WASHINGTON – In the future, Arlington National Cemetery will have a new smartphone app to help families find loved ones buried there.
The app will let families enter a loved one’s name, find gravesite directions, download an image and get pinpointed locations to within 3 inches of a headstone.
Maj. Nicholas Miller says it has taken a lot of hands-on work to create the app, with Army soliders going out and taking photos of headstones every night. He says the photos have all been checked.
“They automatically link to the records and the accountability team then reviewed the records for accuracy,” Miller tells WTOP.
This app is a first for any federal cemetery. Families can see a map of the gravesites on phones, online or at new kiosks going in at the cemetery.
The Army is doing final testing now.
“We have some Army users and some Arlington Cemetery employees testing and making sure the functionality works. As we finish and wrap up our beta testing, that’s when we’ll be able to launch,” Miller says.
The app will be released for iPhones and Android phones this fall.
400
Miller talks with USA TODAY about the effort to take Arlington into the digital age in the video below:
WTOP’s Max Smith contributed to this report. Follow Max Smith and WTOP on Twitter.
(Copyright 2012 by WTOP. All Rights Reserved.)
