Interesting comments in Monday’s Washington Post regarding the ongoing fiasco at the Arlington National Cemetery. “and lack of oversight led to the mishandling of dozens of remains at the nation’s most important military burial ground, according to a three-month review of Arlington National Cemetery’s operations by a consortium of technology companies.” The last sentence in the article is “The report, prepared for the cemetery at no cost, also said that each set of remains should be given a file with a unique case number to link all relevant paperwork.” duh.

Interesting that tech companies came to the conclusion that the records should have been computerized. I agree, but also feel that a paper and card system would have worked if it has been given proper attention. Computerization also only works if given the proper attention and all data entry is accomplished without
mistakes. I remember being on a tour of Arlington years ago and asking a question in the office about research in the records and hearing the shaky answers about how things could be looked up. Hmmm — should that have been a warning? At the time I figured it was yet another cemetery employee shuddering at a family history question.

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