I took my dad over to Walter Reed +-once a month or so for the last 15 years of his life until 2004. Since then I only get back during July when my local church choir goes over for the 4th and sings for people at Fisher House.

My experience of the place is that its very very bureaucratic. The waits are mind numbing. The doctors are first rate but the orderlies can kill you with their incompetence. Twice my dad was saved by the doctors only to be almost killed by some bungling staff.

The family tried to get him to go elsewhere like Bethesda Naval Hospital where the care is better. The suburban hospitals around here are first rate as well. But the old man would not hear of it.

imho Walter Reed suffered a malaise. The neighborhood in which it is located is run down.
As you drive down Georgia Ave from the beltway you can see the neighborhoods go downhill. The soldiers coming back from the middle east injected a much needed level of vigor and patriotic pride into the hospital after 9/11/01.

But not enough.

I’m not surprised a guy like Hasan could fit in there. Walter Reed is perfectly PC.

Walter Reed is currently in the process of being shut down. Staff and facilities are being moved to Bethesda Naval Hospital…further out in the suburbs.