Should Army Surrender Arlington Cemetery to VA?

WASHINGTON (June 30) -- The secretary of the Army vowed today to clean up the management mess at Arlington National Cemetery, but a spokesman for the nation's largest organization of combat veterans said it may be time to consider transferring the hallowed ground to the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The Veterans of Foreign Wars has not yet taken a formal position, "but [the move] would make sense," spokesman Joe Davis told AOL News. He said the VFW would support such a change "provided the transfer include all property, civilian employees, responsibility and funding, and that assigned military units, such as the Army's Old Guard, remain intact in both mission and responsibility" toward the American war dead interred at Arlington.

Earlier this month, the Army sacked the cemetery's superintendent and his deputy and named the VA's chief of cemetery policy, Patrick Hallinan, as temporary caretaker of Arlington. The moves came after a scathing report by the Army's inspector general, Lt. Gen. Steven Whitcomb, revealed dysfunctional management, a lack of established policies and procedures, an unhealthy workplace climate and gaps in record-keeping and accountability that led to at least 211 discrepancies between burial maps and gravesites.

The official findings were prompted by an investigation by Salon.com. On Tuesday, the online magazine revealed a new bombshell: that the cemetery had quietly -- and illegally -- reserved choice burial plots for VIPs.

Rep. Ike Skelton, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, opened today's hearing saying he was "angry" and that the mistakes uncovered so far "may only be a fraction of the problem." Calling for a "100 percent survey" of the cemetery, he noted that a previous investigation revealed troubling signs as early as two decades ago.

"I cannot understand how the Army has allowed the problem to fester for years," said Skelton, a Missouri Democrat. "There is clear evidence that in 1992 the Army was aware of a level of leadership discord at Arlington that would not have been tolerated in any other organization. The situation cried out for intervention, but the Army's response was to further withdraw from Arlington Cemetery operations."

Secretary of the Army John McHugh, a former congressman from New York and until last year the committee's ranking Republican, told his former colleagues that he was determined to make things right.

"The Army is fully committed to rapidly correcting the management and leadership deficiencies and organizational problems" at Arlington, he said. "We will not rest until the cemetery is led, managed and operated in a manner commensurate with the service and sacrifice of our fallen warriors."

He said just over two dozen of the 211 grave mix-ups had been sorted out, but warned lawmakers that "this is a very laborious operation" that will take time. He said the Army has received nearly 900 phone calls from concerned family members and resolved about 169 cases where problems were reported.

Skelton asked whether the Army should give up control of Arlington. Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., noting that VA cemeteries have been run well, wondered whether there would be "any benefit" to transferring the shrine to the VA.

McHugh said that was up to the president and Congress, but rejected suggestions that the Army was unfit for cemetery duty.

"We feel it is the responsibility of the military, particularly in time of war, to carry those heroes to their final resting place," he said, noting that it was "unfair to burden" other government agencies.

But Whitcomb testified that as his team compared the Army's management structure for Arlington with other U.S. government agencies that manage national cemeteries, "it found that the Army lacks a single operational or strategic-level organization that has responsibility and accountability for the future" of the iconic graveyard.

The Army has run Arlington since 1864, when Union Pvt. William Christman was buried at the site -- formerly the estate of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. Congress created the national cemetery system soon after the Civil War and put the Army in charge.

In 1973, Congress passed the National Cemeteries Act, which transferred 82 of the 84 then-existing national cemeteries to the Veterans Administration. The law left responsibility for Arlington National Cemetery and the Soldiers' Home National Cemetery here with the Army. The service also maintains 28 post cemeteries and manages three plots at civilian cemeteries.

The VA's National Cemetery Administration has grown to 131 national cemeteries in 39 states and Puerto Rico and includes 33 soldiers' lots in private cemeteries as well as monument sites -- and it is still growing. The Interior Department maintains, through the National Park Service, 14 more cemeteries, all but two of them closed to new burials.

The VA "does an excellent job," the VFW's Davis said. While he is concerned that base closings and a shortage of buglers have meant it's more difficult to provide full military honors to all veterans, he has heard "no complaints" about misplaced remains and mismarked graves at VA cemeteries.

Davis agreed with McHugh, who said employees at Arlington "ensure that every service is not only conducted with military precision, but also with kindness, compassion, sensitivity and honor." He said he has relatives buried at Arlington and it "does a superb job with the families."

But the VFW spokesman said Arlington's antiquated filing system of paper records and index cards was "unacceptable" and inadequate to keep track of more than 300,000 graves and as many as 150 funerals a week. He noted that the VA has automated records and launched an online grave locator in 2004.

McHugh told the House panel that the Army has made computerizing Arlington's records a top priority. He also said workers were removing old grave markers that The Washington Post reported were discarded in a creek on the cemetery grounds.

"The Army is doing and will continue to do all that is necessary and possible to right these unimaginable, unacceptable wrongs," McHugh said.