Arlington Cemetery grave mix-ups spark questions, confusion

Dysfunctional management, misplaced remains and contracting problems have been found in investigations into Arlington Cemetery. A new grave-by-grave review, nearly complete, has now found no additional burial errors but thousands of small record-keeping discrepancies.

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Nov. 4, 2011

The grave-by-grave review of Arlington National Cemetery was mandated by Congress last year after widespread problems at the burial ground were discovered.

Tracy A. Woodward / The Washington Post

Nov. 4, 2011

Mementos mark several graves in Section 60 of the cemetery, where those killed in Iraq and Afghanistan are buried.

Tracy A. Woodward / The Washington Post

Nov. 4, 2011

For many, placing stones atop a grave marker is a tradition.

Tracy A. Woodward / The Washington Post

Nov. 4, 2011

In Section 60, messages for the lost as well as for the surviving.

Tracy A. Woodward / The Washington Post

Nov. 4, 2011

Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), at center with back to camera, at a news conference regarding inspections at the cemetery. "We've made a lot of progress," said McCaskill, who had sponsored legislation requiring cemetery officials to account for every grave.

Tracy A. Woodward / The Washington Post

Nov. 4, 2011

Patrick K. Hallinan, the cemetery's superintendent, tells McCaskill about the chain-of-custody system, a six-step process to ensure positive identification.

Tracy A. Woodward / The Washington Post

Nov. 4, 2011

McCaskill speaks with James Gemmell, left, deputy superintendent of the cemetery; Kathryn Condon, director of the Army National Cemeteries Program; and Hallinan.

Tracy A. Woodward / The Washington Post.

Nov. 4, 2011

Arlington Cemetery officials "now take this responsibility as seriously as it should have been taken all along," McCaskill said at a news conference.

Tracy A. Woodward / The Washington Post

Sept. 15, 2010

Amid a freshly dug space in front of four plots, the headstone for gravesite 66-1181 is missing at Arlington National Cemetery. An Army spokesman said the plot did contain a body, but it had the wrong headstone.

Katherine Frey / The Washington Post

Sept. 15, 2010

Errors were discovered at three plots in Section 66. One had a headstone but no remains. Another contained a body but had the wrong headstone. A third had two sets of remains, only one of which matched the headstone.

Katherine Frey / The Washington Post

Sept. 15, 2010

The cemetery exhumed the remains of Pvt. Heath Warner, a Marine who died in Iraq, after his family grew worried that he was buried in the wrong spot. Warner was positively identified.

Katherine Frey / The Washington Post

Sept. 15, 2010

A wreath sits at the site where Heath Warner's body was exhumed from Arlington National Cemetery.

Katherine Frey / The Washington Post

Former cemetery superintendent John Metzler, left, and former deputy superintendent Thurman Higginbotham are sworn in prior to testifying before a Senate subcommittee.

Ricky Carioti / The Washington Post

Former superintendent John C. Metzler Jr. said it was "painful for me that our team at Arlington did not perform all aspects of its mission to the high standard required."

Ricky Carioti / The Washington Post

Higginbotham invoked his right against self-incrimination and refused to answer most of the senators' questions about his role in approving millions of dollars in botched contracts. An Army inspector general's report released last month identified Higginbotham as the "point of contact for monitoring all IT [information technology] contract performance" despite having no training as a contracting officer.

Ricky Carioti / The Washington Post

"We've got waste. We've got abuse. We've got fraud. The whole trifecta," said Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) at the hearing.

Ricky Carioti / The Washington Post

Several times during the hearing, senators pushed for specifics about how the problems arose and when Metzler and Higginbotham learned about them.

Ricky Carioti / The Washington Post

Thurman Higginbotham of Arlington National Cemetery is dismissed after invoking the Fifth Amendment.

Ricky Carioti / The Washington Post

Headstones have been found along a stream under Ord & Weitzel Drive in the northwest corner of the cemetery.

Gerald Martineau / for The Washington Post

Cemetery officials say they do not know how the stones got there, whom they belong to or how old they are.

Gerald Martineau / for The Washington Post

A cemetery official promised "immediate corrective action" for the headstone situation.

Gerald Martineau / for The Washington Post

The headstones were discovered after an investigation of the cemetery by the Army's inspector general, which found 117 graves that are marked on maps as occupied but have no headstones.

Gerald Martineau / for The Washington Post

Joe Davis, a spokesman for the Veterans of Foreign Wars, said he was "stunned" to learned about the discarded headstones: "We're finding out that people are just not doing their jobs."

Gerald Martineau / for The Washington Post

One of the headstones offers clues to its age. An official said its design was discontinued in the late 1980s.

Gerald Martineau / for The Washington Post

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