Committee will investigate VA cemetery mistakes
Jan 27, 2012, 12:00 AM
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) – Lawmakers are calling on the Veterans Affairs Department to audit all its cemeteries to ensure that remains are correctly interred and marked.
A VA spokesman, Josh Taylor, says the department has already decided to review all 131 cemeteries under its control.
A VA review of 83 cemeteries has revealed problems with 123 gravesites, including eight cases in which people were buried in the wrong place.
The VA focused on just those cemeteries that underwent certain renovations. It reviewed nearly 1.3 million headstones and found a fraction of them had been moved one spot away from where they should have been.
The House Veterans Affairs Committee chairman, Republican Rep. Jeff Miller, said Thursday he has questions about some 2 million gravesites not reviewed and expects a full accounting of every gravesite.
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