Thousands of Arlington Graves Put into Question

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Missouri Senator  Claire McCaskill is opening up an investigation as to the legitimacy of the burial practices at Arlington National Cemetery.  An internal army has been going through the cemetery and found nearly 211 discrepancies between burial maps and grave sites. Due to the fact that the army was only able to investigate a small area, this number can quickly turn into the thousands by the time the investigation is over.

The Democratic senator’s subcommittee designed to investigate potential contracting fraud has said that these mislabelings are to inadequate management and a reliance on paper records as opposed to electronic.

Those under question are former superintendent John Metzler and deputy superintendent Thurman Higginbotham, both of whom were forced to resign earlier this month. It is uncertain whether either will show up to the court hearing.

“We are doing everything we can to get both (of the officials) to the hearing,” according to McCaskill. “Their attendance is not a certainty.”

McCaskill calls this an issue of “heartbreaking  incompetence” and says that the 5.5 million dollar attempt to computerize the grave sites may have all been in waste. The subcommittee  chaired by McCaskill will hold a  hearing in Washington this Thursday on its investigation.

Arlington National Cemetery holds more than 300,000 bestowed with military honors and includes graves of both former presidents and U.S. Supreme Court justices.