Skelton: Panel will investigate Arlington cemetery failures

The House Armed Services Committee will investigate errors at Arlington National Cemetery after an Army probe found that 211 graves have been mishandled.

Misidentified or misplaced remains, improperly marked graves, mismanagement and
bad recordkeeping were among the issues uncovered by the Army’s inspector
general in a months-long probe.

{mosads}“Arlington National Cemetery is a sacred shrine and it breaks my heart to learn
about mismarked gravesites, mishandling of remains, missing documentation, and
failures to notify next-of-kin,” Rep. Ike Skelton (D-Mo.), the chairman of the
House Armed Services Committee, said in a statement Thursday. “This
conduct is disgraceful and cannot be tolerated.” 

Skelton vowed that his panel will “work to ensure that every single element of
the cemetery’s operations conveys the honor, dignity, and respect our nation’s
military heroes and their families have earned.”

Skelton’s committee will hold a hearing on the issues discovered at Arlington.
Ranking member, Rep. Buck McKeon (R-Calif.) vowed to work with Skelton and Army
Secretary John McHugh to ensure “these errors are never repeated and those
responsible are disciplined appropriately.”

The lawmakers’ comments came after McHugh announced
corrective measures to handle the issues identified by the inspector-general
team. McHugh also said that the Army plans a more thorough investigation
of the 211 gravesites in question.  

“While the Inspector General’s (IG) team found that ANC [Arlington National
Cemetery] employees — under an extraordinarily high operational tempo of 27 to
30 funerals a day — performed their jobs with dedication and to a high
professional standard, they also found them hampered by dysfunctional
management, the lack of established policy and procedures, and an overall unhealthy
organizational climate,” McHugh said on Thursday. “That ends today.”

McHugh appointed Kathryn Condon to the new position of executive director of
the Army National Cemeteries Program, whose duties will include oversight of
cemetery management and reviewing and updating policies and procedures.

McHugh also announced that an Army National Cemeteries Advisory Commission will be established to review policies and procedures. Former senators and Army
veterans Max Cleland and Bob Dole will be leading that effort.

In addition, McHugh released a letter of reprimand he wrote to cemetery superintendent
John Metzler, who announced his retirement Tuesday.

McHugh told Metzler that because of his decision to retire,
McHugh won’t pursue “more severe disciplinary action” or direct his
reassignment. McHugh told Metzler not to misinterpret the letter of reprimand
as minimizing his “fault or responsibility.”

“You failed to properly execute oversight and management responsibilities to
ensure ANC conducted its interment operations in accordance with applicable
laws and policies,” McHugh wrote in the reprimand letter. Examples of failure
included: “unmarked gravesites, improper handling of cremated remains,
improperly marked gravesites, discrepancies between burial maps and gravesites
and improper burial,” McHugh wrote.

Metzler will remain on the job for another three weeks, and
will report directly to the new executive director. 

More than 330,000 veterans and their family members are
buried at Arlington, including those who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan and some
from as early as the Civil War. Presidents and some lawmakers, such as the late
Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), are also buried at Arlington.