Arlington National Cemetery headstones found lining stream bed

[unhappycamper]

One of the headstones is worn and faded but offers some clues, including that its owner might have been a Navy captain.


Arlington National Cemetery headstones found lining stream bed
By Christian Davenport
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 17, 2010

Several mud-caked headstones line the banks of a small stream at Arlington National Cemetery, the country's most venerated burial ground. Farther upstream in a wooded area, a few others lie submerged with the rocks that line the stream bed.
This Story

On Wednesday, after The Washington Post alerted the cemetery to their presence, officials there said they were shocked to find the gravestones lying in the muck near a maintenance yard. Already under fire in recent days for more than 200 unmarked or misidentified graves and a chaotic and dysfunctional management system, cemetery officials vowed to investigate the headstones along the stream and take "immediate corrective action," said Kaitlin Horst, a cemetery spokeswoman.

Officials said they do not know how the stones got there, whom they belong to, or how old they are. Horst could say only that "they appear to be decades old."

Were they used as riprap to prevent stream erosion? Were they engraved incorrectly and then discarded? Or were they intended for a landfill -- where thousands of weathered or damaged burial markers routinely were sent years ago -- and ended up in the mud instead?

One of the headstones offers some clues. It has a cross in a circle at the top, a design that Horst said was discontinued in the late 1980s. And there is writing. It is worn and faded but seems to identify the person as a Navy captain, whose name is something like J. Warren McLaughlin.



unhappycamper comment: So why are people getting excited about mis-placed remains and trashed headstones in a stream?

Because these are Americans who have died in the service of their country.

Previous thread: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=8531866

[era veteran]

1. Uses you and throws you away

I buried a lot of GI's while on funeral Honor Guard Detail in the 70's this just SUCKS.

[blogslut]

2. How sad

and wrong.

[shraby]

3. Something like this is not uncommon. When stones weather

too much or become broken, they often are replaced with a new one and the old one is discarded. In this case with the federal government taking care of the cemetery, the stones would probably be replaced more regularly and the old one disposed of.

[yowzayowzayowza]

5. Er even new stones with errors, you'd think they'd break...

'em up before relegating 'em to the creek bed.

[wmbrew0206]

4. Another reason the top two civilians in charge of Arlington were just fired.

[Javaman]

6. Until the full story is known, I won't get bent out of shape.

It could be something as simple as wrongly produced or inaccuracies that caused this stones to be used in the bed.

Or it could be morons that didn't know what they were doing, that caused this to happen.

Until we find out, I won't expend my bottled up anger.