Military Cemetery Errors: Veterans Affairs Discovers More Burial Problems, Misplaced Headstones

The Washington Post:

The Department of Veterans Affairs has found scores of misplaced headstones and at least eight cases of people buried in the wrong places at several military cemeteries across the country.

Earlier on HuffPost:

Read the whole story: The Washington Post

Comments

[CemOps]

12:54 PM on 01/24/2012

When the stories hit the media over Arlington National a few years ago, we stated publicly there would be more, that it was only the tip of the iceberg. Sadly, we were right. We also knew there were problems in the VA Cemeteries and one high level VA ops person told one of our associates they could account for 98% of their burials. Good job, would be the typical response to a comment like that, but considering a problem rate of 2% for tens of thousands of burials annually, it suddenly doesn't sound so good. We offered expert cemetery assistance to Arlington and was stonewalled. We have offered the same assistance to the VA and have been ignored. As veterans, expert cemeterians, and American taxpayers; we are simply disgusted by what appears to be a lack of proper oversight into the operations at all these cemeteries. The former Arlington directors came from this same stable of managers, and we believe there needs to be more accountability. When this same type problem is discovered in the private sector, people are sued or fined or sent to jail - many times by the very government that cannot get it right in their own cemeteries. We think it is time for a level playing field, however unrealistic that may sound. www.cemops.com

[DevonTexas]

11:34 AM on 01/24/2012

"had called for the cemetery, which is run by the Army, to be transferred to the VA."

Like that will improve anything!?

[tiredofthesameoldstuff]

12:26 PM on 01/24/2012

It was private contractors who did the renovations that moved the tombstones.

[pepper1311]

11:19 AM on 01/24/2012

Why does this matter? After one generation goes no one 'visits' graves.

[ProCynic]

11:01 AM on 01/24/2012

I don't want to seem insensitive, but if a body is placed under the wrong stone, does it really matter? If you are a believer, then the answer has to be "no" because you know the body is nothing without the soul.

This is more an emotional argument.

[Don Stalvino]

09:25 AM on 01/24/2012

Welcome to Obamas' America.

[asiclilpup]

09:49 AM on 01/24/2012

Failure in motion here folks.

[hmmmmm]

10:13 AM on 01/24/2012

"The problem, they discovered, arose from a 2004 project to regrade the soil and realign the markers, which tend to shift as the ground moves."

How is it that Obama influence a 2004 project? you did read the article, right? wait, your GOP. of course you didn't. you just saw what you thought was a good chance to take another stupid swipe at the POTUS.

Welcome to George Bush's American legacy. . .. one more screw up to add to the list!

[DevonTexas]

11:33 AM on 01/24/2012

Obama influenced this event just like he planted his birth certificate in Hawaii while he was being born in Kenya. He was a very precocious child.

[amorosotom]

08:06 AM on 01/24/2012

Why make a big stink about it? When you're dead, you're dead. Sure it's important to get it right but if there happens to be misplaced remains...why get all upset. It's not the person. It's just a jumble of compounds and elements. The important thing is to remember the person as he or she was. And that only lasts until the grandchildren remain alive.

[katooom]

07:12 AM on 01/24/2012

just another example of how money given to the govt in the name of good is completely mis-handled and wasted.

[tiredofthesameoldstuff]

08:04 AM on 01/24/2012

Funny this happens in civilian cemeteries too.

Oh this is from the article btw.

"Cemetery officials said many of the errors were caused by contractors."

In other words not people employed by the gov't. But by people employed by a private company hired to do work. In other words the gov't didn't do it.

[hmmmmm]

10:14 AM on 01/24/2012

haven't you learned? the trolls on here don't even read the articles anymore.

[amorosotom]

08:10 AM on 01/24/2012

Why are people so quick to run down the government? Same with the U.S. Post Office. I went to the post office yesterday and it was clean,efficient and friendly. Yet we always hear these Fox type use the post office as an example of government failure. I suspect it's the right wing's way of pushing privatization and small government.

[ancientuno]

10:27 AM on 01/24/2012

People who run down government on a consistent basis are those that have been washed by their political party. Those that are incapable of a single logical thought on their own unless someone is telling them what that thought should be. One only has to look at our two party system to see what a complete dysfunctional failure it has been.

[pepper1311]

11:17 AM on 01/24/2012

USPS is private company that pays congress a kick back yearly for just being around.

[belogical2010]

06:09 AM on 01/24/2012

This is disgraceful....
The lesson for all of us is that gov't is not the answer. They tend to mess up everything they touch

[tiredofthesameoldstuff]

08:05 AM on 01/24/2012

Funny that these things were done by a contractor not the gov't.

It was the gov't that discovered the errors.

[amorosotom]

08:12 AM on 01/24/2012

I hear this slamming of the government all the time from right wingers but as soon as we start talking about the military they get all dewy eyed and salute the flag and praise our country. Why is the military exempt from criticism? I suspect it is the authoritarian,right wing mind set that believes in power and attacking.

[dennis1943]

06:06 AM on 01/24/2012

It boggles the mind that maybe my father really isn't buried at Arlington........you know,the one who gave his life in service to his country 3 weeks before my first birthday.......

[amorosotom]

08:13 AM on 01/24/2012

Hey, do you have a good memory of your father? That's your father. Not a pile of bones some where.

[eljefefx]

08:44 AM on 01/24/2012

Who are you to tell someone how to remember their family member?

[dennis1943]

09:04 AM on 01/24/2012

Actually, I have no memory as i was not yet 1 year old..........

[WhatDaBleep]

04:56 AM on 01/24/2012

This is and always has been the way the government treats the troops when dead or after leaving the military - they discard them and want little to do with them!

[Ascoli]

05:32 AM on 01/24/2012

.....and they continue to 'volunteer' for a country that treats them like ....garbage
They continue to go and kill for the $$$ masters.
Fools

[eljefefx]

08:44 AM on 01/24/2012

Fools? Hardly.

[amorosotom]

08:18 AM on 01/24/2012

We made a big mistake when we went all volunteer army. The liberals should have been suspicious when the right wing embraced it so enthusiastically. Now we have a permanent mercenary army instead of the citizen army. When I was young the army was always being kidded about their food and the public had a healthy skepticism about the military. The right wing realized that the military is breeding grounds for conservatism and now we all have to jump out of our chairs and praise the generals and get all super patriotic.

[eljefefx]

08:45 AM on 01/24/2012

Never served a day in your life, did you?

[WhatDaBleep]

10:16 AM on 01/24/2012

Hye, gwb could have reinstated the draft anytime he wanted to - but he didn't!

Also, gwb started a war based on lies to invade Iraq or we wouldn't need the military now like we have needed them!

[KIVPossum]

03:08 AM on 01/24/2012

Disgusting we can';t give our veterans the respect a pet cemetery in Podunk gives someone's 'Fluffy'.

[tiredofthesameoldstuff]

08:05 AM on 01/24/2012

Hate to break it to you but since it was a contractor that this type of thing happens in pet cemeteries too.