Walter Reed Army Medical Center shield, courtesy of the U.S. Army.
The Walter Reed Army Medical Center (WRAMC), Washington DC, colors have been cased.
A flag-casing ceremony is a formal event where the colors, or flag, of the unit are taken down and put into a protective covering (sometimes a glass case, sometimes rolled up, etc). The colors-casing ceremony symbolically signifies the end of the unit.
The casing of the WRAMC colors marks the next step in WRAMC’s transition to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (WRNMMC), Bethesda, Maryland, and Fort Belvoir Community Hospital, Virginia. The ceremony celebrated “the history of Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the transition into the next century of warrior care,” according to event organizer Natasha Hewlett.
Maj. Gen. Carla Hawley-Bowland, commanding general, Northern Regional Medical Command and WRAMC, hosted the ceremony, which included the uncasing of the new Army element colors for the WRNMMC and Fort Belvoir Community Hospital facilities.
Hawley-Bowland also passed Maj. Walter Reed’s (1851-1902) saber, used at many WRAMC ceremonies, to Rear Adm. Matthew Nathan, commander of the National Naval Medical Center (NNMC), Bethesda.
