Army team at Arlington seeks to guarantee burial records
In the month since Army investigators found hundreds of discrepancies between grave sites and burial records at Arlington National Cemetery, two very different worlds have emerged inside the gates of the Washington area's most venerated cemetery.
For the public, little has changed. Each weekday morning, solemn burials begin in far-flung corners of Arlington -- spread out so that one grieving family won't encounter another. By midday, a constant stream of sweltering tourists treks up the worn path from the Visitors Center to the grave site of President John F. Kennedy and the Tomb of the Unknowns.
But behind locked doors, in meeting and record rooms, a tense operation is underway. Dozens of military officials tasked with identifying the extent of mismanagement by the cemetery's former leaders are racing to meet deadlines to develop a plan to untangle Arlington's antiquated system of recordkeeping and to restore public confidence in the hallowed grounds....
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For the public, little has changed. Each weekday morning, solemn burials begin in far-flung corners of Arlington -- spread out so that one grieving family won't encounter another. By midday, a constant stream of sweltering tourists treks up the worn path from the Visitors Center to the grave site of President John F. Kennedy and the Tomb of the Unknowns.
But behind locked doors, in meeting and record rooms, a tense operation is underway. Dozens of military officials tasked with identifying the extent of mismanagement by the cemetery's former leaders are racing to meet deadlines to develop a plan to untangle Arlington's antiquated system of recordkeeping and to restore public confidence in the hallowed grounds....