Walter Reed and Michael J. Wagner

[Solly Mack]

Walter Reed probes ex-head of aid center


"The probe involves the activities of Michael J. Wagner, who until last month ran the Army's Medical Family Assistance Center, Army spokesman Paul Boyce said Tuesday.

The Washington Post — citing documents and interviews with current and former assistance center staff members — said Wagner was seeking funders and soliciting donations for a Dallas charity at the same time he administered the Army program.

Wagner is now a director of the Texas-based charity, the Military, Veteran and Family Assistance Foundation, a nonprofit group that provides services and resources for veterans and their families.

Wagner said the charity was founded by his brother and that he did not officially become its executive director until he left Walter Reed, according to the Post"


Last month was January 2007.



From August 2006

Project Phoenix...

"The idea is the brainchild of Dr. Michael Wagner, a retired U.S. Army colonel who oversees the Medical Family Assistance Center at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. He said that while wounded soldiers receive top-notch physical care, often they aren’t given the means to heal the repressed emotional and psychological scars from the combat experience.

Wagner became the executive director of the Military, Veteran and Family Assistance Foundation, a Dallas-based nonprofit agency that runs the retreats. The group chose Texas, he said, because it has the greatest concentration of military personnel in the country. However, the program serves troops from all over the country."