WASHINGTON, Aug. 25 (UPI) -- The U.S. Base Realignment and Closure Commission recommended Thursday the closure of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center outside Washington.
Under the Pentagon plan, the 185-bed hospital's staff and services would move from Walter Reed's historic site to the National Naval Medical Center in nearby Bethesda, Md., to create an expanded facility, as well as a regional hospital at Fort Belvoir in Virginia.
If President George Bush and Congress approve the move, it would affect about 1,300 employees, WRC-TV, Washington, reported.
"Kids coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan, all of them in harm's way, deserve to come back to 21st-century medical care," Commission Chairman Anthony Principi said. "It needs to be modernized."
In the first round of voting Wednesday, the nine-member commission voted to close Fort Monmouth in New Jersey and move more than 2,000 jobs there to Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland. It also voted to close Fort Monroe in Hampton, Va.
