Walter Reed Hospital

[NutmegCT]

A hospital which has played a major role in US history is closing. The official ceremonies take place next Wednesday.

Walter Reed Hospital, now part of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, opened in 1909.

Walter Reed Closing

Lots of memories, sadness, and triumph in that building.

T.

 

[jessebogan]

I was *born* there. I hope to grab a brick when they (foolishly) tear it down.

 

[NutmegCT]

Today's the day. Official closing ceremony.

T.

 

[vagt6]

A friend of mine has worked at Reed for 12 years, she attended the Army's closing ceremony yesteday and said it was very moving with speeches by the big brass, full of symbolism.

The Walter Reed Medical Center is 102 years old, with a staff of 6,000 who treat 150,000 patients a year. It is being merged with the expansive National Naval Medical Center in nearby Bethesda, which will be renamed Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and run as a joint Navy-Army command.

This old hospital is steeped in history. It was named for the Army Medical Corps' great hero, who was key in determining how typhoid fever (which killed more soldiers than the Cubans in the Spanish American War) was spread and how to prevent it. He later proved how the disease was transmitted, a <span style="text-decoration: underline">major</span> medical breakthrough at a time when medical science was just beginning to understand how diseases entered the body.

Dr. Reed's saber is the medical center's most valued artifact and it was presented in a casing ceremony Wednesday to Rear Adm. Matthew Nathan, who will be the commander of the new center, a joint Navy-Army venture.

"The ineffable culture of excellence, the love and care, the raw intelligence here . . . is not trapped in stones or mortar or steel," said Lt. Gen. Eric Schoolmaker, the Army's surgeon general.

I hope that somewhere, Dr. Reed is smiling.