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.
The review by the VA's National Cemetery Administration follows the revelation of widespread burial problems at Arlington National Cemetery, which touched off congressional inquiries and a criminal investigation.
After the scandal at Arlington, which included mismarked and unmarked graves and people buried in the wrong spots, some veterans groups and members of Congress had called for the cemetery, which is run by the Army, to be transferred to the VA.
Although many of the errors at Arlington were caused by an antiquated paper-record system, VA officials said the problems at seven of its national cemeteries were largely the result of sloppy work during renovations. Headstones and markers were temporarily removed from the ground and reinserted in the wrong places.
Staff members at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery in San Antonio were testing the accuracy of a new cemetery map in July, for example, and realized that 47 markers were one space over from where they were supposed to be.
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. The markers were lifted and put back one plot away from the correct grave site.
The error resulted in four people being buried in the wrong places. To save space at sought-after national cemeteries, family members are typically buried in the same plot. Because the headstones were in the wrong spots, some people were not buried with their loved ones.
A similar problem was discovered in November at Houston National Cemetery. In 2002, after a similar renovation, 14 grave markers were put in the wrong places. No one noticed the error at the time. A person was then buried in what officials thought was a family member's grave site; it was actually one plot over.
Glenn Powers, the National Cemetery Administration's deputy undersecretary for field operations, said the VA is working to put all headstones in the right places and attempting to contact affected families to explain and apologize.
In addition to the cemeteries in Texas, he said, problems have been discovered at national burial grounds in Ohio, New Mexico, New Jersey, Maryland and Pennsylvania. The cemetery administration is waiting on reports from Golden Gate National Cemetery in San Bruno and San Francisco National Cemetery at the Presidio.
Cathy McCall, director of both cemeteries, said that because of the size of the San Bruno site and because realignments have taken place at various locations, checks of the headstones will not be completed for another two weeks or so. Workers are checking daily, she said, but have not yet discovered any problems.
The audit, which was ordered in October, included only sections of cemeteries that had undergone renovations in the past decade. In all, the VA checked 1.3 million grave sites in 85 of its 131 cemeteries. It also checked graves at Camp Chase Confederate Cemetery in Columbus, Ohio.
Powers said that once the initial survey is complete, he will order a more comprehensive review of every section of every cemetery. He said he could not rule out further problems.
"We can't be certain until we check them," he said.
SOURCE: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/01/27/MN0R1MTHT1.DTL
The review by the VA's National Cemetery Administration follows the revelation of widespread burial problems at Arlington National Cemetery, which touched off congressional inquiries and a criminal investigation.
After the scandal at Arlington, which included mismarked and unmarked graves and people buried in the wrong spots, some veterans groups and members of Congress had called for the cemetery, which is run by the Army, to be transferred to the VA.
Although many of the errors at Arlington were caused by an antiquated paper-record system, VA officials said the problems at seven of its national cemeteries were largely the result of sloppy work during renovations. Headstones and markers were temporarily removed from the ground and reinserted in the wrong places.
Staff members at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery in San Antonio were testing the accuracy of a new cemetery map in July, for example, and realized that 47 markers were one space over from where they were supposed to be.
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. The markers were lifted and put back one plot away from the correct grave site.
The error resulted in four people being buried in the wrong places. To save space at sought-after national cemeteries, family members are typically buried in the same plot. Because the headstones were in the wrong spots, some people were not buried with their loved ones.
A similar problem was discovered in November at Houston National Cemetery. In 2002, after a similar renovation, 14 grave markers were put in the wrong places. No one noticed the error at the time. A person was then buried in what officials thought was a family member's grave site; it was actually one plot over.
Glenn Powers, the National Cemetery Administration's deputy undersecretary for field operations, said the VA is working to put all headstones in the right places and attempting to contact affected families to explain and apologize.
In addition to the cemeteries in Texas, he said, problems have been discovered at national burial grounds in Ohio, New Mexico, New Jersey, Maryland and Pennsylvania. The cemetery administration is waiting on reports from Golden Gate National Cemetery in San Bruno and San Francisco National Cemetery at the Presidio.
Cathy McCall, director of both cemeteries, said that because of the size of the San Bruno site and because realignments have taken place at various locations, checks of the headstones will not be completed for another two weeks or so. Workers are checking daily, she said, but have not yet discovered any problems.
The audit, which was ordered in October, included only sections of cemeteries that had undergone renovations in the past decade. In all, the VA checked 1.3 million grave sites in 85 of its 131 cemeteries. It also checked graves at Camp Chase Confederate Cemetery in Columbus, Ohio.
Powers said that once the initial survey is complete, he will order a more comprehensive review of every section of every cemetery. He said he could not rule out further problems.
"We can't be certain until we check them," he said.
SOURCE: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/01/27/MN0R1MTHT1.DTL
No comments:
Post a Comment