Burial problems that have beset Arlington National Cemetery and sparked congressional and criminal probes have now been found at other veterans’ cemeteries across the country. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has uncovered cases of misplaced headstones and people buried in the wrong plots,
The Washington Post reported.
For example, at the Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery in San Antonio, 47 markers were found to be one space over from the actual grave they marked. The VA also found instances of family members buried in the wrong places, the Post reported.
Problems have also been found at cemeteries in Ohio, New Mexico, New Jersey, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. The audit checked 1.3 million grave sites in 85 of its 131 cemeteries and graves at Camp Chase Confederate Cemetery in Columbus, Ohio, the Post reported.
“We strive to operate the best cemetery system in the world, and if something like this happens, there is no excuse,” Glenn Powers, the National Cemetery Administration’s deputy undersecretary for field operations, told the Post.
“The amount of times this happens is rare. But there is no margin of error; there shouldn’t be any kind of error,” Powers said. “We need to learn and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
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