Army Secretary Ousted

Rep. James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.), a member of the House Appropriations subcommittee on defense and a close ally of a leading war critic, Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.), said Bush's new commission is too little too late. "He's the executive," Moran said. "This has been six years, and now six years later, after an awful lot of neglect, he's going to get around to putting a commission together, a study to tell him what to do. . . . I think he's feeling politically desperate."

White House officials said politics played no role in their decision to form the commission, saying that Bush is genuinely outraged by the conditions at Walter Reed and that he learned about them from the recent news reports. "Once the Walter Reed stories ran, there was a collective feeling in the building, and certainly from the president, that whatever reasons or excuses, it was unacceptable," said Tony Fratto, deputy White House press secretary.

Eleven national volunteer organizations that help the wounded were called to the White House to meet with Bush on Wednesday, a meeting that White House officials said was planned before the Walter Reed stories broke. Cindy McGrew, founder of Operation Second Chance, a Maryland-based group that deals primarily with the wounded at Walter Reed, attended and said the president "wants to do all he can to help."

But the director of another organization, who spoke on the condition of anonymity so as not to anger the administration, called the event a "missed opportunity to ask people who have day-to-day interaction with the wounded to provide insight into how to fix this situation."

Anthony J. Principi, who served Bush as his first secretary of veterans affairs, said he was not sure Walter Reed is a political problem for the president but indicated that veterans groups are watching the situation carefully. "Veterans organizations have been very supportive of the president -- they respect and admire that he is stepping out on the issue and will hold people accountable. The president needs their support," he said.

The new commander of Walter Reed is Schoomaker, 58, currently commander of the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command at Fort Detrick, Md., home to biological weapon defense research. He is the younger brother of Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker, the Army chief of staff.

It appears he has his work cut out for him. Yesterday, soldiers living in Building 18, the site of the worst problems, were told to pack their things so that Walter Reed could properly renovate the dank structure besieged by mold, leaks and rot. Some of the wounded were moved to another building on the post, while others were driven to a hotel in Silver Spring.

One soldier who had been living in Building 18 for 16 months, waiting to be treated for back problems, was told to report to barracks in Fort Meade, Md., according to his father. The soldier arrived at Fort Meade yesterday afternoon with his gear but was unable to move into his new accommodations -- the building had no elevator, and the soldier could not climb the stairs.

Staff writers Anne Hull, Dana Priest and Ann Scott Tyson contributed to this report.