ARLINGTON, Va. (WUSA) -- Employees and interns from the Veterans Administration answered continuous calls from worried and angry people whose loved ones are buried at Arlington National Cemetery. This comes after the Army announced Thursday that an investigation found a possible 211 remains that may be unidentified or misidentified. It's not a surprise to Gina Gray.
"Last summer, I alerted Congress that they were getting rid of files here at the Cemetery. That was last July. I was laughed at," said Gray.
Gray was fired as the Public Affairs Director at Arlington in 2008. An investigation is underway into whether the cemetery's Deputy Superintendent hacked into Gray's email.
Walking around the cemetery, you can see spaces and numbers that appear to be missing. The Army says the grave site mistakes were only found in three sections, 59, 65, and 66. Gray claims she's found widespread identification problems, including the Civil War era section 27.
Cemetery documents say all grave sites are occupied in section 27, yet there's a large empty space that has no stones. Gray claims there are remains there. In 1999, Congress allocated $200,000 in Arlington National Cemetery's budget to develop a comprehensive automation plan.
Gray says, "The Deputy Superintendent won a government award in 2006 for his vision of automating the cemetery. It has not happened yet."
"I think it's terrible," said 89-year-old, Walter Hedlund. The World War II Veteran landed on Omaha beach at Normandy. He's particularly bothered by the grave site scandal, because he ran a funeral home for 60 years.
"I sent many humans remains down here to be buried in the national cemetery, and I feel bad that a widow must come down here to be near her husband's plot, and find out that he's in the wrong plot.
Written by Peggy Fox
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