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Arlington questions

The Army has a project underway to computerize burial records at Arlington National Cemetery and upgrade other aspects of its information technology infrastructure.

That’s a worthy cause. But the Total Cemetery Management System project and other IT improvement efforts have been ongoing since 2000 and will have consumed more than $17 million through fiscal 2015 if the Army’s budgeting requests are met.

Of course, Arlington, with more than 330,000 graves, is bigger than the average cemetery. And the need to update records is underscored by the fact that the Army is investigating reports that cremated remains were buried in an occupied but unmarked grave, and another set of already-buried remains were found without a headstone.

Still, with the wide availability of commercial, off-the-shelf cemetery management software programs, it’s not unreasonable to wonder why the records project has stretched over more than a decade at such high cost.

Record-keeping problems are not the only cause for concern at Arlington. Senior cemetery officials also are named in a pending Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint filed by Gina Gray, a former public affairs officer who was fired just 2½ months after being hired in 2008.

Gray alleges her firing came about after she questioned efforts by her bosses to dissuade military families from allowing media coverage of burials.

She also filed a separate complaint alleging whistle-blower reprisals. A Pentagon inspector general inquiry wrapped up in May — but its findings have never been publicly released.

When it reconvenes next year, Congress needs to ask tough questions about what’s going on at Arlington and restore order to operations at the nation’s most hallowed burial ground.