By The disgraceful revelations coming out of Arlington National Cemetery are only getting worse:
Several mud-caked headstones line the banks of a small stream at Arlington National Cemetery, the country’s most venerated burial ground. Farther upstream in a wooded area, a few others lie submerged with the rocks that line the stream bed.
On Wednesday, after The Washington Post alerted the cemetery to their presence, officials there said they were shocked to find the gravestones lying in the muck near a maintenance yard. Already under fire in recent days for more than 200 unmarked or misidentified graves and a chaotic and dysfunctional management system, cemetery officials vowed to investigate the headstones along the stream and take “immediate corrective action,” said Kaitlin Horst, a cemetery spokeswoman.
Officials said they do not know how the stones got there, whom they belong to, or how old they are. Horst could say only that “they appear to be decades old.”
Were they used as riprap to prevent stream erosion? Were they engraved incorrectly and then discarded? Or were they intended for a landfill — where thousands of weathered or damaged burial markers routinely were sent years ago — and ended up in the mud instead? [Washington Post]
You can read more about the problems plaguing Arlington at the link, but it is an absolute disgrace that management at the cemetery lost track of remains, who was buried where, and even dumped cremated remains into an excess dirt pile. The civilians managing the cemetery have been either forced to retire of disciplined, but does anyone know if there is any military supervision of cemetery operations?
3:52 am on June 17th, 2010 1
Mismanagement of graves is only the tip of the iceberg regarding Arlington's problems. There is so much more to this story …
- Ethically and morally challenged Senior Executive Service personnel
- Dysfunctional working environment
- Sexual harassment of employees
- Many forms of fraud, waste, and abuse
When the final investigative report gets released, I think people will be furious that the cemetery director was allowed to retire as is instead of being formally disciplined.
8:42 am on June 17th, 2010 2
"Were they used as riprap to prevent stream erosion? Were they engraved incorrectly and then discarded? Or were they intended for a landfill — where thousands of weathered or damaged burial markers routinely were sent years ago — and ended up in the mud instead?"
Probably, but that wouldn't be a problem if they had kept precise records.
10:33 am on June 17th, 2010 3
There is an agency of the VA called the National Cemetery Administration (NCA) that is responsible for most veterans cemeteries, but Arlington Cemetery is still administered by the Army. (Link)
There seems to be two problems with the Arlington cemetery; records keeping and grounds keeping. Here is what the NCA says is part of their grounds keeping responsibilities (Link)
I suspect that procedures for properly disposing of old headstones goes along with that. I don't know where the Army states its responsibilities for Arlington grounds keeping.
Arlington has been in service as a cemetery since the Civil War, and the Army was supposed to be keeping records since then. However, I've heard that many of the record are still in text form in filing cabinets or on microfiche. There are over 300,000 people buried at Arlington, but it would not have been impossible to have all the records transcribed into data bases. With today's technology, the GPS location could also be added in case headstones are lost or stolen.
Maybe the first step is to have the administration of all veterans' cemeteries consolidated under one agency. This should include American veterans' cemeteries overseas. This was brought home to me last Memorial Day when I read about the situation of a cemetery I see often when I visit the Philippines. (Link)
10:51 am on June 17th, 2010 4
The quality of our government workers never ceases to amaze.
12:42 pm on June 17th, 2010 5
I nominate Al McFarland to take over Arlington. He is awesome.
10:52 pm on June 17th, 2010 6
Jax is right about the other allegations that also being leveled on the leadership at Arlington. Michael Yon has been discussing these issues on Facebook as well. It seems to me that making Arlington a command assignment for a senior military officer with a senior CSM at least you can get some accountability. If all these allegations are true it is ridiculous that government workers are just simply allowed to retire like nothing happened.
By the way LG DACOM's suggestion is funny for those who know who Al McFarland is. He actually would be a great person for the job though.
12:16 pm on November 8th, 2010 7
Well Albert lee McFarland should be the man of the hour seeing how during vet'nam her dis owned his own children and adopted then out to avoid child support yep he is heartless enough no damage dome BIG AL IS THE MAN FOR THE JOB all things consided he has no heart and distroyed lives before they could develop.
12:53 pm on November 8th, 2010 8
This all brings up a good question…
Just who the funk IS buried in Grant's tomb?