By Anum Hussain -- June 30, 2010
Discrepancies between veteran
grave sites and burial maps at Arlington National Cemetery have pushed angry
lawmakers to question the Army.
Army Inspector Lt. General
Steven Whitcomb discovered 211 discrepancies earlier this month, 27 of which
have been sorted out in the past three weeks.
Service officials detailed
the slow and arduous task of ensuring that each grave is identified properly.
However, the confusion over the location of these veterans' remains led
Chairman of the House of Armed Services Committee, Ike Skelton, to call for a complete
survey of the cemetery and its operations.
Army Secretary John McHugh
said in his testimony that the cemetery is managed mostly independent from the
rest of the Army. McHugh placed the blame for the scandal on the outdated
procedure used for tracking the grave sites.
McHugh said the Army will do
all that is necessary and possible to fix the pressing issue. The Army has
already resolved 169 of the 867 phone calls from the public.
Skelton also asked whether
the army should still operate the cemetery and continue to hold these
responsibilities. While McHugh believes
it is the Army's job to manage the historic graveyard, he said it is the
president and Congress' decision.
Arlington National Cemetery
is the burial place for soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, in addition to
those who served in conflicts as early as the Civil War.
(Photo courtesy: AP Images)
