Lawmakers Fault Army Brass For Scandal At Walter Reed

WASHINGTON — The Army's top military leaders told a House panel Monday they were shocked when they learned two weeks ago of mold-and-rodent-infested living conditions for soldiers recuperating at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

But the head of the House subcommittee investigating the conditions said he fears that such problems exist throughout the military health care system.

"These problems go well beyond the walls of Walter Reed," said Rep. John F. Tierney, D-Mass. "And as we send more and more troops into Iraq and Afghanistan, these problems are only going to get worse, not better. And we should be prepared to deal with them."

Army Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Schoomaker, who bristled under sharp questioning from lawmakers, said he had no idea about the existence of now infamous substandard conditions of Walter Reed's outpatient housing in Building 18, until he read graphic descriptions published first in the Washington Post.

"I couldn't be madder, and I couldn't be more ashamed," Schoomaker told the House subcommittee on oversight, at a hearing inside the Army medical center, where the prominently displayed motto is "We provide warrior care."

Until reading the newspaper series, Schoomaker said that he would have said outpatient care was "a bright spot" for military medicine.

His vice chief of staff, Gen. Richard A. Cody, conceded that the wounded soldiers "deserve better than what we have provided" and conceded that the problems go farther to include a shortage of well-trained case managers and counselors to assist soldiers who have been lost in the "complex medical and disability process."

Tierney asked why the Army failed to respond earlier to a string of past exposes in the news media as well as a series of reports by the Government Accountability Office, the investigating arm of Congress.

Cody said that the Army did not see the full "size and scope" of the problems until the Washington Post focused on Building 18.

"We're going to make this right," Cody said.

That message was echoed at the White House, where Vice President Dick Cheney told a gathering of veterans that the Bush administration would "fix" the military medical problems.

At the Walter Reed hearing — where two soldiers and the wife of a third told of poor living conditions and battles with the military bureaucracy — lawmakers cast doubts on whether the Army would make the widespread reforms needed.

Rep. Tom Davis, a Virginia Republican, said he had heard the military vow to repair the systemic defects many times in the past.

"What makes this round of promises any different?" Davis asked.

The lawmakers also heard an apology from Maj. Gen. George W. Weightman, who last week was removed from his command of Walter Reed and the North Atlantic Regional Medical Command after only six months on the job.

"It is clear mistakes were made, and I was in charge," Weightman said. He continued to defend the overall medical care provided by Walter Reed, which is the highest rated Army hospital.

Weightman said the Army had a faulty system of tracking the care of outpatients that was only about 80 percent reliable.

Lt. Gen. Kevin C. Kiley, the U.S. Army Surgeon General, admitted that he had been unaware of the dilapidated conditions of Building 18, although his own home is across the street.

Kiley also conceded that, in a conversation, he had faulted some of the recent news coverage of the Walter Reed as "yellow journalism." Kiley's public remarks and his failure to know about Building 18 have made him a target of criticism by some Walter Reed patients and their families.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates was openly displeased when Kiley was named the temporary commander of the medical center. Gates subsequently pressured Army Secretary Francis Harvey to resign in the aftermath of that action. The Army has since named Maj. Gen. Eric Schoomaker, brother of the Army chief of staff, as the next commander of Walter Reed.

When Kiley was asked at the hearing if soldiers have been discouraged from speaking out about problems at Walter Reed, the surgeon general said they were encouraged to go to officials at the center, but he added, "I've never told soldiers they couldn't speak to the press."

However, just outside the hearing room, two soldiers were describing conditions at the medical center to a handful of reporters, even as they said they were under orders not to speak to journalists.

"They tell us we can't — it's not a democracy," said Charles Eggleston, an Army reservist from Richmond, Va., who is recovering from severe back and rib injuries from an explosion in Iraq. He said he moved off the Walter Reed grounds after he saw a rat "the size of a cat" in his room.