Jul. 29–WASHINGTON — A $30 million physical rehabilitation center for combat veterans will be built at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, officials announced Thursday.
The public-private venture will be funded by the nonprofit Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund and designed and managed by the U.S. armed services and the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Officials said the Center for the Intrepid, the National Armed Forces Physical Rehabilitation Center, will be a state-of-the-art facility located at Fort Sam Houston.
“We are committed to building the $30 million Center for the Intrepid as quickly as possible to provide for the critical needs of America’s wounded and disabled military personnel,” said Arnold Fisher, honorary chairman of the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund.
The center would be separate from the state-of-the-art regional military medical center already planned for BAMC.
Drawings of the new center were unveiled at a Capitol Hill news conference attended by Veterans Affairs Secretary James Nicholson, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., Sen. John Warner, R-Va., and Lt. Gen. Kevin Kiley, the Army surgeon general.
McCain, who spent more than five years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, said that for veterans, the medical operation is always important, but the rehabilitation is just as vital.
That is particularly true, McCain said, with the types of injuries suffered in the war against terror.
“It’s obvious this kind of warfare we are fighting will go on for a long time,” McCain said.
The lawmakers spoke in praise of the nation’s men and women in the armed services, and those who have paid a sacrifice in the war on terror.
“We have a great obligation to care for them, because they will suffer from their injuries for the rest of their lives,” said Rep. C.W. Bill Young, R-Fla., chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee on defense.
Clinton said the center would give the “very best America has to offer” when wounded soldiers return from the battlefield.
In San Antonio, officials said the center would enhance BAMC’s role as a specialty center for burns and amputee care and the city’s reputation as a center for military medicine.
“It’s great news. It makes sense to build on a great partnership,” said retired Air Force Brig. Gen. John Jernigan, executive director of the San Antonio Military Missions Task Force.
The rehabilitation center will complement the Pentagon’s $2.4 billion plan, under the base closure process, to establish BAMC and Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., as regional military medical centers.
That plan calls for the closure of Walter Reed military hospital in Washington and Wilford Hall Medical Center in San Antonio. Components of those hospitals would be merged with Naval Medical Center and BAMC.
San Antonio is expected to gain 9,300 jobs as a result of the changes at Fort Sam Houston and BAMC.
About 50 personnel will be employed at the rehabilitation center, officials said.
“It’s one more piece in establishing us as the center of gravity for military medicine,” Jernigan said.
The center will include training areas that include walking and running lanes, stairs, obstacles and climbing surfaces to improve motor skills and prepare injured veterans for everyday life. It also will free up hospital space now being used for amputee patient care.
Two 21-room houses will be built next to the center to accommodate family members of veterans undergoing rehabilitation, Fisher said.
Plans for the center also include a children’s support space to help children understand and manage difficulties associated with a parent’s condition and treatment.
According to the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund, more than 15,000 troops have been wounded in combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Some are so severely injured, they require extensive medical care and years of treatment.
Nicholson called the center a “gift of opportunity” for veterans and a “generous gesture for our freedom fighters.”
Kiley said experts from Walter Reed would help design the center.
Construction is scheduled to begin in November, and the facility is expected to open in January 2007.
The Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund has committed $14 million toward construction. It plans to begin a fundraising effort for the remaining $16 million.
Once the center is opened, it will be handed over to the military with $3.5 million of equipment to maintain, officials said.
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