'Poor' management at Arlington probed

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WASHINGTON, June 10 (UPI) -- The U.S. Department of Defense said Thursday a commission will look into charges of faulty management at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.

The commission will include two former U.S. senators who are also decorated U.S. military veterans -- Bob Dole of Kansas, a Republican, and Max Cleland of Georgia, a Democrat.

The department said in release Thursday Army Secretary John McHugh has ordered changes at the cemetery following a months-long investigation into alleged misconduct including poor record keeping, lost accountability of some graves, misidentifying graves of war dead and, in one case, the Los Angeles Times said, burying the body of one on top of another.

"While the Inspector General's team found that ANC employees – under an extraordinarily high operational tempo of 27 to 30 funerals a day – performed their jobs with dedication and to a high professional standard, they also found them hampered by dysfunctional management, the lack of established policy and procedures, and an overall unhealthy organizational climate," McHugh said in the report. "That ends today."

McHugh said he is establishing an Army National Cemeteries Advisory Commission to include Dole and Cleland, along with others outside the Army to review procedures and policies.

McHugh issued a letter of reprimand to ANC Superintendent John Metzler Jr., who is to the new executive director before retiring from federal service July 2.