Senator says 6,600 Arlington graves may have been mismanaged - Polidicks

[QUOTE]Washington (CNN) -- Mike McLaughlin knew he buried his father, a veteran of World War I, World War II and the Korean War, at Arlington National Cemetery. So when he opened the newspaper recently and saw his father's tombstone sunk in the bottom of a shallow, muddy stream, he was stunned. "At this point, I have somewhere between zero and less than zero confidence in the cemetery's management," said McLaughlin. As many as 6,600 graves at Arlington Cemetery, the historic and hallowed burial place for fallen U.S. soldiers, may be "unmarked, improperly marked or mislabeled," Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Missouri, said Thursday. Cemetery officials had previously estimated just 211 were mislabeled. The hearing was spurred by Army Secretary John McHugh's June report that revealed 211 graves were misidentified or mislocated. In opening remarks to the subcommittee she chairs, McCaskill suggested the problem might be more widespread. "At a conservative estimate, 4,900 to 6,600 graves may be unmarked, improperly marked or mislabeled on the cemetery's maps," she said. McHugh's months-long investigation found "a lack of expertise in contracting processes within the cemetery, coupled with a lack of focused external oversight." The probe exposed a dysfunctional management team with no oversight, missing documents, poor record keeping and failure to notify next-of-kin about the problems, according to the Inspector General's report. McHugh said that "by placing everyone in charge, no one was in charge," and vowed to do "everything necessary and possible to right these unimaginable, unacceptable wrongs." After the investigation, the cemetery's former superintendent, John Metzler, who was scheduled to retire next month, was reprimanded. Metzler's former deputy superintendent, Thurman Higginbotham, was placed on administrative leave pending further review. Both men spoke at Thursday's hearing. Army Inspector-General Steven Whitcomb said his review found no evidence of deliberate wrongdoing. But Gina Gray, an Iraq veteran who is suing on grounds that she was fired for bringing the problems to light, wants to see someone held accountable for the blunders. She alleges the cemetery used outdated technology despite receiving millions of dollars to update its record-keeping systems. "I don't know what it is going to take to get them fired over there," Gray said. "We have evidence of unmarked, mismarked graves, mismanagement going decades back." McHugh said in June a number of solutions are currently being considered for correctly identifying the remains in question, including exhuming graves for family members to identify their loved ones by the unique caskets containing them, opening the caskets to pick through articles and mementos, or, as a last resort, conducting DNA tests. Some 330,000 veterans and their family members are buried at the tree-covered and hilly Arlington, Virginia, site overlooking the nation's capital. McHugh, sworn in as Army secretary in September, has said problems at Arlington Cemetery were allowed to continue as long as they did in part because of fuzzy lines of oversight -- confusion the subcommittee sought to sort through. "The people who let this happen, whether it was ignorance, incompetence or denial, must be held accountable," said McCaskill.[/QUOTE] Source: [url]http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/07/29/arlington.cemetery.hearing/index.html[/url] What the FUCK. This is horrible

Those keepers are in a grave situation right now.

People were dying to get into that cemetery, but not anymore.

Stop fucking trying to snipe threads with your shitty one liners.

Ouch, that's no good. At least they're being held accountable.

That must really suck for both the person buried there and their family.

Something always has to go wrong, doesn't it?

Wow, why would you poorly manage something as sentimental as this? I mean how would you feel if your late dad's grave had been there the whole time, it was just unmarked, or misplaced, or something dumb like that :sigh:

I'm more surprised by the fact that his father was a veteran of three wars. Holy balls that guy has seen a lot of death.

Huwhat did you do bobby hill.

Went to my uncles funeral last year, he was buried in the shadow of the Pentagon. The thought of a soldiers grave mismanaged is sickening.

I get why people are upset, but the worst-case scenario here: people were putting bouquets of flowers above the wrong corpse. There are more important issues the government can be focusing on right now.

[QUOTE=ZekeTwo;23726027]I get why people are upset, but the worst-case scenario here: people were putting bouquets of flowers above the wrong corpse. There are more important issues the government can be focusing on right now.[/QUOTE] Glad I am not the only one to think that way.

[QUOTE=ZekeTwo;23726027]I get why people are upset, but the worst-case scenario here: people were putting bouquets of flowers above the wrong corpse. There are more important issues the government can be focusing on right now.[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=ZekeTwo;23726027]I get why people are upset, but the worst-case scenario here: people were putting bouquets of flowers above the wrong corpse. There are more important issues the government can be focusing on right now.[/QUOTE] It's not like the entire government is looking into this issue.

[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;23728542]It's not like the entire government is looking into this issue.[/QUOTE] There's more people looking into it than there needs to be. All this stupid public outrage will make sure of that.

[QUOTE=ZekeTwo;23728615]There's more people looking into it than there needs to be. All this stupid public outrage will make sure of that.[/QUOTE] Stupid public outrage? You're a self-hating Canadian communist, what do you know?

[QUOTE=kirkusmahwirkus;23719006]Something always has to go wrong, doesn't it?[/QUOTE] If I looked in the grave I thought a family member was in and saw a random guy I've never seen before I'd be like "WHO THE FUCK PUT THAT THERE"

You would think this stuff wouldn't happen with a graveyard funded by the government. It's horrible.

[QUOTE=MingusMajor;23729153]Stupid public outrage? You're a self-hating Canadian communist, what do you know?[/QUOTE] Conservatives have arrived

[QUOTE=ZekeTwo;23730333]Conservatives have arrived[/QUOTE] So I guess it's true that liberals don't give a damn about our fallen heroes?

[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;23730387]So I guess it's true that liberals don't give a damn about our fallen heroes?[/QUOTE] Yeah, not wanting to overblow a fairly minor problem = not giving a damn about dead soldiers

[QUOTE=ZekeTwo;23730667]Yeah, not wanting to overblow a fairly minor problem = not giving a damn about dead soldiers[/QUOTE] You already said there was "stupid public outrage". I have a hard time believing that you care.

[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;23730723]You already said there was "stupid public outrage". I have a hard time believing that you care.[/QUOTE] I care about living soldiers and the families of dead soldiers. I don't care what happens with a bunch of corpses. You honour them in death by honouring their name, not by honouring a box of rotting flesh. Humanity's attachment to dead things is asinine, it's 2010 for fuck's sake

[QUOTE=ZekeTwo;23730800]I care about living soldiers and the families of dead soldiers. I don't care what happens with a bunch of corpses. You honour them in death by honouring their name, not by honouring a box of rotting flesh.[/QUOTE] I have a feeling you don't live in the US.

[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;23730819]I have a feeling you don't live in the US.[/QUOTE] You're right. I live in a place where cemeteries don't exist because people don't die and everyone is happy and perfect all of the time, this is clearly why we think differently.

[QUOTE=ZekeTwo;23730861]You're right. I live in a place where cemeteries don't exist because people don't die and everyone is happy and perfect all of the time, this is clearly why we think differently.[/QUOTE] I didn't say where you lived. Only that it wasn't in the US.

And what does that really have to do with anything? I live in the US and I agree with Zeke

[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;23730819]I have a feeling you don't live in the US.[/QUOTE] I agree with him. Guess where I live. :smug:

[QUOTE=JDK721;23731820]I agree with him. Guess where I live. :smug:[/QUOTE] Austria?