Friday, June 18, 2010
The rows of identical markers stretching across the Virginia countryside have long been a powerful visual symbol of the respect this nation affords its military veterans.
Arlington National Cemetery is more than a resting place for the nation’s fallen, it is a national monument.
Virtually everything about it exudes solemnity and order, from the perfect geometric patterns created by its government-issue headstones to the precision with which the changing of the guard is conducted at the Tomb of the Unknowns.
It is difficult to believe what has been learned about day-to-day operation of the cemetery, that “dysfunctional management, the lack of established policy and procedures, and an overall unhealthy organizational climate” at the cemetery has resulted in an estimated 200 graves being mismarked. An inspector general’s investigation of cemetery operations was launched last summer, following stories by investigative reporter Mark Benjamin on the web site Salon.com.
Report released
Secretary of the Army John McHugh released the government report last week and announced that long-time civilian executives at the cemetery were being removed from their jobs.
The report was sympathetic toward the cemetery’s staff, which operates under the pressure of conducting 27 to 33 burials a day, about a fourth of which involve full military honors, but gave the cemetery’s leadership a harsh assessment.
Millions were spent over a period of years on unsuccessful attempts to computerize cemetery records, while errors were being made in maintaining files on paper.
A few mistakes were even found in records pertaining to soldiers who died in action during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, but those have been corrected.
Record keeping mistakes of years earlier in other sections of the cemetery will be more difficult to sort out.
McHugh has created a new position of executive director of the Army National Cemeteries Program, whose duties will include oversight of cemetery management, reviewing and updating policies and procedures, and implementing corrective measures outlined in the investigation and inspection reports. He also is establishing an Army National Cemeteries Advisory Commission, which will include officials from outside the Army to regularly review policies and procedures, and provide additional guidance and support. Two former senators and decorated Army veterans, Max Cleland and Bob Dole, are its first members.
A national search for a new cemetery superintendent will be conducted.
A sacred duty
“Arlington National Cemetery is the place where valor rests, a place of reverence and respect for all Americans,” McHugh said. “The Army recognizes its sacred responsibility to ensure America’s confidence in the operation of its most hallowed ground, and to the heroes for whom this is their final resting place. I believe these changes will do just that.”
The investigation by the inspector general, Lt. Gen. Steven Whitcomb, found lax management of the cemetery resulted in at least 211 remains being as potentially mislabeled or misplaced, and there could be more.
Whitcomb said there was no evidence of criminal intent or even intentional sloppiness, but noted, “we see this as a zero-defect operation.” Whitcomb could not say how old the mixed-up remains might be or from what conflict, saying only that the problem had been confined to three areas of the cemetery, sections 59, 65 and 66. Anyone with a question about a relative buried in one of those sections can call at 703-607-8000. Additional information and Whitcomb’s full report can be found on line at http://www.army.mil/arlington.
More than 300,000 people are buried at Arlington and more than four million people visit the cemetery annually. Numbers that high provide ample opportunity for error, but as Whitcomb said, there’s no room for mistakes at Arlington.