Arlington National Cemetery works hard to resolve errors

September 27, 2010 · By Jerry Castillo

USMC Honor Guard detail at Arlington NC

USMC Honor Guard detail at Arlington NC

The updates are as disturbing as the errors. We believe the most efficient way of resolving the errors would be to stop cemetery operations temporarily to conduct a full audit and a reconciliation of all discrepancies’.

Once the investigation is completed they can extend their hours of operations including Saturdays and Sundays until they are able to clear the backlog that will result in the operations disruption.

To conduct these investigations while remaining in full operations is like trying to change a flat tire, while the vehicle continues to travel on a highway.

Arlington National Cemetery officials said they are making progress in rectifying the problems with more than 200 grave-sites identified in an Army Inspector General’s report by verifying paperwork, using ground-penetrating radar and, in a few cases, digging up graves with a backhoe.

In a statement, Kathryn Condon, the newly appointed executive director of the Army National Cemeteries Program, said cemetery officials “are working diligently each and every day to correct the mistakes made in the past and restore the dignity and honor our nation’s heroes deserve.”

Investigators found that 117 grave sites without headstones were marked as occupied on cemetery maps; 94 others, with corresponding headstones, were marked as empty on the maps.

The graves with headstones have been easier to verify because officials can use the name to pull the paperwork, which consists of a record of interment, a grave site card that details where in the cemetery the deceased is buried, and an intake form used for scheduling funerals. In all 94 cases, the paperwork has verified that the right people are in the correct burial plots, spokeswoman Kaitlin Horst said on Friday.

Army Secretary John McHugh has said that officials are prepared to dig up graves, open coffins and take DNA samples from the deceased if it is necessary to sort out the records. To do that, Army regulations require a court order or consent from “all close relatives.”

Cemetery officials have not been able to find records indicating that people are buried in the 117 plots that the maps say are occupied but have no headstone.

Officials have opened five of those graves. In all five cases, the sites were empty, Horst said. The cemetery will continue to open those graves, and if they are vacant, officials will use them for future burials.

In August, cemetery officials discovered that one grave site in Section 66 was vacant even though it had a headstone, another had the wrong body in it and a third had two sets of remains, only one of which matched the headstone.

Cemetery officials opened the graves after the wife of an Army staff sergeant became concerned that his remains were in the wrong place. The man’s grave was not among the 211 the IG investigators had flagged.

Cemetery officials had thought that the paperwork was in order, and because of that they assured the woman that her husband’s body was in the correct grave. She was not convinced, however, and asked them to dig. When they opened the grave, they found the remains of someone else.

On Friday, Horst said that cemetery officials reviewed burial records and thought the staff sergeant could have been buried in another section. When they opened that grave, they found a wooden coffin, the staff sergeant’s casket was metal.

They then checked the grave-site next to the one marked by the staff sergeant’s headstone. There, they found two sets of remains: the staff sergeant’s and, above his coffin, an urn containing the remains of the wife of a retired Navy commander.

6 Responses

  1. weig

    September 28th, 2010 at 4:31 AM

    1

    yeah my dad will like this

  2. jeff bloomberg

    September 29th, 2010 at 5:12 AM

    2

    God help them restore honor and respect for America’s most sacred hollowed grounds.

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