The Army forced its surgeon
general, Lt. Gen.
Kevin C. Kiley, to retire, officials said Monday, the third high-level official to lose his
job over poor outpatient treatment of wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
Kiley, who headed Walter Reed from 2002 to 2004, has been a lightning rod for criticism
over conditions at the Armys premier medical facility, including during congressional
hearings last week. Soldiers and their families have complained about substandard living
conditions and bureaucratic delays at the hospital overwhelmed with wounded from the wars
in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Kiley submitted his retirement request on Sunday, the Army said in a statement.
“We must move quickly to fill this position this leader will have a key role in moving
the way forward in meeting the needs of our wounded warriors,” Acting Secretary of the Army
Pete Geren said in an Army statement.
Geren asked Kiley to retire, said a senior defense official speaking on condition of
anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the record. Defense Secretary Robert
Gates was not involved in the decision to ask Kiley to retire, the official said.
Kiley’s removal underscored how the fallout over Walter Reed’s shoddy conditions has yet
to subside. Instead, the controversy has mushroomed into questions about how wounded
soldiers and veterans are treated throughout the medical systems run by the military and
the Department of Veterans Affairs and has become a major preoccupation of a Bush
administration already struggling to defend the unpopular war in Iraq.
“I submitted my retirement because I think it is in the best interest of the Army,” Kiley
said in Mondays Army statement. He said he wanted to allow officials to “focus completely
on the way ahead.” The conditions at Walter Reed were detailed last month by The Washington
Post. Since then, Gates has forced Army Secretary Francis Harvey to resign and Maj. Gen.
George W. Weightman, who was in charge of Walter Reed since August 2006, was ousted from
his post.
A number of investigations have been ordered.
President Bush appointed a bipartisan commission to investigate problems at the nation’s
military and veteran hospitals, and separate reviews are underway by the Pentagon, the
Army and an interagency task force led by Nicholson.
In a briefing Thursday for reporters at the medical center, top Army officials said they
have moved to fix some of the problems at Walter Reed.
Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Richard Cody said that officials have added caseworkers,
financial specialists and others to work with soldiers’ families on problems they have
related to the injuries such as getting loans or help with income taxes.
