BREAKING: Kiley Resigns

Army Surgeon General Lt. Gen. Kevin Kiley — the former commander of Walter Reed Army Medical Center — has submitted a letter of retirement effective immediately.

CNN reports:

Kiley has decided to submit his resignation, saying it should not be about one doctor, and he wants to clear the way for the Army to get a grip on this scandal. He said before that he thought he had the skills to help fix the problem, but again, Lt. Gen. Kevin Kiley now submitting his resignation, submitting to the pressure to clear the way for a whole new leadership. And now a new surgeon general will have to be appointed, confirmed by the Senate, and approved by President Bush.

UPDATE: NBC News Pentagon correspondent Jim Miklaszewski reports that Kiley may be demoted in retirement:

Well, today the Army announced that he has announced his decision to retire, and…it’s very likely that he would be reduced in retirement, at least one rank. Many in the Army speculated as early as last week that Lt. Gen. Kiley would be forced to step down — he’s doing it voluntarily, of course, but under considerable pressure, not only from Capitol Hill, but from within the military itself — and it’s likely now that he could be forced to retire at that two-star level.

UPDATE II: CNN Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre says that acting Army Secretary Pete Garem “actually asked Kiley to step down, a move that was approved by Secretary of Defense Gates. However, it may have been Kiley’s decision to ask for an immediate retirement instead of remaining in the Army at his post.”

Some highlights of his tenure uncovered over the past few weeks:

– Kiley allowed a wounded soldier to sleep in his own urine even though he was begged to do something about it by a congressman’s wife.

– Kiley blamed the Walter Reed conditions on “a failure of leadership at the junior level in that building.”

– Kiley ripped the Washington Post’s revelation of the squalor at Walter Reed as “yellow journalism.”