The Post’s report revealed that wounded soldiers waiting for outpatient care often have to endure deplorable conditions including moldy walls, stained carpets, and the slow processing of paperwork. General George W. Weightman, along with some lower-ranking personnel, subsequently were relieved of their duties at Walter Reed.

Retired Army Lt. Colonel Bob Maginnis, a classmate of the general at West Point, says even though he believes some action was warranted, he thinks Defense Secretary Robert Gates went too far in relieving Weightman. « He’d only been in command for six months, » Maginnis observes, « and to change a bureaucracy it’s going to take a lot more than six months — and even a George Patton-type of personality to make significant changes. I think to a certain degree he is a scapegoat. »

Maginnis explains that Army medical care is not quite like what one finds in the civilian world. « Yes, you will get quality care [in a military hospital], but it’s not going to be perhaps what you would expect if you went to your local hospital and you were expecting a lot of attention, » he says. « You just don’t get that in the military medical system. »

Maginnis says it remains to be seen how much the Pentagon is going to put into improvements at Walter Reed, which is on the list of military facilities earmarked for closure.