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Army: Checking each Arlington grave must wait

The Army is making “steady progress” toward resolving the myriad problems at Arlington National Cemetery, but it will not examine all of the 330,000-plus gravesites for improper markings and other issues uncovered by a recent investigation until graves records are completely automated, the service’s top civilian said Wednesday.

And talk of progress has not assuaged lawmakers’ anger over the mismanagement issues that led to the removal of the cemetery’s top two officials earlier in June, a separate investigation into millions of dollars spent to procure a yet-to-be-seen system to automate cemetery records and operations, and a flood of concern from upset family members worried about the integrity of their loved ones’ final resting places.

“I am angry, period,” said Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., in opening a House Armed Services Committee hearing on the results of an Army Inspector General investigation. “I am just downright angry.

“Arlington Cemetery is our nation’s most hallowed ground,” said Skelton, chairman of the committee. “It is reserved as the final resting place of our heroic warriors. Management ineptitude and neglect have resulted in a web of errors. How in the world could this tragedy be allowed to happen?”

The ranking Republican on the committee echoed those concerns. “The recent revelations about the mismanagement and systemic failures at Arlington National Cemetery are both profoundly shocking and heart-wrenching,” said Rep. Howard McKeon, R-Calif. “To now learn that the Army was aware of some of these problems for nearly 20 years and took no corrective action is extremely disappointing.”

A somber Army Secretary John McHugh said he shares those concerns. “For all the anger you and members of this committee feel, I share it,” he told the committee.

McHugh said investigators continue to work to “find out everything that is possible behind the who, why and what” of what went wrong at Arlington.

Skelton expressed a concern made evident in the reports — that the 211 irregularities, which included improper internment, trans-internment of remains, remains in graves listed as empty, unmarked gravesites, improperly marked graves and improper handling of cremains — “may only be a fraction of the problem.”

McHugh sought to assure Skelton that every grave would be examined, although he did not specify the technical means that the Army will employ.

But an examination of every gravesite at Arlington, McHugh said, will “take a better system of record-keeping” than the stacks of 3x5 paper index cards now used to record decedents’ names, dates of interment and section and grave number, and paper burial maps.

McHugh said the Army also is “exploring the possibility of assistance from the outside” despite certain prohibitions on the acceptance of outside gifts.

Once the system is automated, McHugh said, the Army “will check every gravesite.”