Kevin C. Kiley

Lieutenant General (Ret.) Kevin C. Kiley, M.D., was the 41st Surgeon General of the United States Army and commander of the U.S. Army Medical Command, Fort Sam Houston, Texas. He was commander of Walter Reed Army Medical Center and North Atlantic Regional Medical Command twice, from 2002 to 2004, and as acting commander, March 1–2, 2007. He retired from the U.S. Army on March 11, 2007, in the wake of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center neglect scandal.

Education
Kiley was born in Pennsylvania on October 18, 1950, and graduated from the University of Scranton with a bachelor's degree in biology. He received his medical degree from Georgetown University School of Medicine, Washington D.C. He served a surgical internship and then an obstetrics and gynecology residency at William Beaumont Army Medical Center, El Paso, Texas. He is also a graduate of the U.S. Army War College, Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania.

He is a board-certified OB/GYN and a fellow of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

Work
His first tour was with the 121st Evacuation Hospital in Seoul, South Korea, where he was the chief of OB/GYN services. He returned to the residency training program at William Beaumont Army Medical Center and served as chief of the Family Planning and Counseling Service. He then served as assistant chief of the department of OB/GYN.

He was assigned as the Division Surgeon of the 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum, New York. He then assumed command of the newly activated 10th Medical Battalion, 10th Mountain Division, serving concurrently in both assignments. He returned to William Beaumont Army Medical Center, where he first served as the assistant chief, then chair of the department of OB/GYN.

In November 1990, he assumed command of the 15th Evacuation Hospital at Fort Polk, Louisiana, and in January 1991, he deployed the hospital to Saudi Arabia in support of Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. Upon his return, he was assigned as the Deputy Commander for Clinical Services at Womack Army Medical Center, Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

He assumed command of the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center and what is now the U.S. Army Europe Regional Medical Command in Landstuhl, Germany, serving concurrently as the Command Surgeon, U.S. Army Europe and 7th Army.

Kiley then assumed the duties of Assistant Surgeon General for Force Projection; Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations, Health Policy and Services, U.S. Army Medical Command; and Chief, Medical Corps. His next tour was as Commander of the U.S. Army Medical Department Center and School at Fort Sam Houston, where he continued as Chief of the Medical Corps.

Kiley served as commander of Walter Reed Army Medical Center and North Atlantic Regional Medical Command twice, from 2002 to June 2004, when Maj. Gen. Kenneth L. Farmer Jr. took command; and for a single day as acting commander, March 1–2, 2007 (See "Walter Reed Army Medical Center Controversy," below).

In a public statement following his retirement on March 11, 2007, Kiley said: "I submitted my retirement because I think it is in the best interest of the Army. I want to allow Acting Secretary Geren, General Schoomaker, and the leaders of the Army Medical Command to focus completely on the way ahead and the Army Action Plan to improve all aspects of Soldier care. We are an Army Medical Department at war, supporting an Army at war - it shouldn't be and it isn't about one doctor." Maj. Gen. Gale S. Pollock assumed the post of Acting Army Surgeon General.

Awards
Among his awards and decorations are the Distinguished Service Medal, Defense Superior Service Medal, Legion of Merit (three oak leaf clusters), Bronze Star Medal, Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Meritorious Service Medal (two oak leaf clusters), Army Commendation Medal, the "A" professional designator, the Order of Military Medical Merit and the Expert Field Medical Badge.

Walter Reed Army Medical Center Controversy
In February 2007, The Washington Post ran a series of articles about the shoddy conditions maintained at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Then-Army Sec. Francis Harvey had appointed Kiley to return to Walter Reed as acting commander, replacing his original successor at the post, Maj. Gen. George W. Weightman, who had been fired by Harvey that day.

On the same day, the Post reported that Kiley had been aware of the issues at Walter Reed from his command in 2003. On March 2, 2007, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates fired Harvey, removed Kiley from his post at Walter Reed, and ordered the Army to get an acceptable new commander in place. Maj. Gen. Eric B. Schoomaker was given command of Walter Reed later that day.

Kiley called the Post's reporting "a one-sided representation" and "yellow journalism at its worst." Beverly Young, the wife of Republican Rep. C.W. Bill Young, said that she had personally complained directly to Kiley about the conditions at Walter Reed and that "he has skirted this stuff for five years and blamed everyone else." In his testimony before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in March 2007, Kiley blamed junior officers for the conditions at Walter Reed.

At least one media report indicated that Kiley was actually fired for his role in the Walter Reed scandal. CNN's Jamie McIntyre, posting on the CNN news blog "The CNN Wire", cited an unnamed "senior Pentagon official" as saying that Acting Army Secretary Pete Geren actually requested Kiley's resignation with the approval of Defense Secretary Robert Gates, but that Kiley instead announced his retirement.