NOVEMBER 11, 2026 – Every day, the team at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (WRNMMC) delivers world-class care to the nation’s service members, veterans, and their beneficiaries. Each Veterans Day — Nov. 11 — the hospital joins the nation in honoring the men and women who have served in defense of our country. For Walter Reed, the significance of this day runs especially deep—it is woven into the foundation of the institution.
On Nov. 11, 1940, under unseasonably mild skies, President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicated the cornerstone of the new National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. On that same day, 22 years earlier, a ceasefire ended the fighting of World War I. The following year, in 1919, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed Nov. 11 as the first Armistice Day to commemorate the sacrifices of those who fell in the “Great War.” In 1938, just before the breakout of World War II, Congress officially passed the act to make Armistice Day a federal holiday.
Recognizing that Armistice Day focused solely on those who fought in World War I, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed legislation on June 1, 1954, to broaden the holiday’s meaning. The law replaced the word “Armistice” with the word “Veterans,” dedicating the day to honoring the service of American veterans of all wars.
When Walter Reed Army Medical Center integrated with the National Naval Medical Center in 2011 to become WRNMMC, the intent was to bring the best of all the services together under one roof at the Bethesda campus. The dedication, compassion and expertise of the health care professionals serving our patients is what makes Walter Reed the premier military medical facility under the Department of War.
Today, the staff at Walter Reed honors the promise of Veterans Day every day by providing service members with world-class care and access to some of the most advanced medical treatments available. This cutting-edge work includes groundbreaking prosthetic and rehabilitative innovations being developed at the Military Advanced Training Center (MATC), critical traumatic brain injury (TBIs) treatments performed at the National Intrepid Center of Excellence (NICoE), and pioneering oncology research conducted at the John P. Murtha Cancer Center — the only designated Center of Excellence in the military health system.
Building on a longstanding legacy of expert care, Walter Reed and the neighboring Uniformed Services University (USU) work together to sustain this commitment by investing in and training the next generation of military medical professionals. While the nation pauses each Nov. 11 to commemorate the service of our military members, Walter Reed serves as a 365-day-a-year monument to that promise. When President Roosevelt laid the foundation for what would become Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in 1940, little did he know he was establishing an institution that would play an enduring role in the evolution of military medicine in the United States.
Story by Christopher Smith
Walter Reed National Military Medical Center