I am a Vietnam veteran from the generation that bought your albums “1000 Hamburgers to Go,” and “This Honkey’s Nuts.” I am not interested in getting on a soapbox. What I am interested in doing is bringing some facts to the table.

The Walter Reed Army Hospital Complex is on the list of base closings that was announced by Congress about 1 1/2 to two years ago. When this list was made public, we were led to believe that the function now served by Walter Reed Army Hospital Campus was going to be replaced by a major expansion of the hospital facilities at Ford Belvoir, and at the Quantico Marine Corps base at Quantico, both located in Northern Virginia.

No member of Congress, no one who you have interviewed on your program, has revealed this fact, nor have they told you whether they have traveled to either one of these two “Replacement Facilities,” to determine what the status is of this previously announced expansion. This issue wasn’t brought up as part of the Washington Post investigation. Woodward and Bernstein would have never omitted this matter.

The mold covered walls of Building 18 that we keep seeing on the news, walls that we now see being patched and painted over, have a shit-load of mold and mildew behind them, this being caused by the window air-conditioning units whose filters and condensate carry-off pipes have not been cleaned since you could breathe regularly. Cleaning and Greening up that building would require pulling out all of the sheetrock and horizontal surfaces of that building (ceilings & floors) to the outside walls of that building in order to perform across-the-board mold and mildew containment. No one is going to authorize that corrective action, given the fact that Walter Reed has been scheduled to be closed. So what exactly is Congress going to investigate via these pending hearings?

I think that Congress owes the American public an investigative agenda before the hearings began, so that we can be assured that these hearings will not become a three ring circus. Unless you bring your congressional friends are back on the air, including several of the presidential candidates, you know what is going to happen. What you helped accomplish in San Antonio is beyond being wonderful. The VA hospital system has a few locations (i.e., West Palm Beach and Miami, Florida) that would easily match the San Antonio facility, with respect to sophistication, excellence and professionalism. They do a lot of dental work there (sic), but they also provide critical medical services for the veterans of multiple conflicts. The West Palm Beach, Florida Veterans Hospital is the standard to which all VA hospitals should be held. Quality of care oversight is the job of the Congressional investigative team, not holding a three-ring circus.

All of this reminds me of a chapter in Anthony Herbert’s book (I have forgotten its title) on the Vietnam War, where he described then Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird’s visit to Walter Reed Army Hospital. “He walked through the wards, stonefaced, looking neither to the right or to the left at the critically disabled veterans lying in their beds.” It’s the same old same old, unless you bring these Congressional doofus friend of yours, back on the air to answer these highly critical questions. Otherwise, all that we are going to witness, is the same old merry-go-round; bullshit on a horse, traveling in circles, for all the world to see. I am beyond dismayed and embarrassed by this set of circumstances, as this sideshow has brought uncounted aid and comfort to our enemies. What do we need to wake us up, to have Al Qaeda start broadcasting to our troops via some Tokyo Rose-type of program; for them to lay down their arms because their country has no interest in them?

It is time that people like yourself started seriously kicking butt; to go beyond Susan Sarandon observations. We don’t need more studies; what we need is ass-in-the-grass corrective action. What we should come to expect of America, is a restoration of our world-wide reputation for “Taking Care of Our Own!”

Mark R. Goldstein
Cell: (703) 798-0299 Office: (772) 344-4654
Markrgoldstein@aol.com

Where is the concern about all the other federal facilities that house people, familes that make Walter Reed look like a Palace.

Mold on walls, ceiling tiles with holes, water buckets on floors and an administration that fakes concerns and is likely the largest slum lord in the country.

But he has a huge heart, too. When something gets under his skin — particularly in the area of doing what’s right — Imus moves mountains.
Don has impacted a number of important pieces of legislation, flying in the face of various corporate big-wigs. And this is why the Administration wanting loud-mouth, influential Don looking in closets and what not at Walter Reed.

Imus’ only rival in sphere of influence is Oprah. If the guy likes a book or CD, all those who stand to profit register a resounding “cha-ching!”

Before you critisize–know your subject. By the way I can barely stand the guy BUT he does do some good. AND has more power than he would appear to.

Besides the fact that I ave been listening to Imus in the Morning for years, I prefer it over Stern or Opie and Anthony, I enjoy substance to me drive time radio, I think your comment it a bit off kilter to the point. You ask is Don Imus the best champion for this cause? Maybe not it the answer to that, but it warrants me to ask you, are you going to do it? Or are you just going to quip and then move on to something else. The goodness of Imus is that if he deems something worthwhile to champion he won’t rest or shut up until there are results. There are very very few people in this world with the guts, patience, attitude and where with all to do that.

Ummmm….I am all in favor of holding a spotlight to any deplorable or substandard conditions at Walter Reed to which the wounded may be being subjected and getting those conditions improved ASAP….But is Don Imus the best champion for this cause???? I mean, look at him!