Bush awards 21 Purple Hearts at Army hospital

WASHINGTON — President Bush visited those wounded in war on Thursday at a local military hospital and said those who tend to soldiers’ injuries are "helping to protect America" just as much as troops on the battlefield.

"All of you here today are engaged in a great cause, a noble cause, an important cause for our country, and for freedom and peace," Bush told some 200 cheering doctors, nurses and other staff of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. "By your good work, you’re helping to protect America."

Before speaking to the hospital staff, Bush met privately with a few dozen soldiers who have served in U.S. missions in Afghanistan and Iraq, some still unable to move out of their rooms and others in rehabilitation as outpatients in the facility’s physical and occupational therapy unit.

White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Bush awarded 21 Purple Hearts, the military award for wounded service members, during his visit.

Of the 220 admitted patients now at Walter Reed, about 40 inpatients are battle casualties from Iraq and Afghanistan. The hospital has treated a total of about 2,100 patients from the Iraq war alone, 350 of them with combat-related injuries.

It was Bush’s fourth visit to wounded troops at Walter Reed since the war on terror began, and he said he was struck by the transformation in at least one patient — a triple amputee — whom he visited on Sept. 11 and whom was still there Thursday.

"I remember coming here a couple months ago to pin the Purple Heart on a fellow who lost both legs and one arm. Today, I saw him walking," Bush said, to loud hoots of approval. "What makes this story even more profound is he lost both legs and one arm, not as a citizen of the United States, but as a soldier fighting for the United States. Today I saw a citizen of the United States walking."

The man, from Micronesia, took the oath of U.S. citizenship not long after Bush visited him in the fall, McClellan said later.

Also while at Walter Reed, the president received MRIs, or magnetic resonance imaging scans, to help diagnose knee pain that bothers him when running. He also dropped in on Secretary of State Colin Powell, who was recovering from prostate cancer surgery on Monday. He was released shortly after the president’s visit.

Bush went to Walter Reed on Jan. 17 to visit injured soldiers from Afghanistan. On April 11, as well as on Sept. 11, he met privately with soldiers being treated for wounds suffered in Iraq. He also has visited with wounded troops at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md.