Arlington Cemetery problems may grow, senator warns
Head of a subcommittee investigating management issues at the cemetery says mislabeling of graves could be more extensive than previously reported.
Thousands of graves at Arlington National Cemetery could be mislabeled, Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., said Monday. McCaskill is chairwoman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Contracting Oversight Subcommittee, which is investigating problems at the cemetery.
An internal Army investigation found at least 211 discrepancies between burial maps and grave sites at Arlington. At a news conference in Columbia, Mo., McCaskill said the Army report was limited to a small section of the cemetery, and the number of burial site errors could be much higher, the Associated Press reported.
McCaskill called the growing scandal a matter of "heartbreaking incompetence" and said the military has spent more than $5.5 million over seven years in its unsuccessful attempts to computerize the cemetery's burial records.