and indifference of staff and administrators. It is why lawyers make lots of money with malpractice suits.
In other words, substandard treatment of patients does happen, even at the best of facilities. It shouldn’t, but it does. But it is also true that the civil remedy (a whopping bit malpractice award) is not available to those serving in the military. And it is why those in charge must be held personally accountable.
Point 3: If this is a matter of lower ranks keeping higher uninformed (for whatever reason), then the clean up job will have to go down the chain as far as necessary to make it right. If this is a matter of indifference by those at the top — in that lower did inform higher, who still ignored the problem — then relieving them of command is NOT sufficient. Courts-martial ought to be on the table in that event.
If you saw Bob Woodruff’s special the other night, you would know that not just the military side has problem, but so does the VA in certain parts of the country, especially in rural areas with rehab. This needs to be addressed to.
We owe these men and women the best care that they can get.
georgej on March 2, 2007 at 5:12 AM
Firing people makes headlines. Now to the tedious business of fixing the problems–not just this one but the whole issue of volume exceeding capacity in the system.
honora on March 2, 2007 at 9:39 AM
I agree, but you were missing my point. Since you have not read what I said, I’ll say it again. The point is that Major General (two starts) Weightman IS not the only general or commander involved. He also was in command only six months. Anyone who has commanded before knows it takes a few months before you can ID problems and make changes. MG Weightman was a great general and it is a shame that everything he has done and all his service was thrown out because he couldn’t change all the Bullshit of Walter Reed in six months (and WRMAC is a culture very resistent to change). Meanwhile others who commanded before him walk away scott free…
The new bosses in town will throw whoever they can to the democratic wolves to deflect any blame at all…
BadBrad on March 2, 2007 at 8:48 PM