WASHINGTON -- Caught red faced by reports in the Washington Post of squalid conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, senior Defense Department officials now say that they take full responsibility for substandard performance and have launched a full investigation into the matter.

Survey: Wounded Veteran Care OK?

"Several matters reported ... are serious matters. They deserve immediate attention, and they are getting immediate attention," Dr. William Winkenwerder Jr., assistant defense secretary for health affairs, said at a Pentagon briefing on Wednesday. "They are problems that need (to be) fixed and fixed immediately."

Winkenwerder emphasized to reporters that none of the reported complaints cited the medical care of the wounded servicemembers or the treatment of their families by the medical staff at Walter Reed. Instead, the issue concerned were those of how the facility housed and treated armed service members and their families in the outpatient process.

On Wednesday, Army Secretary Francis J. Harvey and Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Richard Cody visited Building 18, one of the buildings mentioned in the Post report.

Cody said he was dismayed by what he saw.

"We were absolutely disappointed in the status of the rooms and found the delays and lack of attention to detail to the building's repairs inexcusable," he said.

It didn't help that he learned about the Building 18 conditions through the Post story, he said. (Read the Post's full coverage by clicking here.)

Building 18 is where many soldiers discharged from the psychiatric ward are sent to recover, sometimes for months. The story described patient quarters there where parts of the walls are torn and weighted down with black mold. A staffer told reporters she brought Roach bombs to work. There was a mice infestation. And families described what they saw as a never-ending maze of bureaucratic entanglements as they sought care and support for their loved ones.

"Despite frequent visits to Walter Reed facilities, informal and formal discussions with patients and their families and the medical staff, I have never been made aware of Building 18, its condition or complaints by any of our wounded warriors over the last five years," Cody said.

"That is not an excuse by any shape or form. Clearly, we've had a breakdown in leadership and have bureaucratic medical and contractual processes bog down a speedy solution to these problems.I can assure you that the appropriate vigor and leadership is being applied to this issue, and we will correct any problems immediately," Cody said.

Several lawmakers are calling on Defense Secretary Robert Gates to address the living conditions at Walter Reed.

Democratic Sens. Barbara Mikulski of Maryland and Patty Murray of Washington urged Defense Secretary Robert Gates in a letter to launch an inspector general's investigation into what they called the "deplorable living conditions facing returning Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans."

"If conditions at Walter Reed, the crown jewel of military health care facilities, have degraded to the point where mouse traps are handed out to patients, how can we feel confident that our troops and veterans truly have the care and transition assistance they have been promised at any facility across the country?" the senators wrote.

Two other Democratic senators -- presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and freshman Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo. -- said they are working on legislation to improve the care of war veterans, including measures designed to improve how they are treated as outpatients while still on active duty. The legislation would require more frequent hospital inspections, establish timelines for repairs to facilities that don't meet standards and improve access.