Mismarked Graves at Arlington Due to Antiquated Record Keeping

Established in 1864, the hallowed ground of Arlington National Cemetery bears the remains of more than 300,000 servicemen and women dating as far back as the Civil War. Two civilian leaders were terminated today after an Army investigation revealed that at least 200 of those graves have been mismarked.

An average of 30 burials are conducted at Arlington every day and employees manage new burials and maintain records of those already interred using non-computerized methods. Army officials investigating the mislabeled graves feel that the problem lies more with mismanagement and that there was no criminal or malicious activity involved.

Others think differently.

Salon.com, who has been investigating mismanagement at Arlington National Cemetery for several years, reports that several companies have collectively been paid in excess of $5 million to computerize graves record keeping at the national landmark. As early as 2003, employees working for one company contracted by Deputy Superintendent Thurman Higginbotham would be hired again when they started new companies, but no work was every completed. This practice apparently continued through 2008.

One cemetery manager resigned in anger when he didn't want to be associated with contractors with less than reputable backgrounds. One contractor is facing a dozen counts of child sex offenses while others have been labeled as incompetent and shouldn't be handling sensitive government records.

Higginbotham is on administrative leave while under investigation for other incidents in the workplace.

A mislabeled grave at Arlington was noticed in 2008 when an Army SSgt's widow visited her husband's grave and found the headstone of deceased female Air Force retiree, Master Sgt Marion Grabe, who died Christmas Day 2007 and was interred January 28, 2008. Other cases have been exposed where unmarked remains have been found in graves being prepared for a new burial, and Salon.com reports that rather than identify the deceased with forensics available today, cemetery officials chose to merely mark the grave "Unknown".

Allowing treatment of our deceased veterans in such a manner is a disgrace. Many of the men and women buried at Arlington died in direct defense of this country's liberties and to cast them into their final resting place in a haphazard manner is unconscionable. How many veterans, or loved ones of the deceased, could be cared for with the $5.6 million spent on a database that doesn't exist, that did nothing but line someone's pockets?

Sources:
Personal Opinion
Yahoo News
Salon.com - Contracts
Salon.com - Marion Grabe
ArlingtonCemetery.net