FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. -- Sgt. 1st Class Lori Ingram felt the weight of a 20-pound metal item she found while organizing a hospital storage closet in July.
The gravity of the fast approaching 50-year-old date cast into the heavy metal plaque called her to action: August 15, 1965.
Ingram pushed aside old poster boards and boxes and hurried the plaque to the Hospital Commander for evaluation.
Upon inspection, GLWACH Commander, Col. Peter Nielsen, realized the artifact's historical significance and gave direction to include its unveiling at the August 13 Hospital Rededication Ceremony.
At the ceremony, Nielsen spoke of the first Fort Leonard Wood 1940s era hospital, a 120-wooden-building complex that sprawled over 121 acres and included three miles of covered walkways. Patients stayed in 20-bed, open-bay wards, Nielsen told ceremony attendees.
"Fifty-four years ago today, a barbed wire fence was erected between east and west Berlin," a result of the Berlin crisis, and the beginning of the Berlin Wall, Nielsen continued.
President Kennedy activated more than 100,000 reservists and Mr. Dave Krehbiel, soon to be principle hospital project coordinator, responded for service during the summer of 1961, Nielsen said.
Krehbiel graduated from the University of Missouri with a degree in civil engineering, attended basic training here at Fort Leonard Wood, and was even a patient in the old cantonment health facility here.
"Despite the fact that Mr. Krehbiel was a Private 1st Class, he was placed in charge of a cadre of 2nd Lieutenants," due to his previous surveying expertise and education, Nielsen said.
"During this project, Krehbiel also realized the post had five separate grid coordinate systems and designed a single unified engineering grid system for the entire post," Nielsen said. "Krehbiel is responsible for the topography survey and following site preparation for this hospital, to include much of the existing grounds work, utility connections, etc."
At a cost of $7.1 million, the "General Leonard Wood Army Hospital" was a 300-bed health facility with expansion capacity to 380 beds. Inpatients shared a room with just two or three other people. GLWAH provided state-of-the-art medical equipment and support for the 25,000 military and family member population of the post, Nielsen said.
"It is ironic that this week we are installing in our radiology department the most sophisticated CAT scanner in the country. The 640-slice scanner more accurately and safely images patients, and at a faster rate, than any other in the state of Missouri. It is so fast that it can create an image of the entire heart in one heartbeat.
"Patients with potential heart disease will see enormous benefit. For example, a patient who presents with chest pain is likely to be scheduled for a complete stress test, a CT angiography, and a catheterization procedure. A cardiac image with our new scanner will replace all three steps, saving time and reducing the amount of radiation exposure by 65 percent," Nielsen said.
"Fifty years later, our facility and staff remain committed to ensuring the needs of patients and their families come first," Nielsen said. "We provide the easiest access to the highest quality and safest healthcare in the Department of Defense.
"For the past two quarters our facility has been recognized with the highest overall outpatient satisfaction in the Western Regional Medical Command--currently at 95 percent," Nielsen said.
Look for the 4-foot-wide x 1-foot-tall metal plaque displayed in a prominent location in the hospital's main entrance foyer in a few months after our foyer refurbishing project is completed.
(Editor's note: John Brooks is the marketing and public affairs officer at General Leonard Wood Army Community Hospital)
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