Dole vows to do his best for wounded soldiers

WASHINGTON -- Bob Dole and Donna Shalala emerged from the White House on Wednesday morning with a mandate to quickly find solutions to the problems with medical care for wounded soldiers.

"We're going to do the best we can to make certain that those young men and women who served are properly cared for when they come home, and that they're properly transitioned after their care is completed," Dole said after their meeting with President Bush.

Bush on Tuesday named Dole, a former Kansas senator and majority leader, and Shalala, who was secretary of health and human services under President Clinton, to lead a bipartisan investigation into problems experienced by wounded soldiers after they leave the battlefield.

Recent stories in The Washington Post revealed that some injured troops were housed in squalor at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. They also often had to fight the bureaucracy to prove they deserved their disability benefits.

The panel led by Dole and Shalala, however, will look beyond Walter Reed to safeguard that members of the military and veterans are treated properly at all military and veterans' hospitals.

"This is going to be comprehensive," Shalala said. "It's going to be vigorous and neither one of us is afraid of talking to the brass, whether it's the president of the United States or a general."

After their meeting, Bush said, "Any report of medical neglect will betaken seriously by the administration ... I am confident there will be a quick response to any problems that you may find."

Bush noted that Dole "knows Washington well," and also is a wounded veteran. Dole suffered serious injuries during World War II, and it took him years to recover.

The president said that Shalala, president of the University of Miami, was "an expert on health."

Dole said that he has been a frequent visitor to Walter Reed and had Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner at the hospital last year. But he was unaware of the conditions that some of the injured soldiers, and family members who stayed with them while they recuperated, had to live in, he said.

"In most cases, the care they receive ... they think is excellent," Dole said. "It's what happens either when they finish their care or move off to some outpatient area where we have the problem. And it's not fair. ... Our charge is to see if we can come up with some ideas that might correct that."