Walter Reed Army hospital to close in September

Earlier this week, the Pentagon announced that Walter Reed Army hospital will close in September 2011. The facility, which is over a century old, will be turned over to the State Department and the District of Columbia. The medical staff will be transferred to military hospitals in Bethesda, Maryland and northern Virginia.

Walter Reed, until recently, was considered one of the military's crown jewels. Presidents, foreign dignitaries, and domestic political hotshots were treated there. Of course, the idea was to care for rank-and-file soldiers wounded in the line of duty. Walter Reed's staff, over the years, performed that duty with pride. That's why it was shocking, regardless of political or ideological perspective, when a 2007 Washington Post report by Dana Priest and Anne Hull exposed revolting housing conditions at the hospital. It was a national black eye. The episode was also a source of deep shame for the Bush Administration, which had relentlessly promoted a public message of its unstinting support to the armed services.

Walter Reed is part of American history. It's with sadness that one notes its closing.