General fired from Walter Reed to head Fort Detrick

Source: Baltimore Sun/AP
By David Dishneau The Associated Press
3:39 PM EST, November 13, 2007
HAGERSTOWN - The two-star general who was fired as the head of Walter Reed Army Medical Center amid revelations about poor care of wounded soldiers, will oversee U.S. biological weapons defense research as commander of Fort Detrick in Frederick, the Defense Department said.
Maj. Gen. George W. Weightman, a physician who works in the Army surgeon general's office in Falls Church, Va., will command both Fort Detrick and the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command headquartered there, according to a Defense Department press release. He replaces Col. Jonathan Jaffin, Fort Detrick's acting commander since March 3.
Paul Rieckhoff, executive director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, said he was troubled by the announcement because Weightman's firing on March 1 was widely believed to have ruined his chances for another prominent command post.
"The way Walter Reed turned out should be a career killer," Rieckhoff said. "If Weightman's getting a second chance here, I think the Army needs to explain why the turnaround happened."
Army officials and Weightman didn't immediately return telephone calls from the Associated Press seeking comment.
When Weightman was fired from Walter Reed, the Army said senior leaders "had lost trust and confidence" in his leadership abilities to fix the problems there.
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