FAILINGS AT WALTER REED CLAIM ARMY SECRETARY

Army Secretary Francis J. Harvey resigned Friday under pressure from Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, becoming the second top Army official forced to step down because of revelations of problems in the care of seriously injured soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

In an unusually harsh denunciation, Gates said he was displeased with some Army officials over their handling of disclosures that soldiers had received substandard housing and poor outpatient treatment at Walter Reed.

“I am disappointed that some in the Army have not adequately appreciated the seriousness of the situation pertaining to outpatient care at Walter Reed,” Gates said at the Pentagon. “Some have shown too much defensiveness and have not shown enough focus on digging into and addressing the problems.”

The Army also named a new commander of Walter Reed on Friday -- a day after Harvey had controversially appointed a previous head of Walter Reed, Lt. Gen. Kevin C. Kiley, as interim commander. A senior Pentagon official said Gates was upset that Harvey had appointed Kiley.

Military officers said the swift response by Gates and his willingness to move against top Army commanders and civilians was partly meant to differentiate him from his predecessor, Donald H. Rumsfeld. Throughout months of revelations of abuses by American soldiers at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and elsewhere, Rumsfeld brushed off demands to punish ranking officers, and awarded one a medal for distinguished service.

President Bush, meanwhile, will tell the nation in his radio address today that he finds conditions at Walter Reed “unacceptable,” and congressional Democrats have subpoenaed the hospital’s former commander to what promises to be an acrimonious hearing at the Washington hospital Monday.

For Bush, the revelations came as an embarrassment. His radio speech -- and its early release -- represented an effort to contain the damage.

It was Harvey, the Army’s top civilian official, who relieved Maj. Gen. George W. Weightman of his command of the hospital Thursday. In the same announcement, Harvey appointed Kiley, the Army’s surgeon general and head of its Medical Command, as Walter Reed’s acting commander.

But veterans groups, lawmakers and others had criticized Kiley -- who headed Walter Reed from 2002 to 2004 -- saying he had known about problems at the hospital and had failed to act.

On Friday, the Army appointed Maj. Gen. Eric B. Schoomaker as the new Walter Reed commander.

Last week, a day before Gates traveled to the hospital and publicly condemned the problems at Walter Reed, Kiley denied that there had been a “breakdown of leadership” and criticized the Washington Post stories that exposed problems at the hospital.

Although Gates declined to criticize Kiley last week, his comments Friday contradicted Kiley’s stance that there had been no failure by hospital leaders. Gates singled out the doctors and nurses at the hospital for praise while criticizing the command.

“I want to reaffirm my confidence in the staff at Walter Reed and their professionalism and dedication to providing caring treatment,” Gates said. “From what I have learned, the problems at Walter Reed appear to be problems of leadership.”

Several military officials said Kiley also might be ousted from his post as surgeon general and Army medical commander. But the senior Pentagon official, speaking on condition of anonymity when discussing internal deliberations, said Kiley’s fate would probably be determined by an independent review panel appointed by Gates last week to examine Army medical facilities.

Jerry Newberry, a spokesman for the Veterans of Foreign Wars, said Gates’ actions had allayed his members’ concerns that only low-level officials and officers would be held accountable for the problems at Walter Reed.

“Obviously, [Gates] is a no-nonsense guy and means what he says. He’s demanded people be held accountable and obviously they are,” Newberry said.

Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), a member of the Armed Services Committee, praised Gates’ move.

“Secretary Gates gets a lot of points for what he did today,” said McCaskill, who has drafted a measure to improve housing for wounded soldiers and to cut through bureaucracy.

But she said she did not think the problems at Walter Reed could be fixed until Kiley was replaced.

“He is responsible for the command culture that allowed the situation to continue even after he knew about it,” she said. “It is clear he knew about it. The problems with the outpatients were brought to him. I hope Secretary Gates is not finished.”

Military officials said Harvey had also failed to speak candidly enough about the problems.

On Thursday, during a round-table discussion with reporters, Harvey refused to entertain questions about the growing scandal, saying he had received legal advice against commenting on investigations of Army personnel.

When pressed to discuss the Army investigation, Harvey was curt: “Just let us do it,” he said. “When it’s done, we’ll let you know.”

Failure to take responsibility, acknowledge the problems or explain remedial steps was unacceptable to Gates, military officials said.

“Secretary Harvey was an outstanding leader, but he got it wrong on this one,” said the senior Pentagon official. “And the secretary [Gates] is serious about accountability.”

Although Army officials acknowledged Harvey’s missteps in dealing with the hospital crisis, he has been popular with many officers.

Named Army secretary in 2004, Harvey is a former defense industry executive who spent much of his career as a senior executive for Westinghouse Corp. He has a doctorate in metallurgy and material sciences from the University of Pennsylvania.

In his radio address today, Bush is to announce the creation of a bipartisan presidential commission to review all medical care for wounded service members. The commission would be in addition to the independent panel appointed by Gates.

“Some of our troops at Walter Reed have experienced bureaucratic delays and living conditions that are less than they deserve,” an advance Bush text says. “This is unacceptable to me, it is unacceptable to our country, and it’s not going to continue.”

Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles) will head a congressional hearing at the hospital Monday.

At the hearing, Weightman, the medical center commander fired Thursday, will be questioned about a 2006 memo warning that a patient overload had strained hospital staffs and threatened care.

julian.barnes@latimes.com

Times staff writers Peter Spiegel and Joel Havemann contributed to this report.