i

A Pictorial History

1909-2009

Centennial

WALTER REED

ARMY MEDICAL CENTER
ii

978-0-9818228-3-9

The opinions or assertions contained herein are the private views of the authors and are not to 

be construed as official or as reflecting the views of the Department of the Army or the Department of Defense.

Use of Trade or Brand Names:

Use of trade or brand names in this publication is for illustrative purposes only and does not 

imply endorsement by the Department of Defense.

Neutral Language:

Unless this publication states otherwise, masculine nouns and pronouns do not refer exclusively 

to men.

certain parts of this publication pertain to copyright restrictions.

all rights reserved.

no copyrighted parts of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, 

electronic or mechanical (including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system), 

without permission in writing from the publisher or copyright owner.

Published by the Office of The Surgeon General at TMM Publications 

Borden Institute

Walter Reed Army Medical Center

Washington, DC 20307-5001

 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Walter Reed Army Medical Center centennial : a pictorial history, 1909-2009 / edited by John R. Pierce ... [et al.].

p. ; cm.

ISBN 978-0-9818228-3-9

1. Walter Reed Army Medical Center--History--20th century--Pictorial works. I. Pierce, John R., 1947- 

II. Walter Reed Army Medical Center. III. Borden Institute (U.S.)

[DNLM: 1. Walter Reed Army Medical Center. 2. Hospitals, Military--history--District of Columbia. 

3. History, 20th Century--District of Columbia. 4. History, 21st Century--District of Columbia. 

WX 28 AD6 W234 2009]

UH474.5.W3W34 2009

355.3’4509753--dc22

Borden Institute Staff

Director and Editor in Chief: Martha Lenhart, MD, PhD, COL, MC, US Army

Managing Editor: Joan Redding

Senior Volume Editor: Vivian Mason

Volume Editor: Marcia Metzgar

Senior Layout Editor/ Information Technology: Douglas Wise

Visual Information Specialist: Bruce Maston

Administrative Officer: Ronald Wallace, Master Sergeant (Ret), US Air Force

Executive Assistant: Narvin Gray

Contributing Editors 

John R. Pierce, MD

COL, MC, US Army (Ret) 

Historian

Walter Reed Society

Kathleen Stocker, MLS

Assistant Archivist

Otis Historical Archives

National Museum of Health and Medicine

Armed Forces Institute of Pathology 

Michael G. Rhode 

Archivist 

Otis Historical Archives

National Museum of Health and Medicine

Armed Forces Institute of Pathology

Catherine F. Sorge, MSLS

Archivist

Walter Reed Army Medical Center 

Marylou Gjernes

Picture Research Consultant

OTSG Office of Medical History

Douglas Wise

Layout, Design, and File Manager

Borden Institute 

Martha K. Lenhart, MD, PhD

COL, MC, US Army

Director

Borden Institute
iii

A Pictorial History

1909-2009

Centennial

WALTER REED

ARMY MEDICAL CENTER

Edited by

John R. Pierce, MD

COL, US Army (Ret) 

Michael G. Rhode 

Marylou Gjernes

Kathleen Stocker, MLS

Catherine F. Sorge, MSLS

Douglas Wise

Martha Lenhart, MD, PhD

COL, US Army
iv

Source: Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Directorate of Public Works Archives.
v

Contents

Acknowledgments vii

Foreword ix

Preface xi

Introduction xiii

First Decade: 1909–1919 1

Second Decade: 1920–1929 25

Third Decade: 1930–1939 59

Fourth Decade: 1940–1949 75

Fifth Decade: 1950–1959 101

Sixth Decade: 1960–1969 137

Seventh Decade: 1970–1979 165

Eighth Decade: 1980–1989 195

Ninth Decade: 1990–1999 213

Tenth Decade: 2000–2009 241
vi

Standing on the walk in front of Walter Reed’s main entrance Homer Greenfield smilingly recalls that he was the hospital’s 1st, though unofficial, patient. He had been hunting strawberries and cut his finger rather badly on some barbed 

wire. Running to the hospital for help, he collapsed near the front steps. A hospital corpsman took him into the freshly 

prepared operating room and repaired his finger. At that time the hospital had not been officially opened. He was a patient a second time, this time officially, when he returned from France with shell fragments in his leg and suffering from 

poison gas effects. Later on, he spent a short time as head of the Quartermaster Commissary. (Original caption)

Source: Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Directorate of Public Works Archives.
vii

Acknowledgments

This assemblage of images depicting Walter Reed Army Medical Center (WRAMC) was 

compiled from resources at the National Archives and Records Administration, the National 

Museum of Health and Medicine, the editorial office of WRAMC’s newspaper Stripe, the WRAMC 

Public Affairs Office, the WRAMC History Office, the WRAMC Department of Public Works, 

WRAMC Medical Library (Borden's Dream), Library of Congress, OTSG - Office of Medical 

History, and several private collections. The images presented here — pictures, newspaper clippings 

and memorabilia — were selected to highlight ten decades at the medical center. While this book 

does not provide a detailed or comprehensive history of WRAMC, its personnel, or its patients, we 

believe it captures the essence and spirit of the WRAMC campus through the years. 

As with any publication, this work would not be possible without the work of numerous 

contributors. We are sincerely grateful to all those who supported this publication. Dr. John 

Greenwood, former Chief Historian to the US Army Surgeon General, proposed a photographic 

history of Walter Reed Hospital in time for its 100th anniversary and has provided valuable input in 

reviewing the manuscript. Many photographs and Kodachrome slides were made available by Don 

Chory, Master Planner, in the WRAMC Directorate of Public Works. The slides were scanned and 

preserved by Donna Rose and Lori Hamrick of Information Manufacturing Company. Sherman 

Fleek, Command Historian for the North Atlantic Regional Medical Command and WRAMC, 

provided access to many files with photographs that were ultimately incorporated in the book. 

Bernard Little, Editor; Craig Coleman, Assistant Editor; and Stripe staff writers Kristin Ellis and 

Sharon Taylor-Conway were very generous with their time and resources. We are also grateful 

for image research assistance from WRAMC Public Affairs Officer Chuck Dasey, Deputy Public 

Affairs Officer Terry Goodman, and Community Relations Officer Thom Cuddy. We are eternally 

indebted to WRAMC staff and the thousands of patients and their families. Without them, there 

would be no history of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
viii

Major Walter Reed
ix

Foreword

On May 1, 1909, Walter Reed General Hospital opened its doors, with ten patients treated 

on that first day. The original hospital, Building 1, expanded over the decades to provide care for 

thousands of service members during World War I, World War II, and the Korean and Vietnam 

wars. On September 26, 1977, the current Walter Reed Army Medical Center inpatient facility 

opened. Today, more than 600,000 outpatients and 13,000 inpatients per year receive care at Walter 

Reed. 

In 2009, Walter Reed Army Medical Center’s centennial year, we commemorate the hospital 

center’s legacy of medical care and innovation. As we celebrate the expert healthcare provided by 

the physicians, nurses, and allied staff who have served before us, we also take pride in our continued 

excellence in clinical medicine, advances in knowledge and techniques, and implementation of 

leading-edge rehabilitation services. 

Our ability to provide advanced care for service members injured at home or during deployment 

has endured nearly 100 years, and has earned this hospital its reputation as the world’s premier 

military medical facility. Ultimately, the character of Walter Reed Army Medical Center is a 

testament to the men and women who strive (to paraphrase Abraham Lincoln) to care for those 

who have borne the battle and for their dependents. During this centennial, as you relive this 

hospital’s past through the images presented here, it is my hope that this book will serve as a tribute 

to the accomplishments of Walter Reed’s dedicated team of healthcare providers throughout its 

100-year legacy. We are Walter Reed! 

Carla Hawley-Bowland 

Major General, US Army

Commander, North Atlantic Regional Medical Command

and Walter Reed Army Medical Center

Washington, DC

March 2009
x

Lt. Colonel William Cline Borden
xi

Preface

As I reflect upon the history of this great health care organization I can not help but wonder what 

Major (later Lt Colonel) William Borden, who first envisioned a hospital complex named for Walter 

Reed, and Colonel (later Brigadier General) William Arthur, the first commander, would think today 

when looking across the 113 acres of buildings, across the top of Building 1, the original Walter Reed 

General Hospital, to that great grey edifice that is Building 2, the Heaton Pavilion, and the home of 

the current hospital. I wonder what they, and other former commanders, many now members of that 

ghostly assemblage, would think of the changes that have occurred throughout the years and across 

the wars, the advances in the practice of medicine, the thousands of research protocols conducted, the 

addition of family member care, and of the creation of residency training programs and fellowships, 

and not all just for physicians, but for nurses, administrators, technicians, and chaplains as well. I 

think that he, and the others, would say simply, “Well done; after all, we are Walter Reed!”

 When completed in December 1908, the hospital was state of the art for the time, and, in essence, 

defined “world class” for military facilities. This is the true legacy of Walter Reed, the organization, 

for we are still, to this day, helping to define what it means to be world class. We are, and have 

always been, leaders in military medicine, and in medicine in general. We continue to serve as a 

medical education powerhouse, graduating some of the best physicians and health care professionals 

in America. We continue to serve as a research powerhouse, with some 800+ protocols on-going 

at any time. We continue to serve as an innovator in military medicine through the creation of the 

Warrior Transition Unit, the Warrior Clinic, the Military Advanced Training Center, our numerous 

Centers of Excellence, our one-of-a-kind Executive Medicine Service, and our renewed focus on 

Healthcare Hospitality and Customer Service. In short, our motto sums it all up, for at Walter Reed, 

we are warrior care.

 The legacy of this great institution, and the people who have served in it, and have been treated 

by it, will live on as we move forward into the future with the creation of the Walter Reed National 

Military Medical Center at Bethesda. The legacy of Major Walter Reed himself will live on; for just 

as he, through his landmark discovery of the transmission of yellow fever, lives on in the lives that 

have been saved from this disease, so too shall the legacy of Walter Reed Army Medical Center live 

on in the warriors and their family members whose lives it has touched.

Norvell Vandervall Coots, MD

COL, MC, US Army

Commander (2008–2011)

Walter Reed Health Care System

Walter Reed Army Medical Center

Washington, DC

March 2009
xii

Regrouping of the Walter Reed General Hospital and the Army Medical School as the Army Medical Center resulted in the adoption of a shield, used for a number of years without a motto. The caduceus on the shield represented the Medical Department; the yearbook and flaming torch represents 

knowledge. The crest is the helmet of Minerva — patroness of medicine. The Medical Department 

colors, maroon and white, form the relief.

The motto was selected from suggestions of officers, nurses, aides, dieticians, and enlisted men 

of the troop command of the Army Medical Center. The one proposed by the late Lieutenant Colonel 

Henry J. Nichols, once a member of the Army Medical School faculty, was selected: “to the spirit of 

science and the instinct of service.”

The wise and beloved Jefferson Randolph Kean, Medical Department sage for over a half-century, 

suggested that “to the spirit of science and instinct of service” be revised to read “the spirit of science 

among arms.” – a dedication for a great military hospital responsible for the care and prevention of 

casualties of war.

Adapted from Mary Standlee’s Borden’s Dream
xiii

Introduction

The history of Walter Reed Army Medical Center begins in 1900, when Major Walter Reed led 

the US Army Yellow Fever Board in Havana, Cuba, in proving that yellow fever was transmitted 

by the common domestic mosquito. The results of this research were quickly applied by Major 

William C Gorgas, essentially ending yellow fever’s centuries-long reign of terror. Within a short 

time of returning to the states, however, Major Reed died of appendicitis under the care of Major 

William C Borden, commander of the Army General Hospital in Washington, DC.

Devastated by Reed’s death, Borden dedicated himself to honoring his friend. He worked for 

several years to get funds for a new hospital to replace the inadequate Army General Hospital, and 

to have this new hospital named for Walter Reed. In memorializing his friend, Borden honored 

Walter Reed in ways he could not have imagined.

Opened in May 1909 with 10 patients transferred from the Army General Hospital, Walter Reed 

General Hospital, the Army’s first named permanent general hospital, was built for a capacity of 

about 80 patients. Within the hospital’s first decade, World War I brought rapid growth as wounded 

soldiers poured in from the trenches of Europe, and the patient census swelled into the thousands. 

Temporary buildings were constructed to accommodate the new patients -- it was not until almost 

a decade after the war that significant permanent construction took place, when large wings were 

added to the east and west ends of the original building. Walter Reed hosted one venue of the Army 

School of Nursing, established in 1918 to meet the war needs. The school’s first graduating class in 

1921 of over 400 is reputed to be the largest graduating class of nursing students in US history.

When additional space was needed to handle World War II casualties, the Forest Glen Annex 

was purchased and converted into a patient care and convalescent area. Following the war, 

the introduction of physician residency training programs at Walter Reed mirrored the civilian 

physician education system to provide specialty training for military physicians. 

In September 1951, to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of Walter Reed, the name of the 

installation was changed to Walter Reed Army Medical Center. WRAMC became to internationally 

prominent under Major General Leonard Heaton during the 1950s, when national and world figures 

came to receive care and to visit the sick and wounded. 

Following his command at Walter Reed, General Heaton became Surgeon General of the US 

Army. In 1967 Surgeon General Heaton procured funds from Congress to start planning for a 

new hospital facility. Groundbreaking ceremonies were held for a new WRAMC hospital facility 

in 1972. Five years later, on September 26, 1977, the new facility opened with 5,500 rooms, 28 

acres of floor space, 1,280 patient beds, and 16 operating rooms. In 1994 the building was renamed 

the Heaton Pavilion. With the onset of the Global War on Terror, today’s deployed intensive care 
xiv

units and critical care air transport have made it possible for severely wounded soldiers to arrive at 

WRAMC within days of being injured. 

Throughout its century of providing care, Walter Reed’s patients have included presidents, 

vice-presidents, cabinet secretaries, senators, members of Congress, federal judges, Army generals 

and high ranking officers of all grades, Medal-of-Honor winners, former prisoners of war, and 

foreign heads of state. During the Vietnam War, a WRAMC orthopedic ward (known as “the snake 

pit”) became the temporary home of many wounded soldiers, some of whom later became leaders 

in the Army (Generals Norman Schwartzkoff and Barry McCaffrey) and government (Senator 

Max Cleland). President Warren G Harding was the first sitting president to visit wounded warriors 

at Walter Reed. He began a tradition of paying respect and providing comfort to the wounded 

soldiers and their families continued today by former President George W Bush and President 

Barack Obama. 

This book is not a definitive history of WRAMC; that book is yet to be written. Instead it is a 

pictorial narrative of this foundation of military medicine as it served the nation and thousands of 

patients during a century of extraordinary growth in medical knowledge, education, and research.

John R. Pierce, MD

COL, MC, US Army (Ret) 

Historian

Walter Reed Society

Washington, DC

2009
xv

A Pictorial History

1909-2009

Centennial

WALTER REED

ARMY MEDICAL CENTER
2
3

1909–1919
4

The early history of Walter Reed 

General Hospital begins here 

with a few details to set the stage 

for the photographs in this volume. 

Limited by an initial appropriation of 

$100,000 for the land, which purchased 

a little over 43 acres known as the Cameron Tract, and $200,000 for the buildings, the nascent campus of 1909 contained only the main hospital building 

for administration, 65–80 beds for 

inpatient care (reports vary), and two 

double sets of sergeant’s quarters. During the first two years, support buildings were added to include a quartermaster storehouse and commissary, a 

stable, a wagon shed and garage, a barracks for the Hospital Corps (Building 

7), and two sets of Captain’s quarters 

(currently the General Officer quarters). In 1911, the Army Nurse Corps 

Home (Building 12) for 20 nurses was 

completed. The original clinical facility 

of Building 1 was soon outgrown, and 

new additions were added. A separate 

building for an “isolation hospital” of 

12 beds opened in 1913, a west addition to Building 1 was completed in 

1914, and an east addition was completed in 1915. 

World War I would, of course, change 

everything. The Post Return for April 

1917, the month the United States entered the war, reported an active duty 

staff of 15 officers and 158 enlisted 

men, with 121 inpatients and an approximately 180-bed capacity. A total 

of 173 personnel for 121 patients may 

seem like excessive staffing, but, at the 

Title page - William Cline Borden’s original dream for the Army Medical Department’s facilities in Washington, D.C. was a single campus with the Walter Reed 

General Hospital, the Army Medical School, the Army Medical Museum, and the 

Surgeon General’s Library. The preceding page is a watercolor drawing by architects Marsh and Peters of their concept for this campus. The original drawing, 

about 6 feet by 6 feet in size, is currently displayed in the lobby of the Borden 

Pavilion.

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, WRAMC History Collection, Reeve 2938

4

time, there were only a few civilian 

employees and active duty personnel 

who did almost all the work, including 

clinical care, maintenance of the facility and equipment, minor construction 

projects, feeding of all personnel, and 

maintaining the animals.

To care for the war wounded, construction of temporary buildings started on 

June 15, 1917, and, by the end of the 

year, the hospital had a capacity of 950 

beds. An additional land purchase of 

a little more than 25 acres was made 

from several surrounding landowners 

and along with the original purchase 

of 43 acres brought the total reservation to 69 acres. By the end of 1918, the 

total bed capacity was 2,500 beds, and 

admissions for 1918 were the highest 

u The first medical department unit to 

occupy Walter Reed Hospital Reservation was Company C of the Hospital 

Corps. The area that they bivouacked 

had been used by Confederate General Jubal Early on July 11-12, 1864 in 

his attack on Washington. This same 

site was used for the Army Medical 

School building in 1923.

Source: Military Surgeon, Vol. 64, No. 4, April 

1929
5

for the World War I period at 13,752. If 

the war was not enough, the great influenza pandemic swept the country 

and world in the fall of 1918, leading to 

over 2,000 admissions for influenza and 

more than 150 deaths at Walter Reed 

during a difficult 6-month period.

In addition to the wounded, war 

brought volunteers to the hospital to 

assist in their care and recovery. Edith 

Oliver Rea, a wealthy Pittsburgh philanthropist temporarily residing in 

Washington with her husband who 

came to assist with the war effort, became a benefactor to Walter Reed. Mrs. 

Rea was asked by the American Red 

Cross to be the Field Director at Walter 

Reed. She did so for 1 year, and then 

turned the title over to Miss Margaret 

5

Lower; but, she stayed on as the leader of the volunteers who, because of 

their soft pearl-gray uniforms, became 

known as the Red Cross Gray Ladies, 

a moniker that spread nationally and 

continues to this day. 

The war generated the need for additional trained nurses, which led to the 

establishment at Walter Reed and other 

locations of the Army School of Nursing (ASN) in August 1918. Planned for 

three years of training, the ASN was the 

Army’s first adventure into training its 

own female nurses. Its charter class at 

Walter Reed swelled to over 400 students and is reputed to be the largest 

in American history; subsequent classes were significantly smaller. Although 

trained at government expense, there 

was no statutory service obligation and 

less than one-third of the graduates actually elected to enter active duty. The 

war ended in November 1918, but the 

ASN remained at Walter Reed until it 

was phased out in the early 1930s. The 

ASN was unusual for nursing schools 

of its day because the purpose of ASN 

was to train nurses, not to provide a 

pool of inexpensive skilled labor for its 

hospital. 
6

This is the oldest known photograph of the main building. Building 1 opened for its first patients on May 1, 1909.

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, AMM 484

u Originally designed for 65–80 

patients, the hospital was expanded to 

2,500 beds for servicemembers from 

World War I. 

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, 65-12603
7

p Aerial view of the campus is dated March 15, 1919. The annotated photograph identifies three nurses homes, the gatehouse, main entrance, Commander’s Quarters, and Wards 1 through 4. This view is looking toward present-day Georgia 

Avenue. The Sharpshooter’s Tree can be seen between nurses’ home 1 and the gatehouse. This chaotic picture was typical of the temporary expansion of the campus in World War I. Note the address is Takoma Park, D.C. 

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, WRAMC History Collection

t In July of 1864 the Sharpshooter 

Tree was used by Confederate soldiers during the Battle of Fort Stevens. 

General Jubal Early commanded the 

Confederate Army’s II Corps in its advance on Washington. They used this 

tulip tree to position sharpshooters to 

take shots at Union soldiers stationed 

at Fort Stevens located half a mile to 

the south. 

Source: Library of Congress
8

Artist’s conception of the proposed Army Medical School and Army Medical Center dated 1919. 

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, Reeve 2398

t Photograph of detachment of 

medical personnel that opened Walter 

Reed Hospital on May 1, 1909. Seated in the front are (left to right) Capt. 

Walter Huggins, acting Quartermaster; Maj. Thomas L. Rhodes, adjutant 

and surgeon; Col. William Arthur, 

commanding officer; Capt. William 

Pipes, Capt. Percival L. Jones.

Source: Signal Corps
9

This 1918 map (top) of the grounds of the hospital shows the increase in temporary buildings required to serve the returning veterans. Note the greenhouses on the east side of Georgia Avenue. The reverse of the map (bottom) encourages 

the patients to be active. As the poster says, “something to do” may be things in leather, decorative bookbinding, drawing, 

block printing, stenciling, metal work, beadwork, or twine work.

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, WRAMC History Collection
10

u Artist’s conception of the Nurses 

Quarters and Training School dated 

February 14, 1919. The Army School 

of Nursing at Walter Reed opened in 

1918. Delano Hall was later built to 

house the nurses.

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, Reeve 3146
11

t This 1918 artist’s conception is a 

plan for the Army Medical School. 

The Army Medical School moved to 

the hospital campus in 1923 from its 

location in downtown Washington. A 

building to house the school was built 

to the west on a direct line with Building 1. The architecture was compatible with the permanent buildings, the 

exterior being of brick with limestone 

trimmings. The main entrance to the 

south wing lead into a large central 

lobby. When completed a decade later, 

the building would consist of two long 

wings connected by a central portion 

that housed a large auditorium. 

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, WRAMC History Collection, Reeve 

2211
12

p Red Cross House and Post Exchange. 

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, NCP 15008

q Red Cross volunteers.

Source: Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Directorate of Public Works 

Archives
13

t A view of the hospital and some of 

the support buildings probably taken 

in 1915 as the west addition (left) to 

Building 1 is completed and the east 

addition is under construction. 

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, Reeve 3080a

p The Walter Reed Army General Hospital is located on Georgia Avenue, near Takoma Park, and is on the ground where 

the battle with General Early’s army was fought during the Civil War. It honors the name of Maj. Walter Reed, Medical 

Corps, U.S.A., whose life ended on November 23, 1902. (Postcard)

Source: Pierce Collection
14

u Radio communication played a major role in connecting 

the wounded veterans with the world outside the hospital 

grounds. In February 1919, the Telegraphy School, with assistance from the Signal Corps, installed two complete sets 

of wireless instruments. This apparatus consisted of a longwave receiving set for handling the high-powered overseas 

stations, and a commercial wave set for recording signals 

sent out by ship and shore stations. The set could also tune 

as low as 100 meters, thus enabling the operator to handle 

the amateurs on the waves of 200 meters. By June 1920, it 

was considered one of the most up-to-date radio stations of 

its size on the East Coast. The Come-Back, June 26, 1920. 

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, WRAMC History 

Collection
15

t The Come-Back, published from December 4, 1918 to September 17, 1926 

strengthened the morale of the soldiers and soldier-patients of the hospital. It 

was one of approximately 50 newspapers published at military hospitals around 

the country. The Come-Back was sold on the streets of Washington and sales 

to the community were encouraged. To cover the cost of production, advertising space was sold to local businessmen, and the paper itself cost five cents. 

Because of the audience, general news was covered in addition to news of happenings at the hospital. Initially four pages, within a year it was 12 pages, and its 

circulation doubled and then tripled. The paper became an effective crusader for 

soldiers successfully fighting for reduced rates on rail travel. 

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, WRAMC History Collection

p This rickshaw wheelchair combination was perfect for negotiating paths around the hospital grounds. The Come-Back,

Vol. 1, May 21, 1919. 

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, WRAMC History Collection
16

q Pneumonia ward in 1919. There 

were more than 150 patient deaths 

due to the influenza pandemic in the 

fall and winter of 1918–1919.

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, Reeve 604-2

t Here, a camera is recording an 

operation. The motion picture camera 

became a critical part of the teaching 

mission of the hospital. 

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, Reeve 562
17

p Observation Ward. 

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, Reeve 602

u Mess Hall Ward, Ward Y for patients.

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, Reeve 743
18

t Foot gymnastics for soldiers from 

Army camps, Walter Reed Hospital. 

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, Reeve 279

t Massaging residual limbs of soldiers preparatory to prosthetic fitting. 

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, Reeve 278

u Amputees at Walter Reed General Hospital whose stumps were 

massaged daily and made ready for 

prosthetics. 

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, Reeve 273
19

t Horticultural therapy involves the 

use of gardening, landscaping, flower 

arranging, nature crafts, and related 

activities. The purpose is to boost the 

patient’s self-esteem, develop a sense 

of accomplishment, and overcome 

stress. In addition to the therapy, the 

greenhouses produced plants and 

holiday flowers used for programs and 

activities at the hospital. 

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, Reeve 276

u Soldier-patients working in the 

garden at Walter Reed Hospital, 

Reconstruction Division. 

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, Reeve 469

t When a second greenhouse was 

needed, there was no funding available. Used and about to be discarded, 

glass X-ray plates were cleaned, 

set into frames, and reused as window panes in construction of the 

new greenhouse. The two original 

greenhouses and a third donated by 

the U.S. Park Service in 1943 were 

demolished in 1998. 

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, Reeve 275
20

t Hammer with hand mold for wounded hand. Used by Pvt. John Aver (37th 

Division, U.S. Infantry), World War I. 

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, Reeve 1789

p Sign painting class provided re-education of the wounded. Walter Reed Hospital, Reconstruction Division. 

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, Reeve 2011
21

t Making jewelry provided 

re-education opportunities for 

wounded soldiers.

Source National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, Reeve 2022

q Pvt. Ralph Grimm, who became an 

expert Silversmith in the Walter Reed 

occupational therapy shop. (Original 

caption)

Source: Pierce Collection

p A silver ashtray made by a patient 

undergoing therapy at Walter Reed. 

Stamped on the bottom is “Walter 

Reed General Hospital”

Source: Pierce Collection, Douglas Wise - 

photographer
22

t Wounded soldier learning to type. 

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, Reeve 285

t Injured soldiers learning to knit. 

Walter Reed General Hospital, Reconstruction Division. 

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, Reeve 305

u Patient working at his old trade as a 

draughtsman. 

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, Reeve 277
23

The new swimming pool, donated by Mrs. Rea, was used for physical therapy and soldier recreation. The Come-Back,

July 9, 1919. 

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, WRAMC History Collection
24

Patient rehabilitation. Playing baseball. 

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, WRAMC History Collection
25
26
27

1920–1929
28

u Building 1 as it appeared late in 

the second decade after two major 

additions. 

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, WRAMC History Collection

The war was over, but the care 

and rehabilitation of war 

wounded continued at Walter Reed during the early years of its 

second decade. Closure of temporary 

Army hospitals that were opened during the war lead Congress to provide 

additional funds to Walter Reed to 

purchase additional property and to 

replace many of the temporary buildings added during the war with permanent structures. Between 1920 and 

1922, the Army purchased 44 acres of 

land north of the Post that was part 

of the Sixteenth Street Heights subdivision. This brought the campus to 

its present size of approximately 116 

acres. Later in the decade, major east 

and west additions were added to 

“old main,” bringing Building 1 to essentially what is seen today. 

Warren G. Harding, elected President 

of the United States in 1920, was the 

first President to personally visit Walter Reed. Mrs. Rea and Miss Lower 

from the Red Cross at Walter Reed 

were at the White House making arrangements to bring wounded soldiers there for a garden party when 

the President approached them and 

asked if he could come out for a visit. 

He said how about this Sunday, and 

they said “of course.” Concerned that 

Title page - This aerial view, taken in the summer of 1921, looks north toward 

Building 1, the main administration and clinical building, which was completed in 

1908 and occupied in 1909. The new Wards A (west) and B (east, hidden behind 

the trees) were completed in 1914 and 1915, respectively. Directly north of the 

east portion of Building 1 are two identical double sets of Sergeant’s quarters, 

Buildings 2 and 3. To the east of Building 3 (right in the photo) is the larger “Isolation Hospital” of 12 beds completed in 1913. Temporary wards for World War I 

are seen in the foreground (left and right). The YMCA building is seen in the upper right of the photograph. Also north of Building 1, in the upper portion of the 

photos, are former private homes that were on the property that was purchased 

for the facility. These were used as officer’s quarters.

Source: National Archives and Records Administration, 9882AC

28

they had committed to the President of 

the United States without the knowledge of the hospital commander, they 

rushed back to the hospital hoping 

that everything would be alright. It 

was of course and the President’s visit 

on a beautiful Sunday afternoon in 

May was a rousing success.

The rolling of Easter eggs on the Monday following Easter was a Washington children’s tradition long before it 

began at Walter Reed in 1923. In 1927, 

Walter Reed held Washington’s first 

Easter Sunrise Service soon becoming 

an annual event interrupted only during World War II.
29

The Army Medical School’s new permanent building was built on the little 

knoll to the west of Building 1 that had 

been the location of the tent-sheltered 

Hospital Company C in April 1909, the 

first medical unit to occupy the grounds. 

The Army Medical School, founded by 

Surgeon General George Miller Sternberg in 1893, was not a four-year medical school as we know it today, but was 

a course of variable length depending 

on the needs of the Army that was an 

introduction to military medicine for 

physicians who had no prior service. 

The new building (Bldg. 40) opened in 

1923 and also housed the Army Dental 

School and Army Veterinary School. 

29

Over the years, Building 40 would undergo significant additions in the 1930s 

and 1960s. With the arrival of the Army 

Medical School, the installation was 

now named the Army Medical Center, 

which encompassed the schools (Army 

Medical School, Army Dental School, 

and Army Veterinary School), Walter 

Reed General Hospital, and all other 

activities on Post.

James D. Glennan, Walter Reed General Hospital (1919-1923) and Army 

Medical Center (1923-1926) commander was an avid garden enthusiast and 

had much to do with developing the 

formal garden south of Building 1. He 

is credited with acquiring a number of 

Japanese cherry trees that were surplus 

from over 3,000 sent from Japan for 

planting around the tidal basin and Potomac River and having them planted 

on the upper rim of the rose garden 

basin.
30
31

On December 12, 1920, a fire in Ward 

43, the ward for neuropsychiatric 

patients under observation, caused 

$25,000 damage and the death of one 

patient. Wards 43 and 44 were completely destroyed. Thirty-eight patients 

were helped to safety, earning the staff 

a collective special commendation for 

conspicuous and meritorious conduct. 

The destroyed buildings were long low 

structures, part of a number erected 

to care for the wounded veterans from 

World War I. The Come-Back, Vol. 2, 

No. 27, December 18, 1920. 

Sources: (Left) National Museum of Health and 

Medicine, AFIP, WRAMC History Collection 

(Below and Below Opposite) Walter Reed Army 

Medical Center, Directorate of Public Works 

Archives
32

p The great influx of patients during and after World War I contributed to crowded conditions on the campus. Temporary 

buildings and tents filled the grounds around the main building. 

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, Reeve 30624

p Snow removal team taking quick action.

Source: Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Directorate of Public Works Archives
33

u The 12-bed isolation ward was built 

in 1913. This building was razed in 

the 1970s to make way for the new 

hospital building. 

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, Reeve 4176

t Convalescent Wards 23 and 24 

with sunporches. 

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, NCP 15001

t 1927, Entrance to Kitchen Area. 

Right: first floor, Mess II; second floor, 

Library; third floor, Eye, Ear, Nose and 

Throat Wards.

Source: Borden’s Dream by Mary W. Standlee, 

p. 218
34

p Architect’s rendering of the Army Medical School at Walter Reed Hospital. South Elevation. The Army Medical School 

moved from 7th Street in downtown Washington, D.C., to a location on a knoll west of Building 1, site of the original Company C Hospital Corps encampment. 

Source: The Come-Back, March 17, 1922

p The Army Dental School was located in these temporary WWI buildings from 1922 to 1930 when these buildings were 

condemned and torn down. March 23, 1923.

Source: Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Directorate of Public Works Archives
35

t The First Easter Egg Roll at Walter 

Reed was held the Monday after Easter 

on April 2, 1923 in the formal gardens. 

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, WRAMC History Collection

q The first Easter Sunrise Service in 

Washington, D.C., was held at Walter 

Reed in 1927. More than 8,000 people 

attended the second Easter Sunrise 

Service in 1928. The services were 

broadcast live by local Radio Station 

WRC. The initial Service, co-sponsored 

by the Washington Federation of 

Churches and the U.S. Army, featured 

an impressive “Living Cross” formed by 

Walter Reed personnel with music by 

the U.S. Army Band. This annual event, 

held every year except 1942–1944, has 

attracted thousands of participants.

Source: Borden’s Dream by Mary W. Standlee. 

p. 215
36

u Native Americans with patients.

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, WRAMC History Collection

u 4th of July pageant.

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, Montgomery Collection

t Thanksgiving pageant.

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, Montgomery Collection
37

Front of the Christmas Menu from the 1921 Christmas Dinner. Highlights from the menu include Oyster Cocktails, 

Roast Virginia Turkey, Skookum Apples, and English Plum Pudding.

Source: Pierce Collection
38

p Outdoor class for the nurses. Notice the temporary ward construction behind them. 

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, WRAMC History Collection
39

q Maj. General Merritte W. Ireland, U.S. Army Surgeon General, presided at the graduation ceremonies for more than 

400 students from the Army School of Nursing at Walter Reed. It was said to be the largest graduating class from any 

similar institution in the United States. June 16, 1921.

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, 65-12604

p Nurses doing their morning exercises.

Source: Office of The Surgeon General, Office of Medical History
40

t A long view of the bacteriology lab 

where physicians trained in the Army 

Medical School. 

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, Reeve 2313

u The study of bacteriology has been 

important from the beginning of Walter 

Reed Hospital’s history. Here, one of 

the specialists is studying a slide. 

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, Reeve 608
41

p Army officer examining men’s teeth. 

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, Reeve 607 u (Left) Mrs. Henry (Edith Oliver) 

Rea, the original Red Cross Gray 

Lady. She was appointed by the 

American Red Cross to coordinate the 

Red Cross activities at Walter Reed 

during World War I. (Right) Shown is 

Mrs. Rea wearing the uniform of the 

day that gave the volunteer women 

their unofficial name based on the 

pearl gray color of their dress. 

Sources: (Left) Pierce Collection; (Right) National 

Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, WRAMC 

History Collection
42

Inside the main entrance to the main hospital (Building 1), July 25, 1924.

Source: Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Directorate of Public Works Archives
43

u Inside of the Operating Room of 

the Eye, Ear, Nose, and Throat Clinic, 

1922.

Source: Walter Reed Army Medical Center, 

Directorate of Public Works Archives

p Col. William L. Keller, Chief of Surgery, at work.

Source: Borden’s Dream by Mary W. Standlee, 

p. 163
44

p A typical hospital ward at Walter 

Reed. Patients are here for observation. 

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, 

AFIP, WRAMC History Collection. Reeve 605

u Rehabilitation aides (later called 

physical therapists) attending to their 

patients in one of the temporary building wards in August 1922. 

Source: Walter Reed Army Medical Center History Office
45

t Inside a hospital ward in a temporary building. 

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, Reeve 227

q Patients in Ward 72 on New Year’s Day, 1920. This was one of the temporary wards built to accommodate the wounded from the Great War. 

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, WRAMC History Collection
46

p A portable X-ray machine is brought to the patient on the ward. The practice at the time was not to use protective 

shielding.

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, Reeve 2312
47

u A Dental Technician positioning the 

X-ray machine for dental radiographs 

at Walter Reed General Hospital, 

1922. 

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, NCP 2732

p Dental procedure using natural 

lighting.

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, Reeve 225
48

u Patients enjoyed a social event in 

the recreation center of the Red Cross 

Building. 

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, Reeve 740

t Re-education in the form of occupational therapy is taking place on Ward X.

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, Reeve 773

u A war veteran wearing temporary 

pilons, which precede permanent 

prosthetic limbs. 

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, 

AFIP, WRAMC History Collection, Reeve 282
49

t Veterans recovering from wounds 

are taught basketry. The skills learned 

here will improve hand dexterity and 

eye-hand coordination. 

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, Reeve 286

u Wounded soldiers being taught scroll work by a vocational aide at Walter Reed Hospital. 

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, Reeve 644

u The process of making prosthetics 

is an essential part of training the 

patients to return to their normal lives. 

Here, technicians are shown creating 

the limbs lost in battle. 

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, Reeves 271
50

p World War I veteran enjoys a spring day on campus. 

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, Reeve 170

u Weaving is not only a creative 

way to pass time in the hospital, it 

also teaches eye-hand coordination, teaches injured muscles to work 

again, and gives the patient a sense 

of accomplishment when the project is 

completed. 

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, Reeve 645
51

p Soldier learning gardening in the Walter Reed greenhouse. 

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, Reeve 280

u The World War I veteran received a 

practical course. Farming, gardening, 

chicken-raising, and carpentry were 

taught, as well as stenography, printing, and the crafts. (Original caption)

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, Reeve 281
52

p Typewriting is another skill useful both in physical therapy to regain coordination and muscle strength, and also a 

useful tool for employment after release from the hospital. The patient is being observed by a Physiotherapy Aide.

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, Reeve 646
53

p Patient learning telegraphy, July 1922. 

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, Reeve 41849

t A patient learning hand weaving in 

his hospital bed, February 16, 1926. 

Source: National Archives and Records Administration, SC 560344
54

Learning to use prosthetics is critical 

to the patients’ recovery. In this series 

of photographs, patients are learning 

dexterity as well as skills for vocations 

after their release from the hospital. 

p Source: National Museum of Health and 

Medicine, AFIP, Reeve 4268

t Source: National Museum of Health and 

Medicine, AFIP, Reeve 2021
55

u Source: National Museum of Health and 

Medicine, AFIP, Reeve 4269

p Source: National Museum of Health and 

Medicine, AFIP, Reeve 4267
56

t Col. Glennan with the Duke of 

Windsor visiting with patients in 1920. 

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, WRAMC History Collection

q President Warren G. Harding was 

the first President to visit Walter Reed 

General Hospital in 1922. Here, he 

meets patients during his visit. 

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, WRAMC History Collection
57

p Surrounded by Walter Reed 

patients and Red Cross Gray Ladies 

at the White House, President Calvin 

Coolidge signed a bill for veterans 

relief pay, June 5, 1924. Looking on 

is General of the Armies, John J. 

Pershing.

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, WRAMC History Collection

t President Calvin Coolidge visiting 

with Walter Reed Hospital patients, 

1926.

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP
58
59

A determined and resolute Pvt. Maleskie poses for a picture in uniform at Walter Reed.

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, Reeve 1299
60
61

1930–1939
62

u This view of an addition to the Army 

Medical School was taken in April 

1931. It shows the massive amount 

of construction happening on the 

grounds. 

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, WRAMC History Collection

As the demands to care for and 

rehabilitate the war wounded 

declined, dependents made up 

a higher percentage of patients at Walter Reed. In addition, establishment 

of the Veterans Administration health 

care system took veteran patients away 

from all Army hospitals, including 

Walter Reed. However, Executive Order #6101 of April 5, 1933, authorized 

treatment of Civilian Conservation 

Corps members, which helped fill the 

bed space lost with the exodus of VA 

patients. 

The 1930s brought together a trio of 

talented surgeons, all destined to leave 

their mark on Walter Reed and the 

Army Medical Department. The most 

senior was the already legendary William L. Keller, who had been Chief of 

the Surgery Service since returning from 

World War I. When he retired in 1935, 

he was the first person made a lifetime 

consultant by The Surgeon General. 

He was given an office at Walter Reed, 

where he returned twice weekly for 15 

years until his health deteriorated and 

he was no longer able to do so. Keller 

died at Walter Reed in July 1959 at age 

85. In August 1974, ground was broken 

for a new Army community hospital at 

West Point, NY, that was named for him. 

Norman T. Kirk, a previous Chief of 

Orthopaedics at Walter Reed, returned 

from the Philippines to resume his old 

Title page - In comparison to the disorganized, chaotic photo taken in 1921 that 

opened the previous chapter, this northwest looking photo taken 10 years later 

shows an extraordinary transformation to an organized, orderly campus of uniform, symmetrical, and permanent buildings. During the 1920s, major additions 

to the campus had been massive east and west wings onto Building 1, permanent ward buildings north of Building 1, the initial Army Medical School (Building 

40, upper left with additions being added), Red Cross Hall (Building 41), and 

Memorial Chapel. Some of the more orderly temporary buildings remain to the 

southeast of Building 1 and south of the General Officer’s quarters. The flagpole 

remains in the traffic circle in front of Building 1.

Source: National Archives and Records Administration, 17128AC and 17132AC

62

Significant additions to the Army Medical School building (Building 40) were 

completed in 1932. With the additional 

administrative space, the Army Medical Center Commander moved out of 

Building 1 and into Building 40. With 

the Commander, the flagpole was 

moved from in front of Building 1 and 

placed at the east entrance of Building 

40. In 1933, the Hoff Memorial Fountain 

was placed in the traffic circle in front of 

Building 1, where the flagpole had been. 

Plans for a memorial chapel had begun as early as 1922, spurred by Miss 

Margaret Lower of the Red Cross and 

position in 1930. He had previously 

served with the Punitive Expedition in 

Mexico with Pershing and Eisenhower, 

in Panama, and Texas. During World 

War I, when assigned to Walter Reed, 

Kirk had authored Amputations, Operative Technique, a book that became a classic in the field. Following World War I, 

he served in San Antonio, the Philippines, and San Francisco. He returned 

again to Walter Reed in 1941–1942. Before being promoted to General Officer, 

he commanded the Percy Jones General Hospital in Michigan. From June 

1, 1943 until June 1, 1947, during the 

height of World War II, Dr. Kirk served 

as US Army Surgeon General. He died 

at Walter Reed in 1960 at age 72.

In 1930, James Claude Kimbrough, a 

veteran of World War I and recipient 

of the Purple Heart, became Chief of 

Urology at Walter Reed; he began a 

long and fruitful association for both. 

He had already served as Chief of Urology at the Station Hospital in San Antonio and at Letterman Army Hospital in 

San Francisco. Dr. Kimbrough became a 

legend in his own time and was known 

as the “Father of Army Urology.” Following his retirement after 36 years of 

active duty, he was also made a lifetime 

consultant to Walter Reed. He died in 

1956 at Walter Reed after a brief illness. 

The new Army Community Hospital at 

Fort Meade, MD, was named for him 

when it opened in June 1961. 
63

encouraged by the Commander, Gen. 

Glennan. At the time, chapels could 

not be built with government funds, 

so monies needed for the chapel were 

raised from donations. The nest egg 

was started with a $5 gift from a former 

vaudeville entertainer; gifts ranged 

from 25 cents to $32,000 from the ever 

benevolent Mrs. Rea. The groundbreaking took place on November 11, 1929 at 

11 a.m., the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, eleven 

years after the end of the “War to End 

All Wars.” The cornerstone was laid 

May 28, 1930, and the dedication was 

on May 21, 1931. It was said that, “Ev63

erything in it is a memorial to someone 

much loved.”

Built to house students of the Army 

School of Nursing and named for the 

second superintendent of the Army 

Nurse Corps, Jane Delano, the first section of Delano Hall was completed on 

November 29, 1930. Additional wings 

were added, and the entire building 

was completed in 1934. By that time, 

however, the Army School of Nursing 

had been closed since January 1933. 

The closure was due to the reduction 

in the number of nurses required, because many nurses were staying on 

active duty due to the uncertain economic times, the cost of operation, and 

the lack of success in retention of those 

trained. 

Most of the construction related to the 

clinical needs of patients occurred late 

in the previous decade and early in 

this one. It involved replacement of the 

temporary buildings constructed during World War I with permanent wards 

located north of Building 1. All but one 

of these was later razed to make way 

for the AFIP building in the 1950s and 

even later for the new hospital building 

in the 1970s.
64

Dedicated October 25, 1935 in memoriam of Col. John Van Rensselaer Hoff. Mrs. Hoff was granted the permit to erect 

the memorial on January 19, 1931. She died, but the executor of her will, Mr. Van Rensselaer H. Green, carried out her 

wishes. Col. Hoff was one of the many noted surgeons whose untiring devotion to a cause raised the Medical Corps from 

a rather insignificant Army adjunct to an important branch of the service. He was born in 1848, entered the Army in 1874, 

and retired in 1912. He was recalled to active service during the World War and died in 1920. Col. Hoff was, above all, a 

military surgeon, and was the first officer to apply military drill and precision to the movements of corpsmen in handling 

wounded patients. During his 38 years of energetic duty, Col. Hoff saw service in the Philippine Islands, Puerto Rico, 

and Cuba. He was a military observer with the Russian army in the Russo-Japanese War and was Chief Surgeon of the 

American Expeditionary Force to China in 1900. Mr. James C. Mackenzie designed the fountain, and it was built under the 

direction of Capt. Kester L. Hastings, Post Engineer, U.S.A. Capt. Hastings’ son is Brig. General James E. Hastings, US 

Army (ret), former Deputy Commander for Clinical Services at Walter Reed.

Source: National Archives and Records Administration, SC 320751
65

p The Red Cross Hall, South elevation, taken June 7, 1932. This new building, completed in 1928, replaced the original 

World War I period structure, and was paid for by the American Red Cross and donated to Walter Reed.

Source: National Archives and Records Administration, SC 59055

u The new nurses quarters, Delano 

Hall, under construction on April 8, 

1931. The Hall had 196 bedrooms for 

nurses assigned to the hospital. It had 

sunporches, music rooms, reception 

rooms, and a ballroom. It was named 

for Jane Delano, the second superintendent of the Army Nurse Corps. 

Source: National Archives and Records 

Administration, SC 590550
66

u The new headquarters of the Army 

Medical Center in Building 40, September 13, 1935. The flag was moved 

from its previous location in front of 

the hospital when the headquarters 

moved to the new building. 

Source: National Archives and Records Administration, SC 590700

p New addition to the Army Medical School, East elevation. November 9, 1931.

Source: WRAMC Historians Office, PAO Historical Collection
67

p This view of the front of the hospital was taken in early 1935. The pergola and rose garden can be seen in the foreground.

Source: National Archives and Records Administration, SC 320751
68

p Dedication services for the Memorial Chapel were held on May 21, 1931. Among the visitors were Mrs. 

Herbert Hoover, the Secretary of War, Mrs. Patrick J. Hurley, and Mrs. Woodrow Wilson. 

Source: Pierce Collection

t The groundbreaking for the new 

chapel. In attendance is Chaplain 

Oliver, Miss Margaret Lower, Gen. 

Darnall, Father McGeary, Mrs. Edith 

Oliver Rea, Miss Boardman, General 

Merritte Ireland, Mrs. Walter Reed 

(black dress and black hat), and Col. 

Easterbrook. 1929. 

Source: WRAMC History Collection
69

The influenza epidemic of 1918 led to caskets filling every 

available space. In 1922, spurred by Miss Margaret Lower 

and supported by General James D. Glennan, Commander, 

the Gray Ladies began to plan for construction of a memorial chapel. By 1924, a site was identified and fund-raising 

efforts were begun. Donations ranged from twenty-five 

cents to $32,000. When construction bids were examined in 

October 1929, the estimate had increased to $84,900 without 

windows, an organ, the altar, a flagstone floor and foundation, or a Glennan memorial tower. When finally completed, 

the building cost $161,000. The costs were met by an impressive list of memorial gifts. The groundbreaking ceremony 

was held on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month 

on the 11th anniversary of the end of World War I.

p These later interior views show the main altar in the Memorial chapel (left). The “Little Chapel” (right) equipped by the 

McCook family in memory of family members “who served their country in the war for the preservation of the Union.” In 

time, this became a Roman Catholic sanctuary due to its frequent use. 

Source: WRAMC History Office, PAO Historical Collection

u Cover of the Services of Consecration of the Memorial 

Chapel.

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, Reid Collection
70

p Built in 1911 to house nurses, 

Building 12 was located near Georgia 

Avenue and the main entrance to the 

hospital. Jane Delano, the second 

superintendent of the Army Nurses 

Corps, insisted the barracks be 

located near the front of the property. 

When Delano Hall (Building 11) was 

completed in the 1930s the nurses 

quarters were moved there. Building 

12 became officer’s apartments. This 

photograph is from about 1931.

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, WRAMC History Collection

u Brig. General Albert E. Truby, a 

contemporary of Walter Reed, was 

an advocate for the powers of healing 

from the enjoyment of nature. Here is 

a pergola with clinging roses in bloom 

as seen looking west through the Portal Garden about 1932. 

Source: National Archives and Records Administration, SC 590597
71

u Nurses relaxing in the reading and 

music room of the new Delano Hall. 

February 1, 1939. 

Source: National Archives and Records Administration, SC 590777

q A library was established to serve 

both the patients and the staff. The 

Library continues to serve the Walter 

Reed base. 

Source: WRAMC Library
72

t In 1938, Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt, 

wife of the President, cut the cake at 

an American Red Cross party at the 

hospital. Brig. General Wallace 

DeWitt and Miss Lower stand in the 

foreground. 

Source: National Archives and Records Administration, SC 590763

p General of the Armies, John J. Pershing, was an ardent supporter of the hospital and the medical care of the soldiers 

who served under him in World War I. He made numerous visits to the hospital, participating in many activities. Here, he 

is cutting the cake to celebrate the 16th Anniversary of the American Red Cross at Walter Reed in 1934. Also pictured are 

Brig. General Albert Truby, CG, and Miss Margaret Lower, Field Director, ARC.

Source: National Archives and Records Administration, SC 590677
73

p Surgical Operating Room at Walter Reed Hospital about 1935. 

Source: Walter Reed Army Medical Center History Office

u Interior view of Ward 9A waiting for 

patients. October 14, 1933. 

Source: National Archives and Records Administration, SC 590631
74

The nursing class of 1930 was the first entire class to train in obstetrics at Walter Reed. 

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, WRAMC History Collection (TAPS 1930)
75
76
77

1940–1949
78

u Building 1 at night in 1946. 

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, WRAMC History Collection

World War II was by far the most 

extraordinary event of this 

decade, as well as the century 

for the United States and the world. The 

cataclysm that was the Second World 

War is hard to grasp. How do you come 

to grips with an estimated 50–60 million deaths worldwide during those 

war-riddled years? As in World War I, 

the United States was not involved in 

all the years of the war, entering after 

Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 and 

continuing through the Japanese surrender on September 2, 1945. United 

States involvement in World War I (4.7 

million mobilized, with 116,000 deaths 

and 204,000 wounded) paled in comparison to World War II (16 million mobilized, with 400,000 deaths and 670,000 

wounded). The worldwide loss of human life and property simply has no 

comparison in human history. 

At Walter Reed, even the significant 

building expansion that took place 

along with and after World War I could 

not accommodate the patients generated by the Second World War. The 

busiest year for admissions in World 

War I was 1918, with 13,752 admissions of which about 1,800 were related 

to the influenza epidemic. The 18,046 

admissions in 1943 easily topped that 

total. Walter Reed needed additional 

facilities; thus, in September 1942, the 

Army purchased the old National Park 

Seminary at Forest Glen. The 185-acre 

property was initially called the New 

Section, then the Convalescent Section, 

and finally simply Forest Glen. As the 

second name implies, it was primarily 

used for convalescence. In addition, the 

Army temporarily took possession of 

a former Civilian Conservation Corps 

Camp at Beltsville, MD, about 7 miles 

from the main campus and 4 miles from 

Forest Glen. Camp Ord, as it became 

known, was an independent and selfsufficient station where soldiers wore 

fatigues rather than Class A or convalescent clothing. Rehabilitative work 

was mostly agricultural. Camp Ord was 

operated until March 7, 1945.

In May 1941, at age 81, General of the 

Armies, John J. Pershing, former Commanding General of the American Expeditionary Forces during World War 

I and former Army Chief of Staff, left 

the Carlton Hotel in Washington, DC, 

where he lived and moved into Walter 

Reed General Hospital. A special suite 

was built for him on the third floor of 

what had been called Ward B of Building 1. While the suite was being finished, 

he stayed on Ward 4, the male officer’s 

medical ward. Shocked by the Japanese 

attack on Pearl Harbor, he wrote President Roosevelt and offered to do whatever he could. However, he knew that 

this war was not his war, but belonged 

to the men who had earlier worked for 

him and to the sons of the Doughboys 

of World War I. Before sailing for the 

Title page - This photo looks northwest roughly the same direction as the photo 

that opened the previous chapter. The Army Medical School building (Building 

40) has been completed and the flagpole moved from in front of Building 1 to the 

east front of Building 40. The garden area bordered by the flagpole to the west, 

Red Cross Hall to the north, and Building 1 to the east is now fully landscaped 

and developed. The Hoff Memorial Fountain now occupies the traffic circle in 

front of Building 1. 

Source: WRAMC History Office, PAO Historical Collection, AP-4

78

invasion of North Africa, George Patton 

came to pay his respects and get a stirring farewell. Before leaving, Patton got 

down on his knees and asked Pershing 

for his blessing. Pershing squeezed his 

hand and said: “Good-bye, George. God 

bless and keep you and give you victory.” Patton rose and saluted his old commander, who likewise rose and smartly 

returned the salute. 

On Sunday April 22, 1945, the newly 

sworn-in President of the United States, 

Harry S. Truman, came to Walter Reed 

to pay his respects to General Pershing, 

his World War I commander. President 

Truman had taken the oath of office just 

ten days before following the unexpect-
79

ed death of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. 

Prior to visiting General Pershing, President Truman wanted to attend church 

and did so at Walter Reed’s Memorial 

Chapel.

General Pershing lived in the “penthouse” until his death on July 15, 1948 

at age 88. The penthouse became known 

as the Pershing Suite; subsequently, other famous officers were hospitalized in 

the Pershing Suite, including General 

Peyton C. March, Chief of Staff of the 

Army during World War I. He was hospitalized at Walter Reed General Hospital circa 1954 and died there on April 

3, 1955. At times, the suite was used as 

overflow for the labor and delivery ser79

vice. President Eisenhower was a patient 

in the Pershing Suite for approximately 

one month during his eleven-month stay 

at Walter Reed between May 1968 and 

March 1969. He used the Pershing Suite 

while the Presidential Suite on Ward 8 

was being redecorated. The area was 

closed after clinical care moved to the 

new hospital facility in 1978; but, when 

space got tight, it was used off and on for 

administrative space. In the late 1980s, 

it was used by The Surgeon General’s 

Consultant for Academic Medicine as 

office and conference space. From the 

late 1990s until today, it has been used 

by the Walter Reed Society. 

Following the end of World War II, 

many physicians were interested in 

specialty medical and surgical training. 

Across the Army Medical Department, 

physician residency training began in 

earnest and Walter Reed was no exception. In the past 60 years, Graduate 

Medical Education (internships, residencies, and fellowships) has become 

an integral part, if not the engine, that 

has driven expansion and excellence of 

clinical services at Walter Reed. While 

these individual specialty and subspecialty programs have numbered in the 

50s to 60s, trained thousands of physicians, and contributed immeasurably to 

the stature of Walter Reed, it is simply 

not possible to even begin to address 

them in this volume. 
80

u The Memorial Chapel saw heavy 

use not only for memorial services, but 

also for many weddings. This photograph is from May 1948. 

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, WRAMC History Collection

q The entrance used by the Army 

Medical Department Research and 

Graduate School is also the headquarters of the Army Medical Center. On 

the right is the solarium wing of the 

Red Cross Building. May 1948. 

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, SC 320757
81

p Gas station on Walter Reed General Hospital grounds in 1942.

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, WRAMC History Collection

t 16th Street Entrance to Walter 

Reed on May 19, 1949. Delano Hall is 

seen in the background. 

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, WRAMC History Collection
82

p The Officer’s Club at the Army Medical Center, Walter Reed General Hospital, Washington, D.C., May 29, 1949.

Source: Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Directorate of Public Works Archives

p East elevation of Building 40, formerly the Army Medical School.

Source: Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Directorate of Public Works Archives
83

p The formal garden of Walter Reed 

Hospital, September 8, 1941. 

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, WRAMC History Collection

t Woman on garden path, April 21, 

1948.

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, WRAMC History Collection
84

u The Aural Rehabilitation Center. 

Forest Glen, MD. 1946. 

Source: National Archives and Records Administration, SC 321815

u The Army Prosthetics Research 

Laboratory at Army Medical Center, 

Forest Glen, MD. May 19, 1949.

Source: National Archives and Records Administration, SC 321908

t Post Theater at Forest Glen, MD. 

1946. 

Source: National Archives and Records Administration, SC 321816
85

p Castle at Forest Glen, January 18, 1945. 

Source: National Archives and Records Administration, SC 591022

p Administration Building of the Forest Glen Annex. May 

19, 1949. 

Source: National Archives and Records Administration, SC 321906

The Army purchased a 188-acre site 

from National Park College, a private 

school for young women that had occupied the site since 1894. For its 1943 

opening, it transformed the 70 college 

buildings of varied architecture into 

the nucleus of a convalescent branch 

for Walter Reed Army Hospital’s ambulatory patients, thus freeing much 

needed bed space at the main Washington campus for patients needing 

constant medical attention. 

p Ward Room in the Forest Glen Section, Walter Reed General Hospital. Most 

of the original furnishings of the National Park College were retained after it was 

taken over as an annex to Walter Reed Hospital. 1944. 

Source: National Archives and Records Administration, SC 321812
86

p A solarium was added to Red Cross Hall in 1948.

Source: Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Directorate of Public Works Archives

Christmas dinner brochure and mug from 1947.

Source: Pierce Collection
87

p Jerry Colonna and Bob Hope 

greeting patients after a show at the 

Red Cross Hall on February 10, 1948.

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, WRAMC History Collection u Jimmy Durante, star of radio and 

television, performed for patients at 

Walter Reed. After, he toured some of 

the wards. Here, he pens an autograph for a fan.

Source: WRAMC History Office, PAO Historical 

Collection, Celebrity 2
88

u A Gray Lady writes a letter for a GI 

patient, 1944. 

Source: National Archives and Records Administration, SC 333302

p Sgt. Ernest H. Robson, Orange, NJ, 

and Pvt. Rocco R. Parrotti, Orange, 

NJ, show each other the Purple Hearts 

they were awarded after being wounded in the engagement in North Africa. 

They were wounded in the same 

action at Safi, Morocco, and brought 

back to the transport and occupied adjoining beds at Walter Reed Hospital, 

Washington, D.C., where they are in 

high spirits and recovering from their 

wounds. (Original caption)

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, SC 165259
89

p United States Army officers and enlisted men, home after service in the North African campaign, were brought to Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, D.C., after arriving at an East Coast port. They were cheerful despite wounds suffered 

during the successful military operations. The accompanying picture was taken as the wounded were being removed from 

the special hospital train for transport to the hospital. An Army nurse prepares a wounded soldier for transfer from the train 

to the hospital. (Adapted from original caption)

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, SC 139698
90

u Rehabilitation continues to be 

a critical part of patient care at the 

Hospital. Here, patients are taught the 

visual methods of piano on August 20, 

1945.

Source: National Archives and Records Administration, SC 335161

t An arm amputee veteran winding 

rug yarn on a reel in the Occupational 

Therapy Shop at Walter Reed Hospital, 1946. 

Source: National Archives and Records Administration, SC 335144
91

p An instructor teaching typing to a patient in the supine 

position, 1946. 

Source: National Archives and Records Administration, SC 335158

p After nearly three years of research and experimentation the Army’s prosthetics research laboratory, Forest Glen, Maryland has developed a cosmetic hand 

that is Life-Like in appearance and may be adapted to many tasks normally 

allotted its human counterpart. The primary improvements of the hand over 

the hook are its appearance and facility of articulation. In addition to veterans, 

civilian amputees have volunteered for the experiments which have led to the 

development of the cosmetic prosthesis in its present stage. Mr. Jerry Leavy, 

Los Angeles, California a civilian amputee who has volunteered for the Army’s 

prosthetic research program demonstrates the use of the cosmetic hand. The 

hook offers a marked contrast to the neat life-like hand. May 7, 1948. (Original 

caption) 

Source: National Archives and Records Administration, SC 299862

p Ms. Lois Senft, a speech correctionist, plays a recording 

of a patient’s voice on voice recording and playback equipment. May 5, 1949. 

Source: National Archives and Records Administration, SC 335757
92

p Hot biscuits from the oven. 

Source: Walter Reed Army Medical Center History Office, PAO Historical Collection

p 2nd Lt. Lorraine Shandolmier, a dietician, checks the contents of a tray cart.

Source: Walter Reed Army Medical Center History Office, PAO Historical Collection
93

p Bedside Service. SP4 J. F. Bailey on Ward 39, helps PFC Ronald L. McGuire of Fairborn, Ohio with his food brought to 

the ward via the Centralized Tray Service Cart, one of the 30 such carriers recently purchased by the Food Service Division. (Adapted from original caption)

Source: Walter Reed Army Medical Center History Office, PAO Historical Collection
94

p Major Milton Friedman of the Roentgenology Department gives a high-voltage X-ray treatment to a soldier-patient at Walter Reed General Hospital. 1944. 

Source: National Archives and Records Administration, SC 321749

p (Left and Right) Demonstrations of a portable X-ray apparatus as used in the field, Army Medical School, 1941. 

Source: Walter Reed Army Medical Center History Office, PAO Historical Collection
95

p Men at work in the clinical Laboratory Pathology Preparatory Room, 

October 4, 1940. 

Source: National Archives and Records Administration, SC 590849

p Sir Alexander Fleming, discoverer of penicillin, visits Capt. Monroe Romansky (right) in the Penicillin Laboratory. Capt. 

Romansky developed a beeswax and peanut oil carrier, called Romansky’s Formula, that extended Sir Fleming’s penicillin 

shot from every 3 hours to single daily injections. 1945.

Source: Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Directorate of Public Works Archives
96

p Where Heroes Meet. General Dwight D. Eisenhower visits PFC Ray E. Stevenson of Fayetteville, TN, on Ward 36 of 

the Hospital. 1945.

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, WRAMC History Collection
97

p President Harry S. Truman officially 

opened the country fair for benefit of 

the Nurses’ National Memorial at Wal-

ter Reed General Hospital on September 11, 1946. Truman attended his first 

church service after becoming President at Memorial Chapel at Walter 

Reed. He had come to Walter Reed to 

visit General Pershing, his commander 

during World War I who resided in the 

Pershing Suite. 

Source: National Archives and Records Administration, SC 321773 u President Truman greeting soldierpatients at a White House reception.

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, WRAMC History Collection
98

The back of this postcard reads: The Headquarters Army Medical Center and Army Medical Department Professional Service Schools Building is located at Alaska Avenue and 16th Street, Washington D.C.

Source: Pierce Collection

The back of this postcard reads: The American Red Cross maintains a Social Service and Recreational Center 

for patients in Walter Reed General Hospital.

Source: Pierce Collection
99

Source: Pierce Collection

Source: Pierce Collection
100

A new father surveys his twins. Stork Club visiting hours as posted. 

Source: Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Directorate of Public Works Archives
101
102
103

1950–1959
104

u Lt. Colonel Helmuth Sprinz, Surgical Pathologist, Walter Reed Army Hospital, operates the completely new color TV microscope, designed by Walter 

Reed and RCA technicians. Light passes through the microscope and engages 

a beam splitter which directs a sufficient amount of light to the microscopist’s 

eye permitting him to examine suspect tissue just as though television was not 

involved. The remaining amount of light passes directly through the beam splitter and is reflected through a prism into a three-vidicon color television of special 

design. The whole assembly is mounted on an instrumentation table which may 

be easily wheeled into many different laboratories, classrooms and conference 

rooms. With this system it is possible for the microscopist to see a parallax corrected field with any number of students in as many different locations as can 

be reached by the Television Division’s distribution system. 14 November 1957. 

(Original caption)

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, SC 521401

I

n 1951, to coincide with the 100th 

anniversary of the birth of its 

namesake Major Walter Reed, 

the name of this now world-famous 

medical institution was changed from 

the Army Medical Center and Walter 

Reed General Hospital to Walter Reed 

Army Medical Center. A member of the 

campus family since 1923, the Army 

Medical School had undergone name 

changes over the years, from Army 

Medical School to Medical Department 

Professional Services School in 1934, to 

Army Medical Department Research 

and Graduate School in 1947, to Army 

Medical Service Graduate School in 

1950, and finally to Walter Reed Army 

Institute of Research (WRAIR) in 1955. 

The Armed Forces Institute of Pathology 

(AFIP), formerly the Army Medical 

Museum, moved to the Walter Reed 

campus in the 1950s, bringing together 

three of the four institutions needed to 

complete Borden’s Dream. The majority 

of the fourth institution, The Surgeon 

General’s Library, would become 

the National Library of Medicine, be 

transferred to the Public Health Service, 

and moved to the National Institutes of 

Health campus in Bethesda, MD. The 

Army Medical Museum, established 

in 1862, had maintained that name 

until 1946, when it was renamed the 

Army Institute of Pathology. With the 

addition of the Navy and Air Force, it 

became the Armed Forces Institute of 

Pathology in 1949. 

AFIP’s unique mausoleum-style 

building , started in 1951 and completed 

in 1955, was windowless with thick 

concrete walls and considered atomic 

bomb proof. Fortunately, that unique 

characteristic has never been tested. 

During construction of the AFIP 

building, a number of civilian houses 

that had existed as part of the 16th 

Street Heights subdivision that was 

purchased for expansion of the Post in 

the early 1920s were moved to create a 

cul-de-sac of officers housing on 15th 

Street off of Dahlia Street. President 

Eisenhower dedicated the AFIP 

building on May 26, 1955. 

Title page - The aerial view looking north shows the biggest addition to the campus during the 1950s in the upper left of the photo: the Armed Forces Institute 

of Pathology (AFIP) building. The ball field in the upper center of the photo has 

been reoriented and appears to have been downsized, probably to softball size. 

A solarium has been added to the south elevation of the Red Cross Hall intruding into the landscaped garden area. To the far left of the photo, below Building 

40, is the Officer’s Club. In the 1940s, the Pershing Suite was added as the third 

floor to B wing of Building 1; A wing was triple decked for symmetry.

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, SC 526813

104

The following year, healthwise, would 

be very difficult on the 65-year-old 

President. He suffered a heart attack 

in September 1955, recovering at 

Fitzsimons Army Medical Center 

in Denver. In June 1956, he was 

hospitalized at Walter Reed for 

abdominal surgery that would place in 

question his run for a second term that 
105

coming fall. Operated on by the Walter 

Reed Commanding General, Maj. 

General Leonard Heaton, Eisenhower 

would make a full recovery, and run 

and win a second term. Eisenhower 

and Heaton became lifelong friends. 

Heaton followed his six-year command 

at WRAMC with promotion to Surgeon 

General, a position he held for ten 

105

years, and a three-star rank—the first 

physician to hold that rank. 

The 1950s brought many international 

visitors to Walter Reed; some for care 

and others to visit patients. With 

President Eisenhower as escort, Sir 

Winston Churchill visited General of 

the Army, former Secretary of Defense 

and Secretary of State George C. 

Marshall, on Ward 8 in May 1959. They 

also paid respects to John Foster Dulles, 

Eisenhower’s former Secretary of State, 

a patient on Ward 8. During the visit, 

Eisenhower presented a portrait he had 

painted of Churchill to the hospital to 

be hung in the sitting room on Ward 8.
106

Building 40, the original Army Medical School building (upper portion) was opened in 1923. The center and lower portions were added in the early 1930s about the time the name was changed to Medical Department Professional Services 

School. The name changed again in 1947 to AMEDD Research and Graduate School, in 1950 to Army Medical Graduate 

School, and finally in 1955 to Walter Reed Army Institute of Research.

Source: Walter Reed Army Medical Center History Office, PAO Historical Collection
107

The Armed Forces Institute of Pathology moved from downtown Washington, DC to this impressive new building on the grounds of Walter Reed 

Army Medical Center and dedicated 

by President Eisenhower on May 26, 

1955. It had four major departments, 

the Department of Pathology, American Registry of Pathology, Medical 

Illustration Service and the Medical 

Museum. The eight story bomb proof 

building was designed to provide 

working space for the central consultative, research and teaching center for 

pathology, serving the needs of all the 

military services as well as other government agencies. (Original caption)

Source: (top) National Museum of Health and 

Medicine, AFIP, WRAMC History Collection, 

(bottom) Directorate of Public Works 
108

p Source: Pierce Collection

t The Outpatient Clinic, Walter Reed 

Army Hospital. This building — now 

completely modern and air conditioned 

— was originally constructed in 1911 

for the purpose of housing enlisted 

personnel stationed at the Hospital 

during those first years of its operation. 

After undergoing extensive renovation, 

it opened again in May 1950 to offer, 

for the first time since outpatient service was begun at the Center in 1939, 

adequate facilities for the treatment 

of some 900 military personnel and 

dependents living in this area who visit 

the clinic daily — a most important 

milestone in the four-year history of a 

greatly expanded Out Patient Service 

at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. 

(Original caption)

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, WRAMC History Collection
109

p Maj. General Walter Reed [seated right] visits September 11, 1951 the Hospital named for his father, Maj. Walter Reed. 

He is reliving his boyhood memories of the famed conqueror of yellow fever for Korean war patients [pictured in the background] and for Maj. General Paul H. Streit, the 19th Commanding Officer of these portals of healing. Maj. General Reed 

was the Inspector General of the Army at the time of his retirement in 1940. General Reed was recalled to active duty as 

a member of the War Department Personnel Board. He retired again on June 25, 1946. He died at Walter Reed Hospital 

May 1, 1956. (Adapted from original caption) 

Source: WRAMC History Office, PAO Historical Collection
110

p The Central Dental Laboratory moved out of the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research and into its own 9,500 square 

foot building on February 23, 1954. Founded in 1927, the Laboratory mission is to provide military patients with the best 

prosthodontic therapy. 

Source: WRAMC History Office, PAO Historical Collection

u New Central Dental Laboratory 

opened at Walter Reed. Maj. General George E. Armstrong, The Army 

Surgeon General (left) cuts the ribbon 

across the main entrance to the new 

Central Dental Laboratory building at 

Walter Reed Army Medical Center during a ceremony. Col. Lynn C. Dirksen, 

Commanding Officer of the laboratory 

(right) assists the general. February 

23, 1954.

Source: WRAMC History Office, PAO Historical 

Collection
111

t The beauty of the grounds of the 

Hospital was definitely part of the healing process for patients. The garden 

was on the North side of Building 1 

and between two wards.

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, WRAMC History Collection

p The Hoff Fountain in front of the Hospital and looking south toward the garden.

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, WRAMC History Collection
112

p The first medical air evacuation patient arrived at Walter Reed on board a Sikorsky H-19 in 1952.

Source: WRAMC History Office. PAO Historical Collection

t A large red cross on the roof of 

Building 1 indicated to passing aircraft 

that this is a hospital. The actual landing site was nearby on the grass.

Source: Walter Reed Army Medical Center, 

Directorate of Public Works Archives
113

This Sikorsky H-19 helicopter ran low 

on fuel and made an emergency landing in front of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology en route to Forest 

Glen with three soldiers involved in a 

car accident outside of Petersburg, VA. 

Source: National Archives and Records Administration (top) SC 521913 and (right) SC 521914
114

t The bandstand in the garden setup 

for Easter Sunrise Service. 

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, WRAMC History Collection

p The Easter Sunrise Service, April 

1, 1956. Estimated attendance was 

30,000–40,000, the largest attendance 

in history.

Source: WRAMC History Office, PAO Historical 

Collection
115

p Rev. Billy Graham led the ceremony at the 1956 Easter 

Sunrise Service. Maj. General Heaton is to Graham’s left 

and Chaplain (Lt. Colonel) Alford V. Bradley is to the right.

Source: WRAMC History Office, PAO Historical Collection

q Actors and singers, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans 

also appeared at the 1956 Easter Sunrise Service.

Source: WRAMC History Office, PAO Historical Collection
116

Maj. General Alvin L. Gorby sends the first message over Walter Reed’s new Military Affiliate Radio Station (MARS), 

K3WBJ, during ceremonies. Looking on is Lt. Colonel Alford V. Bradley, Post Chaplain for the Center, who is a “ham” 

radio operator and was responsible for the unit being set up. The station will permit patients and duty personnel to send 

free messages all over the world. (Adapted from original caption)

Source: Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Directorate of Public Works Archives
117

Mass casualties course completed at Walter Reed — A highlight of the week-long course in Management of Mass 

Casualties completed Saturday, May 17, at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research was a demonstration of wound 

moulages as a training aid in first aid treatment of wounds. The moulages realistically duplicate almost any type of 

wound that may occur in armed combat or as a result of a nuclear explosion. As is demonstrated above by PFC Carl 

W. Bohlmeyer, a flow of “blood” to the wound is controlled by pressure on a bulb which spurts the blood through a 

system of tubes concealed in the clothing of the “victim”. Either venal or arterial bleeding can be simulated by the 

rapidity with which the blood is pumped, and the tubes are placed so that the bleeding can be stopped by normal first 

aid measures. In major wound moulages, the tubes can be “tied off” in the same manner that a normal artery would be. 

The moulage kit shown above contains twenty of the simulated wounds, including duplications of radiation burns. [The] 

course was attended by military and civilian defense officials from throughout the United States. (Original caption)

Source: Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Directorate of Public Works Archives
118

u Pediatric radiology. 

Source: WRAMC History Office, PAO Historical 

Collection 

p Capt. Mary Rukesvine, U.S. Army 

Nurse, takes the temperature of 

Thomas L. Darby Remersburg, PA 

with a new electronic thermometer at 

Walter Reed Army Medical Center. 

The device, the first change in a clinical thermometer since the introduction 

of the mercury column type in 1867, 

was developed by Colonel George T. 

Perkin, Army Dentist. 1954. (Original 

caption)

Source: National Archives and Records Administration, SC 54-7759
119

p A needleless, automatic, multiple nose jet “gun” for mass vaccine injections was tested at Walter Reed 

Army Medical Center in 1955. The new inoculation mechanism gives promise that someday the Army’s soldiers may receive quick and practically painless inoculation. Here a nurse holds an old-style needle in her left 

hand and the new inoculator in her right. (Original caption) 

Source: National Archives and Records Administration, SC 553312
120

u SP4 Renee Poreey, Department of Gastroenterology 

separating blood for use in testing antibodies for vaccine 

studies. 

Source: WRAMC History Office, PAO Historical Collection

t Lt. Colonel George W. Burnett, 

Chief of Dental Research Department, 

Dental Division, Army Medical Service 

Graduate School, is shown using Van 

Slyke apparatus to analyze effect 

of fluorides upon tooth tissue. He is 

shown here measuring rate of removal 

of gasses from fluoride-treated tooth 

tissues during their destruction by acids in an attempt to find a treatment for 

prevention of dental caries. September 

1, 1954. (Original caption)

Source: WRAMC History Office, PAO Historical 

Collection
121

p Phillip Sidmore of the School’s Veterinary Bacteriology Department is testing bacterial count in milk served to patients 

and duty personnel at Walter Reed. September 1, 1954. 

Source: WRAMC History Office, PAO Historical Collection
122

t First Korean Service Ribbons 

awarded by Secretary of the Army 

Frank Pace, Jr. (left) and Gen. J. Law-

ton Collins, Chief of Staff, US Army, to 

three wounded veterans - 1st Lieuten-

ant Howard W. Cardoza, Jr. (seated 

right), PFC Francis Phillips (standing), 

and Master Sergeant Andy Partin 

(recumbent) - of the Korean Conflict in 

a ceremony at Walter Reed Hospital. 

February 6,1951. (Original caption) 

Source: National Archives and Records Admin-

istration, SC 355362-S p President Harry S. Truman visits 

with a veteran of the Korean conflict 

whose leg amputation necessitated 

hospitalization at Walter Reed. (Original caption)

Source: Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Di-

rectorate of Public Works Archives
123

p Chaplains of all faiths are stationed at Walter Reed Hospital. They tour the wards in addition to their many other 

religious activities. Shown here are Capt Lowell G. McCoy (second from left) of Cincinnati, Ohio, holding a bedside chat 

with (from left to right): PFC Karl Lynn of Sandusky, Ohio; Captain McCoy; Corporal Leo D. Wallace of Savannah, Georgia; PFC Daniel Shoffstall of Lancaster, Pennsylvania; and PFC Carl H. Rice of Chester, South Carolina. (Adapted from 

original caption) 1951. 

Source: Pierce Collection
124

t An Army nurse prepares her ward 

report as she keeps vigil at Walter 

Reed General Hospital. July 9, 1952. 

Source: National Archives and Records Administration, SC 398655-S 

u View of a ward at Walter Reed Hospital, January 3, 1951. 

Source: National Archives and Records Administration, SC 389632
125

p Physical therapists at Walter Reed Army Hospital have some of the best equipment available to any hospital in the 

world. Here, Lt. Jean Brady (Boone, NC) assists Capt. R. E. Staaes (Loveland, CO) in daily water treatment in a hand 

whirlpool. (Original caption)

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, SC 548658
126

p Dental interns in the Central Dental Lab. April 12, 1957. 

Source: WRAMC History Office, PAO Historical Collection, DIP-1
127

u The new color television camera in 

Operating Room #6 Walter Reed Army 

Hospital is equipped with a number 

of lenses of varying focal length. The 

camera looks at the surface of a mirror 

that is suspended at an angle above 

the operation. The center of the operating light is always focused on the 

operating field. November 14, 1957. 

(Original caption)

Source: National Archives and Records Administration, SC 521403 

t Cover from the brochure for the new color TV camera 

used in teaching to demonstrate surgical procedures. 

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, AFIP History 

Collection
128

t Occupational therapists work with a 

wide variety of patients while serving 

their clinical affiliation at Walter Reed 

Army Hospital. Here, 2nd Lt. Mary E. 

Mueller works with an elderly patient 

who is weaving to promote use of her 

left arm. 

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, SC 548656

u Teaching amputees and patients 

who have lost the use of a limb how to 

perform routine functions is an important part of the daily activity of an 

occupational therapy clinical affiliate at 

Walter Reed Army Hospital. Here, 2nd 

Lt. Mary E. Mueller shows an Army Officer patient how to tie a Windsor knot 

with one hand. 

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, SC 548655
129

t Learning to walk again, 1959.

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, SC 548660

p Many kinds of tools and other equipment are available 

in the Occupational Therapy Section of Walter Reed Army 

Hospital to help patients in their rehabilitation. Here, OT 

clinical affiliate 2nd Lt. Joyce F. Jana works with a patient 

at a bicycle saw to increase tolerance and coordination. 

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, SC 548657
130

q SFC Alphonso Spencer, assigned 

to the Army Prosthetic Research 

Laboratory, Walter Reed Army Medical 

Center, meets Diana Beckett, a fellow 

amputee. Diane wears the new polyvinylchloride mitten, which was fitted on 

her by Mr. Chester Shelton. November 

1, 1956. 

Source: National Archives and Records Administration, SC 485317

t A soldier’s family also needs medical care and Walter Reed General 

Hospital served many dependents. 

Here, the Easter Bunny is paying a 

visit to some of the younger patients.

Source: WRAMC History Office, PAO Historical 

Collection 
131

p Polio patient working with an occupational therapist at a handloom. 

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, NCP 2747
132

Wounded soldiers use wheelchairs and crutches until they learn how to walk with a synthetic limb. PFC Charles Woody, 

injured near Taegu, Korea, walks on crutches.

Source: National Archives and Records Administration, 306-PS-50-16899
133

The amazing similarity of real and artificial hands is shown in the above picture made at Army Prosthetics Research 

Laboratory, Army Medical Center, Washington, D.C. Worn by CPO Joseph A. Phillips, Falls Church, Va. (right), the glove 

requires one further process before completion — the addition of hair to match that of the patient’s own hand. Opposite 

Chief Phillips is Lt. Albert P. Clark, Portsmouth, N.H., whose artificial hand has been removed to show portions of the prosthesis to which it is normally attached. Others in the picture are (facing camera) Captain John Butchkosky, assistant director of the laboratory, Silver Spring, Md. and Sgt. Walter A. Stanley, Fort George Meade, Md. (wearing glasses) (Adapted 

from original caption)

Source: Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Directorate of Public Works Archives
134

p President Eisenhower at White 

House with WRAMC patient and Cap-

tain Anna Mae McCabe. In 1967 Anna 

Mae (McCabe) Hays became Chief of 

the Army Nurse Corps and was later 

promoted to Brig. General.

Source: WRAMC History Collection t Queen Juliana of the Netherlands, 

escorted by Maj. General Paul H. Streit, 

Commanding General, Walter Reed 

Army Medical Center, passes through 

saluting columns of Army medical and 

nurse officers, members of the Wom-

en’s Medical Specialist Corps and the 

Women’s Army Corps. Entering Walter 

Reed Army Hospital, Her Majesty visited 

many soldier-patients, casualties of the 

Korean conflict. April 9, 1952.

Source: National Museum of Health and Medi-

cine, AFIP, WRAMC History Collection
135

p Prime Minister Winston Churchill and President Dwight Eisenhower visit with John Foster Dulles in the sitting room on 

Ward 8. Above the fireplace is the portrait that President Eisenhower painted of his friend Winston Churchill. May 5, 1959.

Source: WRAMC History Collection
136

Amputee in wheelchair in front of Walter Reed General Hospital.

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, NCP 2545
137
138
139

1960–1969
140

u A new 2,000,000 volt X-ray machine was installed in 1961. The new machine, 

demonstrated by Col. Albert J. Bauer, the hospital’s Chief of Radiation Therapy 

and an X-ray Technician, weighs in at 6 tons. Its rays are absorbed by 36-inch 

concrete walls. The patient is alone in the room under treatment as the radiologist 

views the room from the outside via a specially constructed television camera and 

monitor. The machine can be elevated and tilted by the operator to any desired 

position. (Original caption)

Source: Walter Reed Army Medical Center History Office, PAO Historical Collection

After the shocking death of 

Major Walter Reed at age 

51 in 1902, the Walter Reed 

Memorial Association was formed. 

The association’s goal was to provide 

support to Reed’s widow, Emilie, 

and daughter, Blossom, and to erect a 

suitable memorial to Walter Reed. The 

first meeting was held in August 1903 

less than a year after Walter Reed’s 

death. A veritable “Who’s Who” of 

physicians, scientists, and business 

executives were present at this initial 

meeting. Among them were Dr. Daniel 

C. Gilman, President of Johns Hopkins 

University; Dr. William Welch, noted 

pathologist from Johns Hopkins; Dr. 

C.A. Herter, Professor of Pharmacology 

at Columbia University; Dr. Alexander 

Abbot, Professor of Hygiene at the 

University of Pennsylvania; Dr. L. 

F. Barker, Professor and Head of 

Anatomy at Rush Medical School at the 

University of Chicago; Dr. Edward G. 

Janeway of Bellevue and Dr. Charles P. 

Putman of Boston. Others in attendance 

were John Stewart Kennedy, capitalist 

and philanthropist, Morris J. Jessup, 

banker and Bishop William Lawrence.

The Walter Reed Memorial Association 

was not idle while Mrs. Reed and 

her daughter lived out their lives. 

The Association sponsored Walter D. 

McCaw to write a brief history 

of Reed’s life and work. It also 

commissioned a bust of Walter Reed 

by Mr. Hans Schuler of Baltimore. The 

Schuler bust remains on display in the 

lobby of Building 1. The group also 

undertook the preservation of Camp 

Lazear, outside Havana, where the 

classic yellow fever experiments took 

place. The Association assisted in the 

enshrinement of Walter Reed in the 

Hall of Fame of Great Americans of 

New York University. 

Dedicated on November 21, 1966, The 

Walter Reed Memorial included the de 

Weldon bust of Walter Reed and a 25 

foot high shaft of white-amoco cream 

marble with terrace steps of Georgian 

marble. The dedication was attended 

by Walter Reed’s granddaughter, 

Mrs. Daisy Reed Royce, and former 

President and Mrs. Eisenhower.

The end of Walter Reed Hospital’s sixth 

decade would bring the wounded of 

another war, this time in Southeast 

Asia, to its historic grounds. Wars 

always increase the need for qualified 

medical and nursing personnel and 

this one was no exception. Because of 

a lack of qualified nursing personnel, 

the Walter Reed Army Institute of 

Nursing (WRAIN) was opened in 

1968. A cooperative program with the 

University of Maryland, the WRAIN 

Title page - This aerial photograph, taken in the late 1960s, looks northwest and 

shows several new structures on the Walter Reed campus. The final permanent 

addition to the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR — Building 40) 

can be seen on its west elevation. The Siler wing contained a nuclear reactor for 

medical research; the reactor was decommissioned in the late 1970s. Just north 

of the WRAIR building, the new addition to the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP) building can be seen under construction. South of Red Cross Hall 

and east of Building 7 are two new temporary buildings that exist to this day. On 

the third floor of the far eastern end of Building 1 can be seen what appears to 

be a dark line. This structure is actually a balcony or small porch that was added 

to the building during President Eisenhower’s 11-month inpatient stay at Walter 

Reed where he used to get fresh air and sunshine. It was removed about 20 

years later.

Source: Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Directorate of Public Works Archives

140

produced over 1,200 bachelors prepared 

nurses for the Army during its years of 

existence. With the Vietnam War over, 

WRAIN became “a luxury the Army 

could no longer afford” and was closed 

in 1978. 
141

On March 28, 1969, one of Walter Reed’s 

most famous patients died. Dwight D. 

Eisenhower had been hospitalized on 

Ward 8 in the Presidential Suite for 

11 months (May 1968 - March 1969) 

because of illness due to coronary 

artery disease and congestive heart 

failure. Mrs. Eisenhower resided in an 

adjacent room. He died following his 

14th episode of ventricular fibrillation 

on March 28, 1969 as there was no 

intervention, complying with his 

request. The beloved Ike, West Point 

Class of 1915, Supreme Commander 

Allied Expeditionary Force in World 

War II, General of the Army and twice 

elected President of the United States 

was dead at 78 years old.
142

p Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, WRAMC History Collection
143

p Little changed from the 1930s, the Memorial Chapel, scene of many weddings for patients and staff thirty years after 

its dedication. 

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, WRAMC History Collection

p Postcard reads: “A beautiful spring view of the hospital and the Hoff Fountain.”

Source: Pierce Collection
144

p The traditional Easter Sunrise Service was well attended in 1965.

Source: Walter Reed Army Medical Center History Office

t An altar was set in front of the Gazebo for Easter Sunday in 1965.

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, WRAMC History Collection
145

t The Dental Research Institute was 

dedicated March 3, 1962. Viewing the 

plaque at the dedication of the U.S. 

Army Institute of Dental Research, 

Walter Reed Army Medical Center, 

Washington, DC, are from left: Brig. 

General James H. Forsee, Commanding General, U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command; 

Col. George H. Timke, Jr., Director of 

the Institute; Maj. General Dwight E. 

Beach, Deputy Chief, U.S. Army Research and Development, who dedicated the Institution; and Maj. General 

Joseph L. Bernier, Chief of the Army 

Dental Corps. (Original caption) 

Source: Walter Reed Army Medical Center History Office

p Building 40, now known as Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) with new Siler addition that contained a 

nuclear reactor for medical research. This new wing, named after Col. Joseph F. Siler, MC, is visible on the right side of 

the complex. 

Source: Walter Reed Army Medical Center History Office, PAO Historical Collection
146

p Walter Reed painting presented to Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Just sixty-one years to the day after the Yellow Fever Commission was formed, special tribute was paid to the commission’s leader, Maj. Walter Reed. The occasion was the 

presentation to the Medical Center bearing his name, of an original oil painting of the famed Army doctor. Shown above (left 

to right) are Col. Richard P. Mason, Director of the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research; Maj. General Clinton S. Lyter, 

Commanding General of Walter Reed Army Medical Center; Mrs. Charles H. Royce, granddaughter of Major Reed; Dr. 

Frank A. Warner, Vice-president and Medical Director of the John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Co., donors of the painting; and Mr. Gustaf E. Lambert, who was an enlisted nurse and cared for the volunteers who developed yellow fever during 

the experiments in Havana, Cuba. Mr. Lambert praised the likeness of his former leader, but claimed he never “looked that 

stern.” May 24, 1961. (Adapted from original caption)

Source: Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Directorate of Public Works Archives
147

t The Gray Ladies, an essential part 

of the care provided to wounded and 

sick military personnel since 1918, 

celebrated its 50th anniversary in 

1968. This is the cover for the dinner 

brochure.

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, WRAMC History Collection

u The new Intensive Treatment Unit 

at Walter Reed General Hospital dedicated November 24, 1965.

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, WRAMC History Collection
148

Walter Reed Commemorative Stamps 

presented to Walter Reed Library. The 

stamps were originally released April 

17, 1940. This sheet of stamps was 

given by Walter Reed Memorial Association January 13, 1967. 

Left to right: Brig. General Philip W. 

Mallory, Deputy Commanding General; Mrs. Barv, Head Librarian; Maj. 

General Douglas B. Kendrick, Commanding General WRAMC.

Source: Signal Corps. Pvt. James Reed - pho-

tographer
149

President Lyndon B. Johnson visited General MacArthur on Ward 8 at Walter Reed. The handwritten inscription reads:

“To General Douglas MacArthur

Whose name will live so long as men cherish bravery and respect statesmanship.

Lyndon B. Johnson”

Source: Walter Reed Army Medical Center
150

The Walter Reed Memorial in Delano Circle was dedicated on November 21, 1966. The Walter Reed Memorial Association, organized in 1903 to provide support for Mrs. Reed and her daughter, completed its work with the dedication of the 

Memorial. The Association commissioned Felix de Weldon to sculpt the bust of Walter Reed that sits on top of the column. 

Special guests at the dedication included Mrs. Daisy Reed Royce, Walter Reed’s granddaughter, and former President 

and Mrs. Dwight Eisenhower.

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, WRAMC History Collection
151

Among the Walter Reed Memorial Association incorporators were industrialist Alexander Graham Bell, former Surgeon 

General George Miller Sternberg, then current Surgeon General R. M. O’Reilly, and Dr. James Carroll (member of the Army 

Yellow Fever Board). The goals of the association were to raise $25,000 or more to provide income for Walter Reed’s widow 

and daughter and “to then devote the principal to the erection of a suitable memorial in the City of Washington” to Maj. 

Walter Reed. 

Gifts came in both large and small. John D. Rockefeller and Pierpont Morgan each gave $2,000. Charles W. Eliot, President of 

Harvard, gave $1,000. Most gifts were, of course, smaller. The goal of $25,000 was reached in 1907. The income from the trust 

fund was provided to Mrs. Emilie Reed until her death in 1950 at age 96 and to their daughter Blossom until her death in 1964 

at age 77.

After Blossom Reed’s death, the Association completed its last duty by commissioning Mr. Felix de Weldon to complete the 

Walter Reed Memorial on the campus of Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Mr. de Weldon, a famous sculptor of Presidents 

and Kings, had spent nine years completing the enormous Marine Corps (Iwo Jima) War Memorial in Arlington, VA. 
152

t Playboy Bunnies bring cheer and a 

birthday cake to recovering patients. 

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, WRAMC History Collection

p Comedian Bill Cosby visiting with rehabilitation patients at the Forest Glen Annex in 1967. Cosby served four years in 

the Navy as a physical therapist prior to entering show business. 

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, WRAMC History Collection
153

p Singer Diana Ross brings a smile to a young soldier.

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, WRAMC History Collection
154

u Vice President Richard Nixon, 

recovering from an infected left knee 

in the hospital’s executive suite, chats 

with Nelson Rockefeller, then Governor 

of New York and later Vice President 

under Gerald Ford. 

Source: WRAMC History Office, PAO Historical 

Collection

t President John F. Kennedy is shown walking through 

the hospital with Surgeon General Leonard D. Heaton. In 

the background to the left is Presidential Press Secretary 

Pierre Salinger. 

Source: Stripe newspaper, April 20, 2006

At the beginning of its sixth decade, Walter Reed would play 

a little known role in the historic presidential campaign and 

election of 1960. Vice-President Richard M. Nixon who was 

running against Senator John F. Kennedy, injured his left 

knee in August 1960; the knee ultimately became infected 

with Staphylococcus aureus. Mr. Nixon was admitted to Ward 

8 at Walter Reed for treatment with intravenous antibiotics. 

He left the hospital in early September to begin the campaign 

in earnest. A few days later, he experienced high fever and 

chills and was again treated with antibiotics. Nixon had not 

fully recovered before the first televised debate on September 

26, 1960; his general poor physical condition and appearance 

were apparent to the nation, compared with the apparently 

robust Kennedy. Nixon did ultimately recover from his 

infected knee, but never recovered from the poor showing 

in the debate and lost a close race to John Kennedy. 
155

t President Lyndon Johnson talks 

with PFC Allen Lloyd and SP4 Thomas 

A. Bailey during his visit on June 

11, 1968. Looking on is Col. John L. 

Bradley. 

Source: National Archives and Records Administration, SC 646373

q President Lyndon Johnson leaving 

the hospital after a visit with General 

Douglas MacArthur.

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, WRAMC History Collection
156

Research and clinical laboratories 

around the campus of Walter Reed.

Sources: Walter Reed Army Medical Center, 

Directorate of Public Works Archives
157

Scenes of patient care at Walter Reed Hospital.

Sources: Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Directorate of Public Works Archives
158

t Performing general surgery in the main operating room.

Source: Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Directorate of Public Works 

Archives

q Filming oral surgery.

Source: Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Directorate of Public Works 

Archives

u Orthopaedic ward rounds with Col. 

Walter Metz (left), Chief of Orthopaedics at the time, eventually Chief of 

Surgery before retiring. Col. George 

Ivan (G.I.) Baker (center), Assistant 

Chief. G.I. Baker was promoted to 

Maj. General in 1977 and served as 

WRAMC Commander. Monroe Levine 

(right), then a resident, became the 

Chief of the Hand Surgery Service in 

the mid-1970s.

Source: Walter Reed Army Medical Center, 

Directorate of Public Works Archives.
159

p Inspecting an intravenous site and taking vital signs. 

Source: Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Directorate of Public Works Archives
160

u Nurse visiting with a patient.

Source: Walter Reed Army Medical Center, 

Directorate of Public Works Archives

t Nurse tending to patients on an 

open bay ward. 

Source: Walter Reed Army Medical Center, 

Directorate of Public Works Archives
161

p Hydrotherapy for patients with back injuries. The patients are positioned on tables in the pool.

Source: Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Directorate of Public Works Archives

p Wound treatment with a whirlpool bath. The circulating water helped debride open wounds.

Source: Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Directorate of Public Works Archives
162

p Pathological specimens stored in the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in the 1970s. As 1975 began, 1,502,688 

cases had been accessioned with samples stored for research.

Source: Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Directorate of Public Works Archives
163

Technician working on prosthetic arms 

and hands in the Army Prosthetic 

Research Lab at Forest Glen. Creating 

cosmetic hand covers (top). Attaching 

control cables to an upper extremity 

prosthetic (left).

Source: Walter Reed Army Medical Center, 

Directorate of Public Works Archives

t Sign on the museum building at 7th and Independence 

Avenues, NW. The building was demolished in 1968, and 

the museum was moved to the WRAMC main campus.

Source: Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Directorate of Public Works 

Archives
164

A Christmas choral concert on the front steps of the hospital.

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, WRAMC History Collection
165
166
167

1970–1979
168

u Architect’s model of the new hospital building, showing its relationship 

to the rest of the campus. The model 

resides in the National Museum of 

Health and Medicine.

Source: Walter Reed Army Medical Center, 

Directorate of Public Works Archives

The events of this decade clearly 

focus on the construction and 

occupancy of the new clinical 

building, designated Building 2. In 

1967 with the assistance of Senators 

Dirksen, Russell and Stennis, Army 

Surgeon General and former Walter 

Reed Commanding General Leonard 

D. Heaton procured funds from 

Congress to start planning for a new 

hospital facility. The construction of 

Building 2 changed the face of the 

entire medical center. In actuality, 

work had begun several years earlier 

when a new commissary and postexchange complex were planned and 

construction begun at Forest Glen. 

These services were moved from Walter 

Reed’s main campus to make room for 

the new hospital building. The motor 

pool, engineer shops and laundry were 

also moved to new facilities at Forest 

Glen. To provide for enlisted housing, 

Abrams Hall was constructed during 

the same time period and opened in 

1975. Before ground was broken for the 

new hospital, two temporary buildings 

(T-2 and T-20) were built to house 

important facilities that could not 

be moved to Forest Glen. Thirty-five 

plus years later both these temporary 

buildings still remain in use. Under the 

supervision of the Baltimore District 

of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 

the official groundbreaking ceremony 

took place on August 26, 1972. Those 

in attendance included Secretary of 

the Army, Robert Froehlke, the Deputy 

Chief of Staff for Personnel, Lt. General 

W. T. Kerwin, the Surgeon General, 

Title page - Looking north, this photograph demonstrates construction of the 

new clinical building well underway. The underground parking garage can be 

seen to the right of the main building and appears to be at about the fifth floor 

level. Construction would take 5 years and 1 month, from groundbreaking on 

August 26, 1972 until dedication on September 26, 1977. 

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, WRAMC History Collection

168

Lt. General Hal B. Jennings and 

WRAMC Commander Maj. General 

William H. Moncrief.

Complete construction took over five 

years. During construction the amount 

of dirt that was moved would have 

completely filled and buried RKF 

Stadium. The trucks used to move 

the earth would have extended from 

Washington to 40 miles past New York 

City. The steel used to reinforce the 

110,000 cubic yards of concrete used 

would have stretched from Washington 

to Denver. The completed building had 

5500 rooms, 28 acres of floor space, 1280 

patient beds and 16 operating rooms. 

Construction included an electrical 

generating plant capable of providing 

enough power for a city of 50,000 

people and an underground garage 

for more than 1000 cars. There were 

over 800 workers on site each day and 

toward the end of construction when 

finishing work had to be completed on 

the inside, there were over 1200 workers 

each day. Unique features included 

an interstitial floor that included 

air conditioning, heating, electrical, 

plumbing and life support systems 

and was where 80% of the maintenance 

work would take place. The interstitial 

space also included a monorail track 

system that was to handle linen and 

medical supplies, as well as, a first in 

the industry patient food cart system. 

A separate tele-lift system was to carry 

administrative materials, laboratory 

samples, x-ray records and patient 

records. More than 1100 additional 

civilian employees were hired to work 

in the new facility. 

Special guest of honor for the 

dedication ceremony that took place 

on September 26, 1977 was Daisy Reed 

Royce, granddaughter of Maj. Walter 

Reed, the medical center’s namesake. 

Also in attendance was former First 

Lady Mamie Eisenhower, Senator 
169

John Stennis, Secretary of the Army, 

Clifford Alexander, Army Chief of 

Staff, General Bernard Rogers, chief 

of the Corps of Engineers, Lt. General 

John Morris, the Surgeon General, Lt. 

General Richard Taylor and Walter 

Reed Commanding General, Maj. 

General Robert Bernstein. Moving into 

a building of this size did not happen 

overnight; the actual move took almost 

a year during 1977-1978, mostly on the 

weekends. The continued functioning 

of the medical center during these 

years of construction and moving is 

truly a remarkable monument to the 

dedication and service of the soldiers 

and civilians of WRAMC. 

Other construction also took place in 

the early 1970s with an addition to the 

Armed Forces Institute of Pathology 

(AFIP) building. In contrast to the 

original AFIP building that was built 

without windows, this addition to 

the south elevation had numerous 

windows. Opened in 1972, in addition 

to offices and other space for AFIP it 

housed the National Museum of Health 

and Medicine, the former Army Medical 

Museum that dated back to 1862.
170

p Aerial view of old hospital facing south. The buildings at the bottom of the picture were demolished to make room for 

the new hospital. 

Source: Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Directorate of Public Works Archives

p Architect’s model of the new hospital rising above the old. 

Source: Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Directorate of Public Works Archives
171

Groundbreaking ceremony for the new hospital. From left to right are: Surgeon General Hal Jennings; Secretary of the Army, 

Robert Froehlke; Lt. General W. T. Kerwin; and Maj. General William H. Moncrief, WRAMC Commander. August 26, 1972.

Sources: Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Directorate of Public Works Archives
172

Various stages of construction of the 

new hospital, 1973–1976.

Sources: National Museum of Health and Medicine, WRAMC History Collection
173
174

p Dedication and opening ceremonies for the new hospital building on 

September 26, 1977.

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, WRAMC History Collection t Setting the dedication plaque of the 

hospital are Maj. General Robert Bernstein and Daisy Reed Royce, granddaughter of Maj. Walter Reed.

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, WRAMC History Collection
175

p The lower entrance lobby to the new hospital, with plenty of waiting area when it opened in 1978.

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, WRAMC History Collection

p A commemorative coin minted to celebrate the opening of the new hospital. Sept. 26, 1977.

Source: Pierce Collection
176

Architect’s renderings of Abrams Hall. 

Sources: Pierce Collection
177

t Cover of the program for the 

Abrams Hall dedication. Abrams Hall 

was dedicated in 1975 as the primary 

residence for single enlisted men and 

women. It was named in honor of 

General Creighton W. Abrams, Army 

Chief of Staff from 1972 until his death 

in 1974 at the hospital. Mrs. Abrams 

attended the ceremony and unveiled 

the plaque officially naming and opening the building. 

Source: Pierce Collection

q Abrams Hall was dedicated in 

1975. It was designed to be the primary residence for single enlisted men 

and women. This photograph is circa 

1985, when the building had been in 

use for a decade.

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, WRAMC History Collection
178

u Postcard showing the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology and its new Medical Museum wing.

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP Files, Rededication of Museum Folder 1971

p Construction of the Medical Museum wing on the Armed 

Forces Institute of Pathology’s A-bomb-proof building.

Source: National Musuem of Health and Medicine, AFIP Files, Rededication of Museum Folder 1971
179

Exhibit space inside the National 

Museum of Health and Medicine. First, 

looking right, historical transportation 

models, a Vietnam War exhibit with an 

AK-47 and punji sticks, and the history 

of the microscope. Second, looking 

left, pathology and anatomy of the 

human body. Third picture, center of 

museum showing history of museum 

exhibit, including one at Walter Reed.

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, WRAMC History Collection, AFIP 

Files, Rededication of Museum Folder 1971 

t Part of the filariasis exhibit at the 

museum, 1972. 

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, NCP 2484

In 1971, the Medical Museum of the 

Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, 

founded in 1862 during the Civil War 

as the Army Medical Museum, opened 

on the WRAMC campus. The Museum 

was displaced from the National Mall, 

its home since 1887, by the Hirschhorn 

Museum. Once at WRAMC, it stayed 

open for three years, and then its space 

was used by the Uniformed Services 

University of the Health Sciences until 

1976. 
180
181

The ceremonial opening of a new shopping center in the Walter Reed Annex at Forest Glen. August 1971.

Source: Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Directorate of Public Works Archives

u Bowling alley at Forest Glen.

Source: Walter Reed Army Medical Center, 

Directorate of Public Works Archives
182

p The Hoff Memorial Fountain gets a good cleaning. The penguins were replaced in the 1990s with plastic replicas.

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, WRAMC History Collection

t This postcard reads: “Hoff Memorial Fountain, erected in 1935, located 

at the main entrance to the Administration Building. Walter Reed General Hospital, Army Medical Center, 

Washington, D.C. Erected in memory 

of Col. John Van Rensselaer Hoff, MC, 

U.S.A., famous military surgeon who 

died in 1920. The fountain is surrounded by tulips of many varieties donated 

by people of the Netherlands following 

World War II.”

Source: Pierce Collection
183

Demonstration of ambulances at the hospital.

Sources: Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Directorate of Public Works Archives
184

Front cover of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center guidebook, 1979. To the right of the photo, the physician with the 

stethoscope around his neck is Ronald Blanck. Dr. Blanck would serve as WRAMC Commander from 1992 to 1996 and as 

Army Surgeon General from 1996 to 2000.

Source: Pierce Collection
185

Head Nurse Janet Rexrode, Pediatrics, Ward 22, styling the hair of a young patient. Colonel Janet Rexrode Southby 

would return to Walter Reed and serve as Chief, Department of Nursing. She has served as President of the Walter Reed 

Society from 2001 to the present.

Source: Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Directorate of Public Works Archives
186

An operating room nurse clinician coordinating the activities involved with the production of an instructional television 

program, 1973. 

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, NCP 1737
187

p Bob Hope appeared at Walter 

Reed Army Medical Center on December 30, 1973, with a mini-troop 

of entertainers to make the holiday 

season a little more enjoyable for the 

patients and staff at WRAMC. Hope’s 

troop of entertainers consisted of Betty 

Joe Grove, Miss Maryland; Priscilla 

Barnes, Miss San Diego; and Lynda 

Carter, Miss World—USA 1972. Hope 

played to a standing-room-only crowd 

in the Main Post Theatre and then 

visited Ward 24 before making his trip 

back to California. (Original caption)

Source: Walter Reed Army Medical Center, 

Directorate of Public Works Archives u Army Chief of Staff General William 

Westmoreland visits with a patient at 

Walter Reed Hospital on Thanksgiving 

Day, 1970.

Source: WRAMC History Office, PAO Historical 

Collection
188

p Mrs. Arthur Berger, Red Cross 

Volunteer at Walter Reed General 

Hospital, shows a book from the library cart to SSG James L. Broyles 

(Holly Grove, Ark.) a patient on Ward 

28. The cart is taken to the wards by 

the volunteers for the patients who are 

unable to utilize the main library facilities. Signal Corp photo by SSG Larry 

Sullivan. (Original caption)

Source: National Musuem of Health and Medicine, WRAMC History Collection t A section of the Medical Library, 

Walter Reed General Hospital. The 

Medical Library is operated as a section of the Main Library of the hospital. 

Signal Corps photo by SSG Larry Sullivan. (Original caption)

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, WRAMC History Collection
189

p Mr. Charles L. Johnson, Civilian Librarian Aide, at Walter Reed General Hospital plays one of the talking books from the 

library for SGT Larry J. Whitt (Hunt, WV), a patient on Ward 35. The talking books are provided by the library to be used by 

patients who are blind or unable to read for other reasons. Signal Corps photo by SSG Larry Sullivan. (Adapted from original 

caption)

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, WRAMC History Collection
190

Ward 1, the male officers’ Orthopaedic Ward, was known as the “snake pit” during the Vietnam War. 

Sources: Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Directorate of Public Works Archives
191

Patients in orthopaedic beds with traction for fracture management.

Sources: Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Directorate of Public Works Archives
192

p Evaluation of test socket for above-knee amputee.

Source: Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Directorate of Public Works 

Archives

t Tilt-table therapy for return to ambulation following bed rest.

Source: Walter Reed Army Medical Center, 

Directorate of Public Works Archives

q Building an upper extremity prosthesis in the hospital 

prosthetic shop.

Source: Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Directorate of Public Works 

Archives
193

Some forms of occupational therapy 

are constant. Here, a patient is working on a power wheel just as his 

predecessors did in earlier decades. 

Other activities designed to strengthen 

muscles and improve coordination 

were performed in the occupational 

therapy clinic (below).

Sources: Walter Reed Army Medical Center, 

Directorate of Public Works Archives
194

The Entrance Walkway with the Tulip Garden.

Source: WRAMC, History Collection
195
196
197

1980–1989
198

With the gleaming new 

clinical building into which 

all clinical care was being 

consolidated, the decade of the 1980s 

was one of settling into the new 

structure and providing improved 

and expanded clinical services. The 

number of physicians in graduate 

medical education was growing as 

more subspecialty clinical services 

were offered and more fellowships 

were established in medicine, surgery, 

pediatrics, obstetrics, gynecology, 

psychiatry, radiology, pathology, and 

almost every other field of medical 

care. Even with the enormous size of 

the new building, the growing clinical 

services did cause some space as well 

as parking issues on campus. 

Title page - Taken in the early 1980s, the lack of automobiles on the campus in 

this early spring photograph would lead one to conclude that it must have been 

taken on a weekend. Construction of the main clinical building (Building 2) and 

the enlisted residence, Abrams Hall, is complete. After completion of Building 2 

in 1976, there would be no new buildings added to the campus until the mid1990s. 

Source: Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Directorate of Public Works Archives

198

u WRAIR Building circa 1985. The 

North or “Vedder Pavilion” is named 

for Col. Edward Bright Vedder (1878–

1952), one of the Army’s leading experts on tropical medicine. He established rice bran extract as a treatment 

for beriberi.

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, WRAMC History Collection

Despite the relative calm of the 1980s, 

the end of the decade brought very 

real sadness to the WRAMC family. 

The deaths of two successive WRAMC 

commanders within 7 months shocked 

the soldiers and civilians of the 

command and of the Army Medical 

Department. Maj. General Lewis 

A. Mologne was 56 when he died 

from complications of liver cancer 

on August 22, 1988. Dr. Mologne 

graduated in 1954 from the United 

States Military Academy at West Point 

where he had lettered in football and 

lacrosse as well as won the brigade 

championship in intramural boxing. 

He served in the Corps of Engineers 

before going to medical school. He 

trained in general surgery at Walter 

Reed and was renowned for his long 

working hours. Prior to coming to 

Walter Reed he commanded the Army 

Medical Command in South Korea. He 

was the first West Pointer to become a 

General Officer in the Medical Corps. 

He commanded Walter Reed from June 

1983 until just weeks before his death. 
199

More shocking, as it was completely 

unexpected, was the death on March 

8, 1989, of Maj. General James H. 

Rumbaugh from injuries sustained 

in a parachute jump with a surgical 

team as part of the annual Ahuas 

Tara 89 exercise in Honduras. Maj. 

General Rumbaugh died during air 

evacuation. He was 49 years old. Dr. 

Rumbaugh had served his internship 

and a residency in psychiatry at Walter 

Reed. He served in Vietnam with the 

1st Air Cavalry Division and later had 

a variety of psychiatry assignments. 

He also served as surgeon for the XVIII 

Airborne Corps at Fort Bragg, NC, 

home of the 82nd Airborne Division. 

He had assumed command of Walter 

Reed in August 1988 following the 

retirement of General Mologne, and 

just 7 months before his own death.
200

Program of the Memorialization Ceremony for the Eisenhower Executive Nursing Suite. The 

6-bed suite, also known as Ward 72, serves VIP patients, including heads of state and foreign 

dignitaries, in a private and secure area of the hospital. 

Source: WRAMC History Office, PAO Historical Collection
201

Doctors at WRAMC treated a group 

of Afghan freedom fighters in 1984, 

including a 10-year-old boy. They were 

transported to WRAMC on a mercy 

flight coordinated by Americares, a 

charitable organization based in New 

Canaan, CT. 

Source: WRAMC History Office, PAO Historical 

Collection
202

In 1989, Walter Reed Army Medical Center celebrated its 80th anniversary. 

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, WRAMC History Collection
203

A time capsule replaced the flagpole on the east front of Building 40 when the flagpole was moved to the front of the new 

hospital (Building 2). The capsule, containing medical items from the 1930s, was dedicated in September 1982 by Maj. 

General Enrique Mendez. Building T2 stands in the background.

Source: WRAMC History Office, PAO Historical Collection

Georgia Avenue view of WRAMC in the 1980s.

Source: WRAMC History Office, PAO Historical Collection
204

Staff members from WRAMC TV film the 1985 Easter Sunrise Service. The broadcast was shown on the base’s closedcircuit TV for patients and servicemen who could not attend in person. 

Source: WRAMC History Office, PAO Historical Collection
205

p President Ronald W. Reagan greets SFC Billie Leland with the nurses on the VIP Ward (Ward 72) at Walter Reed in the 

late 1980s. Between the President and SFC Leland are Captain Rebecca Hallberg, and 2nd Lieutenant Barbara Harris. 

Source: WRAMC History Office, PAO Historical Collection

p President Ronald Reagan and Nancy Reagan following 

his surgery at WRAMC in 1989 with Col. George Bogumill 

(center), Col. Allan Smith, Maj. Paul Perlik, and the anesthesia staff. Dr. Bogumill served as Assistant Chief of the 

Army Hand Fellowship program at WRAMC and was later 

Chief of Orthopaedics before going to USUHS as the first 

Chairman of Anatomy.

Source: Bogumill Collection p Dr. Bogumill follows up after surgery with President 

George H. W. Bush at WRAMC.

Source: Bogumill Collection
206

p Couples tour the Walter Reed Nursery during a 

childbirth preparation class at Walter Reed in 1982. The 

4-day class covered everything from labor to infant care. 

Source: WRAMC History Office, PAO Historical Collection

t Two Walter Reed nurses care for a tiny patient in the 

Neonatal ICU at Walter Reed, 1985. 

Source: WRAMC History Office, PAO Historical Collection
207

p The latest trigger point techniques to relieve chronic pain are demonstrated at a symposium at Walter Reed, 1982. 

Source: WRAMC History Office, PAO Historical Collection

t A pediatric patient who underwent 

Ilizarov fixation is celebrating the 

holidays with Col. Kathleen McHale, 

Chief, Pediatric Orthopaedic Surgery. 

Source: McIlvaine Collection
208

p Jacqueline Kasper displays some of her artistic talent on the cast of a patient from Ward 57.

Source: Stripe newspaper, October 10, 1980, Tyrone Milton - photographer
209

t Carolyn Tindal, Director of Nursing 

Continuing Education, goes over plans 

for Practical Nurse in-service programs with SFC Francisco Rodriguez.

Source: Stripe newspaper, July 6, 1981, J. D. 

Fox - photographer

p Juanita Wims, Clinical Coordinator for the Dialysis Unit, makes an adjustment to some dialysis 

equipment to ready it for a patient.

Source: Stripe newspaper July 6, 1981. J. D. Fox photographer
210

Laboratory personnel at Walter Reed 

in the 1980s. 

Source: WRAMC History Office, PAO Historical 

Collection
211

t The Walter Reed staff participates 

in a mass casualty exercise in the 

hospital lobby in 1986. The scenario 

for the exercise was an explosion on 

Post. 

Source: WRAMC History Office, PAO Historical 

Collection

u Surgeons perform an open abdominal surgery in the 

main operating room at Walter Reed in 1985. 

Separate from the main OR was an Ambulatory Surgery 

Program thst offered certain procedures on an outpatient 

basis, including tubal ligation and biopsies, beginning in 

1980. 

Source: WRAMC History Office, PAO Historical Collection
212
213

Cover of the Walter Reed newspaper Stripe illustrates the realities of the Medical Hold process at Walter Reed in 1980. 

Source: WRAMC History Office, PAO Historical Collection
214
215

1990–1999
216

u DPW staff members plant begonias 

in front of the hospital named in honor 

of former commanding Lt. General 

Heaton. 

Source: WRAMC History Office, PAO Historical 

Collection

The early 1990’s again brought 

war to the United States Army 

with the Iraqi invasion of 

Kuwait and the resultant Persian Gulf 

War. Despite initial estimates of higher 

casualties, the war between August 2, 

1990 and February 28, 1991, accounted 

for 151 deaths and 462 wounded 

among the American forces. Walter 

Reed was prepared for many more 

wounded but fortunately for all they 

did not materialize.

The campus continued to evolve 

with the addition of several new 

buildings. A much needed partial 

solution to the parking issues was 

answered by the addition of the 

Rumbaugh Parking Garage in 1993, 

named in honor of former WRAMC 

commander, Maj. General James 

Rumbaugh who helped procure its 

funding. The Borden Pavilion, built to 

house behavioral health providers and 

216

Title page - This aerial view of the more western portion of the campus shows 

the Walter Reed Memorial (1966) in the traffic circle at the bottom left of the photograph. In the bottom center is the Mologne House Hotel that opened in 1997. 

Source: Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Directorate of Public Works Archives.

support personnel as well as clinical 

investigation activities, was opened 

in 1995 and named in honor of Lt. 

Colonel William Cline Borden, Medical 

Corps, U.S. Army. Dr. Borden was the 

main mover behind the establishment 

and naming of Walter Reed General 

Hospital. 

The Mologne House, with 200 rooms 

and suites, was opened in 1997 and 

named in honor of former Walter 

Reed commander, Maj. General Lewis 

A. Mologne who had a dream of a 

comfortable, safe, low cost place for 

soldiers and their families to stay 

while receiving out patient care or 

visiting loved ones at Walter Reed. 

A long needed new home for the Walter 

Reed Army Institute of Research 

(WRAIR) was built at the Forest Glen 

Annex and opened in 1999. In 2001, it 

was named in honor of Hawaii Senator 

Daniel K. Inouye, who in World War 

II was a member of the famed 442nd 

Regimental Combat Team one of the 

most highly decorated units in the 

history of the Army. For his service 

in World War II, he was awarded the 

Bronze Star Medal, the Distinguished 

Service Cross later upgraded to the 

Congressional Medal of Honor, and 

the Purple Heart. 
217

In 1990, Pauline Trost, wife of Chief 

of Naval Operations Admiral Carlisle 

Trost, presented to Zachary and 

Elizabeth Fisher the need for temporary 

lodging facilities for families at major 

military medical centers. The Fishers 

readily accepted the challenge and 

donated monies to start building two 

Fisher Houses, one at Bethesda and 

the other at Walter Reed. In June 1991, 

President George H. W. Bush dedicated 

the Fisher House at the National 

Naval Medical Center, Bethesda, 

MD. A second house, at the Forest 

Glen Annex to Walter Reed Army 

Medical Center, opened a month later. 

Since that time two additional Fisher 

Houses have been opened on the main 

campus at Walter Reed, the second in 

1996 and the third in 2004. Altogether 

the Fisher Foundation has built almost 

40 Fisher Houses on military bases 

and Veteran’s Administration hospital 

grounds. The Foundation plans for 

more than 60 houses by 2011. 
218

A new name. Workers put lettering on the front of Building 2, indicating that it is now the Heaton 

Pavilion. The name change honors the late Lt. General Leonard D. Heaton, who was commander 

at WRAMC from 1953 to 1959, and was Army Surgeon General from 1959 to 1969. A ceremony 

was held September 14, 1994 for the name change. 

Source: Stripe newspaper, September 16, 1994, Jerry Merideth - photographer
219

q This photo from the 1950s shows 

Heaton and his most famous patient, 

President Eisenhower. Heaton operated on the President in 1956 and 

became his physician until his death in 

1969. They were both avid golfers and 

became fast friends.

Source: Stripe newspaper, September 9, 1994 

t Building 2, the “new” hospital, was 

rededicated on September 14, 1994 to 

honor Lt. General Leonard D. Heaton. 

Heaton was Walter Reed Commander 

from 1953 to 1959. He served as Surgeon General of the Army from 1959 

to 1969. As a young doctor, he cared 

for the injured at Pearl Harbor. In 

1946, he started the Surgery Program 

at Walter Reed and became WRAMC 

Commander in 1952. Lt. General 

Heaton died in 1983.

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, WRAMC History Collection
220

The Mologne House, a 200-room hotel for patients and their 

families, was dedicated on May 12, 1997. It was named for 

Maj. General Lewis A. Mologne, Commander of Walter Reed 

from June 22, 1983 to August 1, 1988. He took command at 

a time when Walter Reed was experiencing budgetary, personnel, and morale problems. He reenergized a sense of purpose and value, with an increased sense of teamwork and 

goal sharing. 

Maj. General Leslie Burger (CG WRAMC), Lt. General 

Ronald Blanck (Surgeon General of the Army), Lt. General 

Bernhard Mittemeyer (Ret.), and Mrs. Rose Mologne at 

the dedication of the Mologne House. Mologne House was 

dedicated to “a soldier’s general.”

Source: Stripe newspaper.
221

The fountain and courtyard (top) are surrounded by the Mologne House and the old WRAIR building. This staircase leads up to the front entrance of the hotel (bottom).

Source: Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Directorate of Public Works Archives
222

t Elizabeth and Zachary Fisher 

funded Fisher Houses at Walter Reed 

Army Medical Center. The first house 

is at the Forest Glen Annex. The Fishers donated funds for houses built for 

families of patients hospitalized for 

long-term care at military posts around 

the country. The second house can accommodate up to 24 family members 

of very seriously ill patients. 

Source: Stripe newspaper, October 6, 1995

p The Zachary and Elizabeth Fisher Houses as they appear today. The groundbreaking for this first house on the Walter 

Reed campus was October 11, 1995. A second house, shown in the background, was built on campus in 2004.

Source: Borden Institute, Douglas Wise - photographer
223

A new guardhouse at one of the Georgia Avenue gates.

Source: Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Directorate of Public Works Archives
224

In 1999, the new Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) building opened at Forest Glen. The building appears 

much larger than it actually is, as does the hospital (Building 2) on the WRAMC campus. Both were built with interstitial 

floors to provide access to physical plant and electrical systems. 

WRAIR and the Naval Medical Research 

Institute (NMRI) conduct research and 

development of products, procedures, 

and practices aimed at management 

of infectious diseases, combat injuries, operational medical problems, 

and chemical and biological threats. 

WRAIR and NMRI will continue the tradition of research at home and abroad, 

as well as collaborative work with academia and industry. The new research 

laboratory center serves as the focal 

point for combined Army-Navy medical research. In 2008, responsibility 

for WRAIR was transferred to Medical 

Research and Materiel Command.

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, WRAMC History Collection

t The old WRAIR building (Building 

40) on the WRAMC campus viewed 

through cherry blossoms.
225
226

u Dr. Clarence G. Newsome, Associate Dean, Howard University School 

of Divinity, addresses the congregation 

at the annual memorial tribute to Dr. 

Martin Luther King, Jr., January 12 at 

the Memorial Chapel. 

Source: Stripe newspaper, January 19, 1990, 

Patrick Swan - photographer

t Feast of Dedication. Students from 

the Torah School of Greater Washington commemorate Chanukah, the 

“Feast of Dedication,” during a cantata 

in the Walter Reed Hospital’s Joel 

Auditorium.

Source: Stripe newspaper, December 18, 1998, 

Beau Whittington - photographer
227

p It was a sea of green and white at Walter Reed as the Army’s premier medical center hosted the first combined graduate medical education graduation ceremony between itself and the Navy’s flagship healthcare facility, the National Naval 

Medical Center in Bethesda, MD.

Source: Stripe newspaper, June 27, 1997

p “Buffalo Soldier” SFC John E. Wright of the 9th Cavalry, Tuskegee Airman Leroy A. Battle of the 99th Pursuit Fighter 

Squadron, and “Buffalo Rangers” George Jackson and Paul Lyles of the 2nd Ranger Infantry Company (Airborne) discuss 

contributions made by blacks to the armed forces during an African-American Heritage Month program February 4 in the 

hospital’s Joel Auditorium.

Source: Stripe newspaper, February 13, 1998, Bernard S. Little - photographer
228

p Bunnies begin the first leg of the 

“Fun Bunny Run” held April 12 at 

WRAMC (above). The run was sponsored by the Department of Nursing 

Socialization Association. Students of 

the Intensive Care Professional Nursing Course and other Department of 

Nursing personnel participated in the 

run held for the holiday and for Physical Fitness Readiness Test preparation.

Source: Stripe newspaper, April 20, 1990

u Advertisement for the sixty-fourth Easter Sunrise Service.

Source: Stripe newspaper
229

Joe Dickens, head gardener at the Department of Psychiatry’s Horticulture Therapy Greenhouse, prepares a few of the 

facility’s 500 poinsettia plants for delivery to Walter Reed wards during the holidays. Dickens, along with co-workers T. C. 

Williams, George Blevins, and Robert Coram, used many of the plants to create the center’s annual poinsettia tree in the 

hospital’s main lobby. The greenhouse was demolished by the end of the decade.

Source: Stripe newspaper, December 17, 1993, Jerry Merideth - photographer
230

p Robert Polhill, accompanied by Maj. General Cameron (WRAMC Commander), entering Walter Reed 

Hospital following his release from Lebanon, where he had been held hostage for 39 months (from January 24, 1987 to April 1990).

Source: NCP 1262

p 1992 change of command ceremony in front of the Heaton Pavilion with Maj. General Cameron, outgoing WRAMC Commander and Brig. General Ronald Blanck as incoming Commander.

Source: Blanck Collection
231

p President William J. Clinton is enjoying his conversation with a young patient 

on Ward 51 during an October 1993 visit to the hospital.

Source: Stripe newspaper, April 28, 2006

p President Bill Clinton visiting a soldier 

wounded in Somalia.

Source: WRAMC History Office, PAO Historical 

Collection
232

Col. Catharine Carpenter (left) discusses proposal changes with Col. Baird and Maj. Sullivan (in scrubs) that 

will transform this delivery room into a birthing room.

Source: Stripe newspaper, June 28, 1991, Bonnie S. Heater - photographer
233

t Lt. Lynn Jinishian provides tender loving care to a premature baby.

Source: Stripe newspaper, February 2, 1990

u Maj. Lenhart tends to her son in the Newborn Intensive 

Care Unit.

Source: Cox Collection, 1992

t Maj. Dave Mahoney holds newborn 

in delivery room. 1993.

Source: Murry Collection
234

p Maj. Ernest Lockrow, DO, views a monitor as he performs a total laparoscopic hysterectomy.

Source: Stripe newspaper, Ramona E. Joyce - photographer
235

p Surgeon, Col. Harold Fenster, performs Walter Reed Army Medical Center’s second laparoscopic 

cholecystectomy for gallbladder removal, October 16, 1990. 

Source: Stripe newspaper, October 1990

p The public was invited to observe how the Army cares for its soldiers in the field during an open house 

that showcased a Deployable Medical System at Walter Reed.

Source: Stripe newspaper, March 28, 1997
236

t The Walter Reed Army Medical Center Blood Donor 

Center sends out the call for donors.

Source: Stripe newspaper, July 17, 1992

p A letter written by a Glen Haven Elementary School 

student to the Walter Reed Precision Drill Team. As part 

of WRAMC’s Adopt-A-School program the Medical Center 

Brigade soldiers had recently performed for the students. 

Source: Stripe newspaper, April 20, 1990
237

Ocularist Vince Przybyla paints the iris of a plastic eye. Painting the iris requires 

a very subtle mixing of paints to get a perfect color match with the patient’s other 

eye.

Source: Stripe newspaper, September 10, 1993, Barry Reichenbaugh - photographer
238

A logo created to commemorate the 90th anniversary of Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

Source: Stripe newspaper, April 23, 1999
239

The Tomb of the Unknown in Arlington National Cemetery honors the unknown dead of several wars. Modern science and 

DNA testing made it possible to identify the bodies of nearly all the military who died during the Vietnam War. On May 14, 

1998, the body of the Vietnam War Unknown was disinterred and brought by military escort to the Armed Forces Institute 

of Pathology, at Walter Reed for testing and identification. Members of the Department of Defense Honor Guard remove 

the casket of the Vietnam Unknown from a hearse in front of the AFIP Building. 

Source: Stripe newspaper, May 15, 1998, Veronica Ferris - photographer
240
241

This collection of artifacts from the treatment of President Abraham Lincoln remains on display today at the National 

Museum of Health and Medicine.

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, NCP 3395, Mike Rhode - photographer
242
243

2000–2009
244

u The Hoff Fountain is especially beautiful in the spring with the tulips in bloom.

Source: Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Directorate of Public Works Archives

No one anticipated that September 11, 2001, a sunny day with bright blue skies, would bring 

such death and destruction to our 

country and significant change to the 

Army and to Walter Reed. The following Global War on Terror, with combat 

in Afghanistan and Iraq, resulted in 

many new and often severely wounded soldiers, as well as other challenges 

being brought to Walter Reed.

The Karen Wagner Sports Center 

(Building 32) was dedicated on September 11, 2003, two years after Lt. 

Colonel Karen Wagner was killed in 

the Pentagon. Karen Wagner was a 

17-year veteran of the Medical Service 

Corps, having served in San Antonio, 

Ft. Lee, Germany, and Washington, 

DC, including a stint at Walter Reed as 

Head of the Personnel Services Branch. 

She had held personnel assignments at 

the Office of the Surgeon General. She 

was a 1984 graduate of the ROTC program at the University of Nevada–Las 

Vegas, where she also played guard on 

the university’s women’s basketball 

team.

The Wagner Sports Center includes a 

gymnasium, three racquetball courts, 

a cardio theater consisting of various pieces of cardio equipment, such 

as treadmills and bikes, a weight area 

consisting of weight-resistant equipment, an aerobics room, and saunas 

and locker rooms for men and women. 

In addition to basketball and volleyball, a variety of other programs are 

offered, such as aerobics classes and 

walking programs, that can be done 

with a group or individually.

As Walter Reed Army Medical Center 

approached its centennial few anticipated that it would be the last decade of 

Walter Reed occupying its Washington, 

D.C., campus. The Base Realignment 

and Closure (BRAC) Commission recommended in May 2005 that the Army 

close Walter Reed Army Medical Center, and the Army agreed. However, the 

name Walter Reed will be carried over 

to the new Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on the grounds of 

what is now the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, MD. At the time 

of this writing, the future of the Walter 

Reed, Washington, D.C. campus is not 

known.

Despite the BRAC and it implications, 

war wounded continued to arrive at 

Walter Reed. In response to the needs 

of a significant number of amputees, 

the Army funded and built a Military 

Advanced Training Center (MATC) at 

Walter Reed that opened in September 

2007. This facility, designed to augment the capabilities of existing Walter 

Reed facilities, has the latest in computer and video monitoring systems 

and prosthetics to help enhance amputee and patient care through a multidisciplinary approach, with the goal 

Title page - This satellite image of the campus in the mid-2000s shows the 

mature campus in essentially its final state. Only one building was added after 

this image was taken: the Military Advanced Training Center (MATC) located immediately north of and connected to the main hospital building (the large square 

building in the upper right of the image). The only other building constructed during this decade was the athletic facility, the square building in the center left of 

the image just to the east (right) of the L-shaped Mologne House. Known as the 

Wagner Sports Center, this building was named in honor of Lt. Colonel Karen 

Wagner, a Walter Reed alumna killed in the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. 

Source: Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Directorate of Public Works Archives

244

of returning multiskilled leaders and 

soldiers to duty. The multidisciplinary 

team includes physicians, nurse case 

managers, therapists, psychologists, 

social workers, benefits counselors, 

and representatives of the Department 

of Veterans Affairs.

The MATC has a Center for Performance and Clinical Research or gait 

lab, as well as a Computer Assisted 

Rehabilitation Environment (CAREN). 

The CAREN is designed to build a 

virtual environment around a patient 

performing tasks on a treadmill bolted 
245

to a helicopter simulator. The CAREN 

uses a video capture system similar 

to the gait lab, but with an interactive 

platform that responds to the patient’s 

every move. The CAREN can also assist warriors recovering from posttraumatic stress disorder by reintroducing 

patients to both simple and complex 

environments, and measuring their 

performance while ensuring absolute 

safety.

The MATC has a 225-foot indoor track 

that boasts the world’s first oval support harness.

“It allows the Soldiers to walk or 

run without a therapist tethered 

to them.”

Additionally, MATC includes a rope 

climb and rock wall, uneven terrain 

and incline parallel bars, vehicular 

simulators, a firearms training simulator, physical therapy athletic and exercise areas, and an occupational therapy 

clinic. The facility also has prosthetic 

training and skills training areas, prosthetic adjustment and fitting rooms, 

and separate examination rooms for all 

amputee-related care.

At its centennial, all who have had the 

privilege to serve Walter Reed Army 

Medical Center’s most deserving patients can be proud of their accomplishments in healthcare, medical education, and medical research. Those 

who have provided or received care at 

Walter Reed understand that it is different and unique, and is known across 

the country and around the world. 

By serving at Walter Reed during its 

first century, you have been and are a 

part of its great legacy.
246

Aerial view of hospital with the finished Rumbaugh Garage on the left.

Source: Walter Reed Army Medical Center
247

t The Rose Garden covered in snow 

provides a peaceful, contemplative 

escape from the real world. 

Source: Stripe newspaper, December 14, 2007

p Snow puts a magical glow on the campus. The first snow of 2007 was no exception. 

Source: Stripe newspaper, December 14, 2007 
248

Building 1 decorated for the holiday season. 

Source: Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Directorate of Public Works Archives
249

The fountain in the Rose Garden and plaque in honor of General George Glennan, Commander of Walter Reed General 

Hospital from 1919 until 1923 and the Army Medical Center from 1923 until 1926.

Source: Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Directorate of Public Works Archives

It’s tulip time at Walter Reed. 

Source: Stripe newspaper
250

p Fine details of the Memorial Chapel architecture are 

seen on the facing page. 

Source: Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Directorate of Public Works 

Archives; Kathleen Stocker - photographer

u A young couple, Ann Pierce and Ivan Wilson leave 

the Memorial Chapel after their wedding on May 3, 2003. 

Source: Pierce Collection; Elizabeth Sterling - Photographer
251

The figures on the Chapel represent 

the role of the hospital chaplain and 

the Red Cross Gray Ladies in the care 

and recovery of patients. 

Source: Walter Reed Army Medical Center, 

Directorate of Public Works Archives; Kathleen 

Stocker - photographer
252

u A sports center built for rehabilitation was named in honor of Lt. Colonel 

Karen Wagner (pictured above). She 

served as the Medical Center Brigade’s Executive Officer and Secretary of the General Staff at the North 

Atlantic Regional Medical Command. 

She was the Deputy Chief of Staff for 

Personnel at the Office of the Army 

Surgeon General at the Pentagon. 

She served at Walter Reed for seven 

of her seventeen years in the Army. Lt. 

Colonel Wagner died in the attack on 

the Pentagon, September 11, 2001. 

Source: Walter Reed Army Medical Center, 

Directorate of Public Works Archives

p The cover of the Stripe newspaper commemorating the first anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks and its victims.

Source: Stripe newspaper, Sept. 6, 2002
253

p The guest house, Doss Memorial Hall, was named in honor of PFC Desmond T. Doss. Doss enlisted on April 1, 1942 

as a conscientious objector and served as a medic with the 778th Infantry Division. On April 29, 1945, his unit captured 

the Maeda Escarpment on Okinawa. Six days later, they were forced to retreat. Doss is credited with saving 76 lives by 

lowering his sick and wounded comrades down the cliff one by one over a period of five hours. He was the first conscientious objector to receive the Medal of Honor. He died March 2006. The house has 32 rooms for outpatients and their 

families. 

Sources: Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Directorate of Public Works Archives; Stripe newspaper, July 3, 2008

t Building 38 was renamed Vaccaro 

Hall at a dedication ceremony on 

August 2, 2007. Army Cpl. Angelo 

J. Vaccaro, an Army medic killed 

in Afghanistan while attempting to 

evacuate casualties during combat 

in Afghanistan, is the first service 

member to earn two Silver Star 

Medals in the Global War on Terror. 

The hall will serve as the headquarters 

for the new Warrior Transition Brigade, 

a center aimed at improving outpatient 

services. Maj. General Schoomaker 

and Cpl. Vaccaro’s family members 

participated in the dedication 

ceremony.

Source: WRAMC History Office, PAO Historical 

Collection
254

p Program for the dedication of the Military Advanced 

Training Center for wounded soldiers.

Source: National Museum of Health and Medicine, WRAMC History Collection

p One of the new buildings constructed on the campus 

was a new Amputee Center. The modern structure was designed to provide a focused area for soldiers to regain skills 

and return to active lives. 

Source: Stripe newspaper. February 2, 2007

t Groundbreaking ceremony for the 

Military Advanced Training Center 

(also known as the Amputee Center). 

Source: Stripe newspaper

p Ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Amputee Center dedication with Maj. General Eric B. Schoomaker, WRAMC Commander, in attendance.

Source: Stripe newspaper
255

The Military Advanced Training Center was officially opened on September 13, 2007. It was designed to treat “Warriors in 

Transition” with limb loss or functional loss to the highest possible levels of activity. 

Source: Kathleen Stocker - photographer
256

The sign at the entrance to the National Museum of Health and Medicine.

Source: Mike Rhode - photographer
257

p A bust of Walter Reed inside the museum doors at the 

National Museum of Health and Medicine. An iron lung and 

vintage X-ray machine stand in the background.

Source: Mike Rhode - photographer

p Part of the display floor at the National Museum of Health and Medicine.

Source: Mike Rhode - photographer

p This museum display shows a tent set up to simulate 

the contents of a trauma bay as it would appear in the theater of battle outside Balad, Iraq.

Source: Mike Rhode - photographer
258

p In 1864, the grounds on which Walter Reed now stands 

was the location of Confederate General Jubal Early’s 

troops during the Battle of Fort Stevens. This ground 

marked the deepest penetration of his troops into the District of Columbia. The tulip tree that stood on this spot was 

used by sharpshooters to fire on Fort Stevens. The cannonballs pictured were removed from the unoccupied Lay farm 

house on the property in 1898 by two neighbor boys. One 

of them, Mr. William Burdett, kept them as artifacts for most 

of his life but in 1963 donated them to Walter Reed and 

they became part of this memorial.

Source: Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Directorate of Public Works 

Archives; Kathleen Stocker - photographer

u Close-up of the plaque located opposite the officer’s 

quarters (Building 12).

Source: Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Directorate of Public Works 

Archives
259

This poster hangs in the hallway wall outside the Graduate Medical Education offices in Building 2, the Heaton 

Pavilion. The information about Colonels Kimbrough and Bruton is self-explanatory. The row of photographs 

are of individuals who all completed some, if not all, of their medical training at Walter Reed. Left to right are, 

Lewis Mologne, later a Maj. General and Walter Reed Commander; Jim Rumbaugh, also later a Maj. General 

and Walter Reed Commander; Mike Scotti, also later a Maj. General and Army Medical Department leader; and 

David McLeod, later Chief of Urology and Residency Program Director and currently Walter Reed legend.

Source: Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Graduate Medical Education
260

t Incoming Commander Colonel 

Norvell Coots (left) accepts the Walter 

Reed Health Care System flag from 

Maj. General Carla Hawley-Bowland, 

Commanding General of the North 

Atlantic Regional Medical Command 

and WRAMC, during a change of 

command ceremony July 11, 2008 in 

WRAMC’s Wagner Sports Center.

SGM Ricardo Alcantara stands behind 

Colonel Coots.

Source: Stripe newspaper, July 17, 2008; John 

R. Chew - photographer p Maj. General Kenneth Farmer, 

outgoing NARMC and WRAMC Com-

mander; Lt. General Kevin Kiley, Army 

Surgeon General; and Maj. General 

George Weightman stand at atten-

tion during the change of command 

ceremony for incoming WRAMC and 

NARMC commander Gen. Weightman 

on August 24, 2006.

Source: Stripe newspaper
261

p Maj. General Eric Schoomaker, outgoing NARMC and WRAMC Commander and Surgeon General designee (left) with

Maj. General Gale Pollock, acting Surgeon General (center) and Maj. General Carla Hawley-Bowland (right) at the change 

of command ceremony held December 11, 2007 in Walter Reed Army Medical Center’s Karen Wagner Sports Center. Maj. 

General Hawley-Bowland assumed command of the North Atlantic Regional Medical Command and Walter Reed Army 

Medical Center. Maj. General Eric Schoomaker was promoted to Lt. General the next day.

Source: Stripe newspaper, December 11, 2007; SFC Roger J. Mommaerts, Jr., WTB - photographer
262

Mass casualty exercise in 2007.

Source: WRAMC History Office, PAO Historical Collection
263
264

p The Walter Reed Army Medical Center patient evacuation vehicle (PEV), a semitrailer-sized hospital on wheels, fits up 

to 12 ambulatory and 16 nonambulatory patients, and allows medical personnel to administer medical treatment en route 

to the hospital.

Source: Stripe newspaper, April 28, 2006

p Mail is a source of connection with the world outside a hospital room. It means that someone took the time to think 

about a patient. 

Source: Stripe newspaper, January 27, 2006
265

From the first Red Cross worker known as the Gray Lady in World War I to the 

present, the Red Cross has been a major presence on the campus of Walter 

Reed Army Medical Center. Whether it is sorting mail, preparing gift bags, or 

singing Christmas carols, the Red Cross volunteers are always there to encourage and cheer the patients and assist the staff. 

Source: Stripe newspaper, 2005 and 2006 issues
266

Sometimes it’s the little things that speed recovery. Here, a young boy shares his birthday presents by bringing phone cards to patients in the hospital. The boy had requested his guests to bring him gifts of telephone 

cards. 

Source: Stripe newspaper, August 29, 2005
267

Father Patrick Kenny visits with an inpatient. It is estimated that he has visited over 150,000 patients during his 27-year 

tenure at WRAMC. All who know him speak of the man who makes them smile. 

Source: Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Graduate Medical Education
268

The Purple Heart is awarded to members of the military who sustained 

wounds in combat. 

Source: Stripe newspaper, November 17, 2006
269

p President George W. Bush continues the practice begun by President Harding to visit the wounded warriors at the 

hospital. Here, he is presenting wounded service members with their Purple Hearts.

Source: Stripe newspaper

p The U.S. Postal Service dedicated the new Purple Heart stamp during a ceremony at Walter Reed Army Medical 

Center where two wounded soldiers were awarded Purple Hearts by General Colin L. Powell (Ret.). Maj. General Elder 

Granger (left) participated in honoring service members at the Purple Heart ceremony on the 75th anniversary of the 

Purple Heart medal. August 7, 2007

Source: Stripe newspaper
270

p Talk show host Oprah Winfrey visits wounded soldiers. 

Source: Stripe newspaper
271

p President-elect Barack Obama meets with CSM James E. Diggs and Maj. General Hawley-Bowland during his visit to 

Walter Reed Army Hospital in the days leading up to his inauguration. 

Source: Stripe newspaper

u The variety of visitors to Walter 

Reed Hospital continues. Here, cartoonist G. B. Trudeau poses for photo 

with a fan during a visit to the hospital 

in February 2006. 

Source: Stripe newspaper, February 3, 2006

t The annual Easter Sunrise Service 

continues to be a major event in the 

life of the Walter Reed Army Medical 

Center. In April 2006, Franklin Graham conducted the service much 

as his father had done years earlier. 

The service was held in the Garden 

near the Pavilion and broadcast on a 

jumbo screen. Ricky Skaggs, Grammy 

winning Country music artist is on the 

right. 

Source: Stripe newspaper, April 21, 2006
272

p The 3D Medical Applications Center provides physical anatomical models and cranioplasty implants using medical imaging data, and is used by physicians, surgeons, and dentists in many diverse specialties. The models have proven to be 

invaluable for presurgical planning on complex cases, allowing for rehearsal of surgery, prebending of plates, and intraoperative reference, which results in reduced surgical time. Here, Chief of Radiology, Col. Mike Brazaitis and Col. (Ret) Steve 

Rouse, confer with Peter Liacouras, PhD in the design of a skull plate.

Source: 3D Medical Applications Center

(Left) A computer model of a skull based 

on CT scan data. (Right) An acrylic skull 

created on a rapid prototyping machine 

based on computer data similar to that 

shown above and on the left.

Source: 3D Medical Applications Center
273

Judge John J. “Jack” Farley, III, tries out a Segway. The Segway, which is controlled by balance shifting, has proven 

to be a useful device in helping wounded soldiers improve coordination while having fun. The nonprofit group Disability Rights Advocates For Technology (DRAFT) has donated more than 150 of these devices to military amputees. Farley, wounded in Vietnam, was a patient on the orthopaedic ward known as the “snake pit” after sustaining 

wounds in Vietnam in 1969.

Source: Douglas Wise - photographer
274

u Prosthetics should look as natural 

as possible. This frequently means 

that artists need to paint the devices to 

match the skin tones and other coloring features of the patient. The image 

shows cosmetic hands before and 

after color match artistry.

Source: WRAMC History Office, PAO Historical 

Collection

p Surgical techniques in the operating room have changed over the years. Here, a team works with 3D headsets to perform the latest surgical techniques. 

Source: Stripe newspaper, March 30, 2007
275

t It takes a lot of concentration to 

make the arm do what should be so 

easy. Occupational Therapist Capt. 

Smith-Forbes provides encouragement. 

Source: Stripe newspaper, April 7, 2006

t PFC Tristan Wyatt practices gait in 

the physical therapy clinic. 

Source: Bruce Maston - photographer; National 

Museum of Health and Medicine, AFIP, NCP 

4159

p Physical Therapist Bob Barr adjusts 

the C-leg of Lt. Melissa Stockwell. 

Source: Stripe newspaper, February 28, 2006
276

A soldier practices climbing skill on the rock wall located in the Military Advanced Training Center.

Source: WRAMC History Office, PAO Historical Collection
277

Use of a hand-crank bike contributes 

to the development of confidence and 

ability, allowing continued participation 

in leisure activity. 

Source: WRAMC History Office, PAO Historical 

Collection

As in the past, integration of a range 

of functional activities during rehabilitation is an ongoing goal in the occupational therapy clinic. While durable 

prosthetic design from earlier years is 

used today, recent research in prosthetics has lead to the development of 

lighter weight components, customization with computer aided design, 

advancement in myoelectric controls 

and cosmetic enhancements. 

Source: WRAMC History Office, PAO Historical 

Collection
278
279

Heaton Pavilion, Building 2, in the spring with the cherry trees in bloom. 

Sources: Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Directorate of Public Works Archives; Kathleen Stocker - photographer