Walter Reed vets head out to the ballgame

On a recent Saturday afternoon, one could be mistaken for doing a double-take: Was that former Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R-N.C.) taking a shot of Jameson with a young crowd at a popular Capitol Hill haunt?

It was. The North Carolina Republican, who spent six years on the Senate Armed Services Committee, is just one of the Capitol Hill denizens who backs a program aimed at getting wounded soldiers from Walter Reed Hospital out for a night of fun — a program that has taken 300 veterans out to the ballgame over the last three years.

Dole joined 11 soldiers on Saturday at the Tune Inn, a long-time sponsor of the program run through the Armed Forces Foundation, before they headed to the stadium for a Nationals victory.

Though any given game may attract more fans of the visiting team than of the hometown favorites, both sides give troops a hero’s welcome when they show up on the big screen.

Getting the soldiers to the game is an effort to show a little gratitude to members of the Armed Services. Troops are escorted from Tune Inn to the game in a stretch Hummer, then treated to a post-game beverage at the Bullpen, the new bar across the street from the stadium’s center field gate.

(Bailey Woolfstead, a longtime volunteer at Walter Reed and for another program aimed at educating children of soldiers who die in battle called No Greater Sacrifice, said she loves watching a veteran’s face “the first time they see the stretch Hummer limo pull up.)

The group is funded by some longtime Washington hands. Howard Consulting Group, headed by former Republican National Committee consultant Frank Howard, donates tickets and the ride; former Democratic National Committee spokeswoman Stacie Paxton and her RNC counterpart, Tracey Schmitt, have also chipped in.

The Nationals themselves have chipped in too. The team — in the midst of an unprecedented eight-game winning streak — donates 19 seats in the exclusive President’s Club section.

Picture (Dole w/ vets):

–Reid Wilson