Caring for the Wounded at Walter Reed

Each member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and every general at the Pentagon should take a field trip to Walter Reed Army Medical Center this week -- turf battles be damned -- and inspect firsthand the appalling conditions our wounded service members are enduring ["The Other Walter Reed," front page, Feb. 18-19].

The military's objective is twofold: accomplish the mission and attend to the welfare of the troops. Proper short-term and long-term care of the wounded is an important part of this objective.

The Post series made it clear that a bumbling, inept bureaucracy is inflicting cruel and unusual punishment on these soldiers and Marines and their families. The description of multiple computerized personnel systems that cannot communicate with one another prompts me to suggest that perhaps one of those multimillion-dollar defense contracts should be awarded to a competent company for a suite of integrated software modules that would free these soldiers from limbo.

And hurray for the Marine's mother who stayed by the bed of her son. There is nothing like a mother to ensure that her son and others are properly cared for while recovering.

MARY KAY DOWNES

Centreville

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