<p>Dole, Shalala to investigate Walter Reed problems</p>
<p>WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush on Tuesday named Democrat Donna Shalala and Republican Bob Dole to head a commission to investigate problems at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.</p>
<p>Substandard conditions and a confusing bureaucracy at an outpatient facility for troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan were revealed in a series of articles in the Washington Post.</p>
<p>"It's unacceptable to me, it's unacceptable to you, it's unacceptable to our country, and it's not going to continue," Bush said in a speech to the American Legion.</p>
<p>"My decisions have put our kids in harm's way. And I'm concerned about the fact that when they come back they don't get the full treatment they deserve."</p>
<p>Shalala is the former Secretary of Health and Human Services; Dole is a former GOP presidential nominee.</p>
<p>Shalala served in the Clinton administration and is currently president of the University of Miami. Dole served as Senate majority leader before his retirement from Congress.</p>
<p>Also Tuesday, senators on the Armed Services Committee were questioning senior members of the military about the problems.</p>
<p>Army Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Schoomaker and Army Surgeon General Lt. Gen. Kevin Kiley were scheduled to testify. Kiley was in charge of Walter Reed from 2000 until 2004.
Witnesses describe nightmarish system</p>
<p>Monday, witnesses told a House panel that wounded U.S. soldiers are forced to struggle against a nightmarish and untrustworthy Army medical system that leaves veterans stranded in unfit conditions. (Full story)</p>
<p>Two Iraq war veterans and the wife of a third gave heartbreaking tales of neglect at the now notorious Walter Reed Army Medical Center.</p>
<p>Annette McLeod, wife of Cpl. Wendell McLeod, who received an injury to his head in the war, said her husband "has been through the nightmares of the Army medical system."</p>
<p>"I'm glad that you care about what happened to my husband after he was injured in the line of duty. Because for a long time, it seemed like I was the only one who cared. Certainly, the Army didn't care. I didn't even find out that he was injured until he called me himself from a hospital in New Jersey."</p>
<p>"This is how we treat our soldiers -- we give them nothing," she said. "They're good enough to go and sacrifice their life, and we give them nothing. You need to fix the system." (Watch emotional testimony about Reed's problemsVideo)</p>
<p>A series of stories in The Washington Post in February documented a variety of problems at "Building 18," a one-time motel converted to a long-term outpatient dormitory at the Washington hospital. The newspaper found troops who lost limbs and suffered traumatic brain injuries or post-traumatic stress were quartered for months in moldy and rodent-infested rooms with inadequate follow-up care.</p>
<p>The panel chairman, Rep. John Tierney, called "the unsanitary conditions" and other problems at Walter Reed hospital "appalling."</p>
<p>"But we also realize that not only is it flat wrong, that's the tip of the iceberg," said Tierney, a Massachusetts Democrat. "For too many occasions, the soldiers at Walter Reed wait months, if not years, in sort of a limbo. And they must navigate through broken administrative processes and layers upon layers of bureaucracy to get their basic tasks accomplished."</p>
<p>Maj. Gen. George Weightman, whose duties included overseeing the facility before he was fired over the scandal, said, "It is clear mistakes were made, and I was in charge. We can't fail one of these soldiers or their families, not one, and we did."</p>
<p>He added, "We did not fully recognize the frustrating bureaucratic and administrative processes some of these soldiers go through. We should have and in this, I failed."
Room 'wasn't fit for anyone'</p>
<p>During earlier testimony, a soldier who said he once lived in a recovery annex at Walter Reed described unfit hospital conditions.</p>
<p>Wounded Army Spc. Jeremy Duncan told the panel he spent some of his recovery in Building 18.Duncan said that his room "wasn't fit for anyone."</p>
<p>"I know most soldiers that come out of recovery have weaker immune systems and black mold can do damage to people," Duncan said. "The holes in the walls -- I wouldn't live there even if I had to."</p>
<p>After taking his complaints through the chain of command, nothing was fixed, Duncan said.</p>
<p>"That's when I contacted The Washington Post."</p>
<p>Asked what happened after the Post reported what he had to say, Duncan replied, "I was immediately removed from that room. And then the next day they were renovating the room."</p>
<p>Duncan rejected recent public statements from some military officials that they were unaware of the problems. "There's no way they couldn't have known," he said. "I mean, everybody had to have known somewhere. If they wanted to actually look at it or pay attention or believe it, it's up to them."
Generals acknowledge problems</p>
<p>Schoomaker said, "I couldn't be madder, and I couldn't be more embarrassed and ashamed."</p>
<p>Kiley acknowledged Walter Reed "has not met our standards" and added, "For that I am sorry."</p>
<p>Kiley's statement came after Acting Secretary of the Army Peter Geren told the committee that "we have let some soldiers down."</p>
<p>"We're going to fix that problem," Geren said.</p>
<p>Geren stepped into his role after Army Secretary Francis J. Harvey's resignation Friday.</p>
<p>In addition to Harvey's resignation, the outcry over the conditions some outpatient soldiers faced at Walter Reed led to Weightman's removal. (Watch why the Army secretary and hospital commander lost their jobsVideo)</p>
<p>On Friday, House Democrats released documents showing Weightman was warned in September that the Army's decision to turn over support services for the facility to a private contractor sparked an exodus of skilled staff. That left patient care "at risk of mission failure," Weightman's deputy, Col. Peter Garibaldi, warned in a memo to the general.</p>