J.J. Green, wtop.com
WASHINGTON – A blustery, chilly rain fell at Arlington National Cemetery on the morning of Oct. 14 as a steady stream of funeral processions rolled out over the cemetery.
Kathryn Condon, the new executive director of the Army National Cemeteries Program — aware that there may be more mis-identified and misplaced remains at Arlington — stated her commitment to not let it happen again.
“Our number one priority in this cemetery and every other national cemetery is to honor our nation’s heroes. And I want the nation to know that we will do all that we can to accommodate the loved ones who have someone buried in Arlington at their time of need.”
But public doubt remains after the scandal broke earlier this year.
Condon and her staff are still faced with a cascade of problems — from poor record keeping, to bad burial practices and neglect. The combination of problems has led to allegations that hundreds of grave sites might be mis-identified.
Speaking in her office to WTOP, Condon says the Army inspector general report of nearly 7,000 mis-identified graves may be an exaggeration.
“That number, if you really look at how it was derived, was probably just a formula,” Condon says. “I cannot tell you right now if the number is anywhere close to being accurate, but when we do the accountability base line, [we] hope to come to some closure on what number is accurate or not.”
Army Spokesman Gary Tallman says the ANC and the Army are prepared to find more.
“We’re under no illusions however that as Miss Condon and the new leadership team at Arlington look into the problems there … that we won’t find more discrepancies or more problems. We’re under no illusions that these will be the only ones.”
As Condon was finishing her interview with WTOP, she got a surprise visitor.
Tim Langowski, who discovered several unearthed urns in 2005, made his way to the administrative offices with an Army escort to officially tell Condon what he’d found. He expressed the same quiet concern he did earlier this year when he retraced his steps to demonstrate where he found the urns.
“I knew I was going to be in the area today working, and I knew they [ANC] wanted to talk to me, so I just decided to come on in.”
Condon welcomed the “surprise” visit and accompanied Langowski in the pouring rain to the sections of the cemetery where he made his discoveries.
“I appreciate him coming forward with this information,” Condon said afterwards.
She also reiterated her previous appeal to the general public.
“If anyone has any information or any concern about a discrepancy at Arlington, please come forward so that myself and the current leadership team can do anything to address any of those issues.”
As the remediation process has continued at the cemetery, a pressing question looms: How does the new management check out claims or concerns about misplaced remains?
“If we do have an inquiry that someone feels that they have a misplaced remain, we do the record check, we do the remains check, we go to the actual site,” Condon says.
Condon says since she and new Superintendent Patrick Hallinan began working on June 10, there have been 2,600 burials at Arlington, and “they’ve all followed a strict set of procedures.”
“We not only have the dig slips which says who was the one that opened the gravesite, and who was the one that closed the grave, we have identifying procedures where we spray paint the liner — we tag every casket and every urn. So we surely have a process now that has checks and balances on each and every burial in the cemetery.”
One problem remains: Records.
“On the surface, families were still being treated with honor and respect as their loved ones were buried at the cemetery, but the back office operation at Arlington was a disaster.”
Virginia Sen. Mark Warner read the Army inspector general report that set off alarm bells about the neglect at the cemetery, and he began looking into ANC’s record keeping system.
What he found confirmed stories that the record keeping process was almost as old as the cemetery.
“It was a system that was full of 3×5 cards that was one coffee spill or fire or flood away from these records being potentially destroyed or damaged beyond repair.”
So Warner came up with a suggestion to digitize the records at the cemetery by sending in a S.W.A.T team “to go in and at least make sure until the Army had a team in place that we could provide an interim solution.”
Condon was shocked as well over the condition of records.
“I was probably the most taken back when I started the job about the lack of automation and the paper record keeping in Arlington, and the fact that none of the records were backed up.
“Since that time, we have backed up our records. We also have an effort that was lead by Sen. Warner with the Northern Virginia TechNet Council who is coming in to give us their assessment of the way forward, but IT is our number one priority and we are working to fix the automation of our records so that we have a searchable database here at Arlington.”
Many public and private citizens, outraged about the state of affairs at Arlington prior to June 10, are anxiously watching as the new team works to clear up the blemish that seemingly grew unchecked at the cemetery.
Warner is one of those watching with a personal interest.
“I’m somebody who’s got a Dad who’s is a World War II veteran, who has asked me at times if there’s a possibility he could be buried at Arlington,” Warner says. “But beyond that, it’s a sacred place. We have presidents, Supreme Court justices and remains of African American soldiers who served in the Civil War.
“It’s a cross section of American history.”
The cemetery is the final resting place for more than 300,000 graves in more than 70 sections. Condon says it won’t be easy to complete the task of determining which reports alleged irregularities are accurate.
“We have verified all 211 of the records identified in the inspector general’s report: Those that had headstones and were marked unburied on the map — we have validated those records, we do have a record for that headstone and those where there were no headstones where it was marked buried. We are in the process of going through each and every one of those. They’re spread throughout the sections and we have sampled several of them that have proven to be empty and we’re using those as current burial sites.
“We are working to fix all of those discrepancies that were identified in the inspector general report,” Condon says. “What we need right now is time to fix the discrepancies of the past.”
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(Copyright 2010 by WTOP. All Rights Reserved.)
