Wounded Soldiers and Marines Get Screwed by Hilton

[Rose Siding]

And not in the good way.

For the last few years Fran O'Briens Stadium Steak House, near Walter Reed Army Hospital and Bethesda Naval Medical Center, has treated 1000's of wounded to an evening out. From TPM Cafe-

This complementary meal is an elaborate affair with an open bar, accompanied by a full steak dinner with all the trimmings including desert. After dinner comfort packages are provided to each of the soldiers and full steak dinners are provided for other soldiers and family members back at the hospital who couldn't make it that night. All of this at absolutely no cost to the soldiers or their families or invited staff. This has been going on each Friday now for two and a half years!

Soldiers, family members, hospital staff, their doctors and nurses and some of the most senior staff physicians at both hospitals have spoken out about the therapeutic value these nights offer as part of the soldier's recovery. I also spoke with Margaret, the banquet director at Fran O'Brien's, and she told me the staff have all gotten special training to deal with the kind of disabilities they are seeing.

They asked their landlord, Hilton Hotel Corp, to improve access for the disabled, which sucks right now - I don't see how they are skating the law on this. Hilton's response?

An eviction notice

There is an escalator that leads down to Fran O'Brien's. IT HAS BEEN BROKEN SINCE 1998! Hal and Marty have been fighting with Hilton to get that repaired for SIX YEARS! Hilton has never done it. Instead, after a few years of promising to do it, sending in engineers, etc. Hilton BOARDED UP THE ESCALATOR. As part of their lease negotiations, the owners asked Hilton to consider putting in a lift for the disabled vets in wheelchairs. That was when they got the eviction notice.

More-
http://www.tpmcafe.com/node/29085
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/04/18/opinion/main1508334.shtml

http://www.ofb.net.nyud.net:8090/~epstein/sl/0403/20040305-sugar-hill.jpg

[jedr]

1. By Paris Hilton?

At least that might give her some sort of redeeming social value.:sarcasm:

[Rose Siding]

6. By Hilton Hotel Corp

[jedr]

14. Sorry, I knew it was a bad joke as soon as I posted it,

I should have deleted it then,...my bad;(

[Rose Siding]

18. Not bad

I just added the comment for clarity because my OP didn't specify she wasn't involved. :hug:

[babylonsister]

2. Amy Goodman and KO need to see this; I don't know

what other journalists might report it but I hope they do.
A strike against staying in Hiltons and reasons why couldn't hurt.
That's cold; it's not like they don't have the money.

[Rose Siding]

5. The CBS link is for an article from the RW NRO

snip>
Col. Jonathan Jaffin, at the time commander of the medical corps at Walter Reed, wrote of the dinners:

The benefit to these soldiers and their families is incalculable... While the steak dinner is in itself a treat for those who have been eating in a dining facility... the meal is so much more than a dinner: it is a night out, a chance to get away from the hospital environment for a few hours, an evening to do something as normal as going to a restaurant for dinner. Even more, it is a tangible demonstration of the support, respect, and even love that Americans feel for our troops.
========
The WP wrote about it a week ago, too-

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/14/AR2006041401572.html

[babylonsister]

7. Thank you, Rose Siding. I wasn't aware of the WaPo story

until now, and just read the CBS link, which I thought chastised the Hilton pretty well. This gives me hope:
snip//
Hilton has been inundated by calls and e-mails from Americans who are appalled to see veterans treated shabbily by a corporate giant. The Capital Hilton's website Monday — for a few hours — announced the eviction of Fran O'Brien's as "strictly a business decision" and that the hotel had offered to host a dinner for the troops on May 5. But by evening, the notice was gone and the website had its usual advertisement for the restaurant.
snip//


Everyone needs to see this! I'm on DU a lot, and this is the first I heard of this story.

[Rose Siding]

8. Me too.

I hadn't heard a word about it

[Divernan]

24. No the closing announcement is now back up on hotel website.

nt

[TomInTib]

3. Hilton Hotels have been headed to Hell for some time now...

Looks as if they finally made it.

Every veteran in the US should be raising Holy Hell about this.

They just mailed me a new "Preferred" (or whatever they call it) card last week.

I am mailing it back to the bastards Monday.

[Breeze54]

4. Nice move from the SLUT of Amerika......NOT!!!

:nuke:

Yeah...those rich hotel folk really support the troops!! :sarcasm:

BOYCOTT ALL HILTON HOTELS!!!!!
Cancel your companies accounts with them!!
Complain about them and lower their ratings to NO STARS!!!

:grr:

K & R'd!

[BR_Parkway]

17. TripAdvisor.com is a great website to post reviews about hotels

but you have to have stayed at the hotel you're posting about or the review gets deleted.

[babylonsister]

9. I'm kicking this all night, and nominated. Please join me! nt

[Rose Siding]

10. I don't know the context of Penn's song, but I can't read about

Walter Reed without thinking about it:

"Tell me now what more do you need?
Take me to Walter Reed tonight
Baby I've lost the will for fighting over everything
There's a few things I've got to say, make no mistake I'm mad
Every good thing I had abandoned me"

There's an MP3 here

http://atrios.blogspot.com/2005_08_21_atrios_archive.html#112503181561519375

[oasis]

16. Kick to get this story out. (n/t)

[Rose Siding]

11. Good night and good luck

:kick:

[babylonsister]

12. Kicking this. nt

[oasis]

13. Boycott Hilton.

[BigBearJohn]

15. Oh god, does the insanity ever end?!#! This is OUTRAGEOUS!

[Breeze54]

19. KICK!

:kick:

[knitter4democracy]

20. Those horrible excuses for humans

I know landlord issues can get tricky, but that one seems pretty straight-forward.

Oh, and those hotels are more money per night than they're worth. We got one from a Priceline bid and thought it was a waste of money if anyone spent more than we did. The room was tiny, everything cost more money in everyway they could gouge it, and the pool was a joke.

[oasis]

21. kick

[Divernan]

22. So the Hilton didn't want all those scary looking crips around?Sarcasm

As I understand it, the Restaurant owner was footing the pretty large bill for these free dinners; it didn't cost the Hilton any cash directly. So let's brainstorm on WHY the Hilton would do this.

I think it's pretty clear, that the Hilton management didn't want all these severely wounded soldiers in view of their ritzy guests. You know, all those GOP fatcats coming into DC for a weekend hobnobbing with the Bush administration. Think of it as Barbara Bush would - why should they clutter their beatiful minds with all those horribly wounded soldiers and their families?

[SoCalDem]

23. Wouldn't an elevator work better?

If I were using crutches or a chair, I would be very scared to use an escalator..

It seems odd that the code enforcement would allow a broken escalator for NINE years :shrug:

[BrklynLiberal]

25. Kicked and recommended !

Sent this to everyone on my email list!!!

[paineinthearse]

26. Too late to recommend.

Wish the recommend period were longer, say 48-72 hours, or tiered, say 24 hours default, additional 24 hours for each 10 greatest votes. That way the good ones would have a longer life.