Report to Congress on Gravesite Accountability Study Findings

Abstract

Since Secretary of the Army John M. McHugh issued Army Directive 2010-04 on 10 June 2010, the United States Army has instituted comprehensive reforms in the management and oversight of its National Cemeteries Program, putting in place sweeping corrective actions to restore confidence and regain accountability at Arlington National Cemetery (ANC or Cemetery. Secretary McHugh's directive followed completion of three separate Army investigations, each more comprehensive in scope. These efforts culminated were enhanced by Public Law (PL) 111-339, which requires the Army to submit a report to Congress accounting for the gravesites at the Cemetery. This report is submitted in compliance with PL 111-339 and documents the Army's effort to provide a full accounting of gravesites. This submission represents a part of the Army's commitment to operate, manage and maintain ANC in a manner befitting the service and sacrifice of those interred or inurned there. As outlined below and detailed herein, the Army has made unprecedented efforts to achieve accountability at the Cemetery by defining requirements, developing innovative review processes and creating a detailed methodology to account for gravesites. A large, diverse and dedicated team methodically counted the gravesites in the Cemetery, photographed the grave markers, and compared all the available records for each case to verify that graves are properly labeled, identified and occupied. While great progress has been made thus far, additional work is required. Accordingly, this report sets forth a plan of action for sustaining a single, authoritative data set of all graves at the Cemetary.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Dec 22, 2011
Accession Number
ADA554467

Entities

Organizations

  • United States Army

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Accountability
  • Best Practices
  • Cemeteries
  • Civil War
  • Congress
  • Databases
  • Department Of Veterans Affairs
  • Governments
  • Information Systems
  • Lessons Learned
  • Management Personnel
  • Military Personnel
  • Organizational Structure
  • Personnel Management
  • Quality Control
  • Smartphones
  • United States

Readers

  • Archaeological Resource Survey
  • Defense Acquisition Program Management
  • Military History of the United States in the 20th Century.