Walter Reed supports the Department of Defense in wartime, both by caring for ill or injured service members who are evacuated to the medical center for specialty treatment and by sending its own staff members into harm’s way.

More than 200 Walter Reed Soldiers deployed to Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003 and 2004, staffing a variety of combat support hospitals in Iraq and Kuwait. An additional 50 Soldiers from the Walter Reed Health Care System deployed in late 2002 with the 48th Combat Support hospital to the ongoing military operation in Afghanistan, Operation Enduring Freedom.

To fill vacancies Walter Reed staff members created at the medical center when they deployed, the Army mobilized more than 200 Army Reservists onto active duty and assigned them to work at the medical center.

Meanwhile, the hospital staff began caring for service members from both theaters of war operations shortly after combat began in March 2003. By late 2004, Walter Reed had treated more than 3,700 wounded, ill or injured patients from both operations, including more than 900 whose wounds or injuries were a result of enemy action.

A major portion of Walter Reed’s resources in treating battlefield casualties in the 21st century has been devoted to caringfor amputees. In 2002, Congress appropriated funds specifically for an amputee care center at Walter Reed because of a high number of such casualties expected from Operation Enduring Freedom.

Planning began in September 2003 for a separate building on the Walter Reed campus to bring together all amputee care capabilities, including occupational and physical therapy, social work, psychiatry, nursing, Department of Veterans Affairs counseling and other specialties. Groundbreaking for the Walter Reed Amputee Patient Care Center took place in November 2004, with an expected opening in late 2005.

Meanwhile, the center continued to offer comprehensive treatment in existing Walter Reed facilities, incorporating some of the most advanced therapeutic and prosthetic techniques in the world. The center’s goal is to return amputee patients to the highest functional levels possible. By late 2004, Walter Reed had treated more than 170 service members who lost one or more limbs during Operation Iraqi Freedom or Operation Enduring Freedom, or more than 80 percent of all amputee patients from both theaters.