Bush Opens New Chapter for Hospital

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Bush Breaks Ground at New Walter Reed

President Bush helped break ground on the new Walter Reed National Medical Center Thursday. The new site is being built on the National Naval Medical Center campus in Bethesda, Maryland.

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There has been debate over what, if any, of the traffic burden should fall to the military. County officials hope the Pentagon will pay for a new Metro entrance on the east side of Rockville Pike. Metro riders now exit the Medical Center Station of the Red Line across the street at NIH. That work, plus a new turn lane for vehicles, will cost at least $21 million, Alperson said.

"There are costs that should be picked up by the Defense Department," said Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), who attended the ceremony.

The new center will pool the resources of the Army, Navy and Air Force. Service members said the consolidation will eliminate the need for families to travel between Bethesda and the District to see specialists.

"In the past, I've definitely had to go from Walter Reed to Bethesda to Walter Reed to Bethesda," said Army Sgt. Eric Ortegren, who returned from Afghanistan with a traumatic brain injury and PTSD. "And bringing the two together will definitely make a difference."

Ortegren said he prefers the environment at Bethesda, where services are spread across a larger and somewhat more orderly campus. The prospect of a new facility will raise spirits across the armed services, he said.

"Today soldiers are coming back with quite a lot more emotional damage than we had in the past," he said. "And knowing they're custom-designing a facility to take care of soldiers with those specific needs, that's a huge relief."

Staff researcher Alice R. Crites contributed to this report.