Walter Reed Army Medical Center is a monument to a long tradition of patient care, medical research, and educational development. It is a tribute to the vision, intelligence, and dedication of the men and women who have worked here through the years.

Our mission is to provide every patient with the finest in personalized health care service.

We offer the best in medical training and research programs and work together in the spirit of cooperation toward our common goal of service to humanity through the advancement of medicine. We work together in the tradition, which marked the man, whose name graces the largest and best-known military medical center in the world.

Congressional legislation authorized construction of the Walter Reed General Hospital, and on May 1, 1909, the new facility admitted its first patients. The medical center named in Maj. Walter Reed’s honor was founded on principles that would integrate patient care, teaching and research. In nine decades, the hospital has grown to a vast medical complex, treating hundreds of thousands of patients.

World War I saw the hospital’s capacity grow from 80 patient beds to 2,500 in a matter of months. Through World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq, the facility has treated hundreds of thousands of Soldiers.

In 1972, after more than five years of planning, groundbreaking ceremonies took place for a new Walter Reed medical facility.

On September 26, 1977, the structure was dedicated by Walter Reed’s granddaughter, Daisy Royce; President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s widow, Mamie Eisenhower; the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sen. John Stennis; the secretary of the Army, Clifford Alexander; the Army chief of staff, Gen. Bernard Rogers; the Army surgeon general, Lt. Gen. Richard Taylor; and the Walter Reed commander, Maj. Gen. Robert Bernstein.

In 1994, the building was rededicated and was named the Heaton Pavilion. It honors the late Lt. Gen. Leonard Heaton, a former commander of Walter Reed from 1953 to 1959, who served as the Army surgeon general from 1959 to 1969.

Through the years, the medical center has added tenant institutions and facilities to its roster: the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, the Army Physical Disability Agency, and several smaller units. While many organizational changes have taken place in recent years, there has been no interruption of the close relationship among all of these functions.

Today, Walter Reed Army Medical Center continues to serve the military community from the Washington area and around the world.

The hospital itself stands 125 feet, as tall as a 10-story building. There are 5,500 rooms covering some 28 acres of floor space. The distance around the top three floors stretches the length of six football fields.

The building is designed for the highest-quality patient care and comfort. It offers accommodations for 260 patients, admitting more than 14,000 a year. The outpatient treatment facilities serve thousands of patients a day.