March 12 (Bloomberg) -- Lieutenant General Kevin Kiley, the U.S. Army's surgeon general, was forced to retire, the third official to lose his job after disclosures last month of substandard care for injured soldiers at Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington.

Major General Gale Pollock, the current deputy surgeon general, assumed the top post, the Army said in a statement. Kiley was the Army's top uniformed medical official and the commander of Walter Reed between 2002 and 2004.

Acting Army Secretary Pete Geren asked Kiley to retire yesterday, a senior Defense Department official who asked not to be identified told reporters at the Pentagon. Kiley, 56, submitted his retirement letter that day.

Secretary of the Army Francis Harvey resigned March 2, the day after the commanding general of Walter Reed, Major General George Weightman, was fired.

Kiley was under intense congressional criticism for allowing outpatient services and facilities at Walter Reed to deteriorate. The Washington Post reported in a series of stories last month that troops recuperating from wounds suffered in Iraq and Afghanistan have been housed in substandard facilities and face daunting bureaucratic obstacles in obtaining follow-up care at Walter Reed.

Dozens of soldiers and Marines at the facility in Washington live in mold-ridden, rodent-infested housing, the paper said. Hundreds have encountered difficulties getting care for post- traumatic stress disorder and other long-term conditions at Walter Reed, the Post said.

Maintenance Outsourced

Facility maintenance at Walter Reed is now performed by a private company, IAP Worldwide Services Inc., under a contract that went into effect Feb. 4, according to the Cape Canaveral, Florida-based company.

IAP's majority owner is New York-based Cerberus Capital Management LP. Cerberus's chairman is former Treasury Secretary John Snow; former Vice President Dan Quayle heads Cerberus's global investments unit.

The Army's decision to hire IAP, reported by the Washington Post, generated criticism from John Gage, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, and Representative Henry Waxman, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. They said privatization has resulted in poor care for Walter Reed patients.

Waxman, a California Democrat, earlier this month released portions of a September 2006 memo by Walter Reed Garrison Commander Peter Garibaldi saying the decision to privatize support services at the facility was causing an exodus of ``highly skilled and experienced personnel.''

IAP's Response

IAP spokeswoman Arlene Mellinger said in an e-mail that the company's employees feel ``a keen sense of urgency'' about improving conditions at Walter Reed. She said IAP won the contract last year ``after a fair and open competitive bidding.''

IAP was first elected to receive the $120 million Walter Reed contract in January 2006, according to Waxman. Snow became Cerberus's chairman in October. Quayle first joined Cerberus as an adviser in 2000, according to his official biography. Cerberus became IAP's majority owner in 2004, according to IAP's Web site.

`Not Met Standards'

During a House oversight committee hearing last week, Kiley acknowledged gaps in care for casualties of the war in Iraq and other combat operations. The care and housing at Walter Reed ``has not met our standards'' and is being corrected, Kiley said.

Kiley's statements failed to satisfy several lawmakers, such as Republican Representative David Hobson of Ohio, who blamed him for many of the problems.

``There's a command failure here, sir,'' Hobson told Kiley at a hearing on March 7. ``And usually, it starts with the guy who's in charge.''

Kiley, in a statement released today by the Army, said, ``I submitted my retirement because I think it is in the best interest of the Army,''.

Kiley received his medical degree from Georgetown University School of Medicine in Washington and specializes in obstetrics and gynecology, according to his biography posted on an Army Web site. He commanded an Army field hospital in Saudi Arabia in 1991 during the military campaign to oust Iraqi forces from Kuwait and later headed the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany.

Kiley said he wanted Geren and Army Chief of Staff General Peter Schoomaker ``to focus completely on the way ahead and the Army 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.''

President George W. Bush established a bipartisan commission to investigate the extent of problems.

To contact the reporter on the story: Tony Capaccio at acapaccio@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: March 12, 2007 17:16 EDT