President Pays a Visit to Wounded Troops

President Bush ended his weeklong vacation Sunday by spending about three hours with soldiers wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan and presenting nine of them with Purple Hearts.

“I can’t think of a better way to start 2006 than here,” Bush said as he left Brooke Army Medical Center, which has specialized units for amputees and victims of severe burns. “I’m just overwhelmed by the great strength of character of not only those who have been wounded, but of their loved ones as well.”

Family members joined many of the soldiers during their visits with the president. Bush was scheduled to meet with 51 service members.

Including Sunday’s visit, Bush has met with wounded military personnel 34 times, said Trent Duffy, White House deputy press secretary.

“As commander in chief, he feels it’s one of his most important duties to visit with those who are serving in the armed forces and providing great sacrifices in this important mission,” Duffy said.

He said Bush thanked the soldiers and their families and asked about their medical care.

Brooke, at Ft. Sam Houston, is a 450-bed facility that has treated more than 2,340 service members injured in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Within the facility is the Army Burn Center, which has treated about 400 men and women wounded in the two wars. A second burn unit was opened in December 2004 to accommodate the growing patient load.

Brooke is also home to an amputee care center, which opened in January 2005. In September, ground was broken here on a $40-million rehabilitation center. The first such center, which opened in early 2004, is at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington.

Bush said that while on vacation at his ranch near Crawford, Texas, during which he cleared brush for exercise, he had received a two-inch scratch on his forehead “in combat with a cedar.”

“I eventually won,” he quipped, adding that he had dissuaded hospital staff from providing first aid for the cut.

Bush returned to the White House on Sunday afternoon. He has no public events scheduled for today, a federal holiday.

On Tuesday, he plans to use a meeting with U.S. attorneys to call on Congress to renew the Patriot Act. On Wednesday, he is to visit the Pentagon to speak about the war on terrorism.

Terrorism and the war in Iraq are the expected topics Thursday, when Bush is to meet with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and several of their predecessors, both Republican and Democratic. On Friday, he is to travel to Chicago, where he is scheduled to give a speech on the economy after visiting the Chicago Board of Trade.