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Senate panel holds Arlington hearing

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United Kingdom Prime Minister David Cameron (L) walks with Major General Karl R. Horst as he participates in a wreath laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia on July 21, 2010. UPI/Kevin Dietsch
United Kingdom Prime Minister David Cameron (L) walks with Major General Karl R. Horst as he participates in a wreath laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia on July 21, 2010. UPI/Kevin Dietsch 
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Published: July 29, 2010 at 11:57 PM

WASHINGTON, July 29 (UPI) -- A U.S. Senate panel heard testimony Thursday on what its chairwoman called "catastrophic incompetence" at Arlington National Cemetery.

The witnesses included former Deputy Superintendent Thurman Higginbotham, who took the Fifth Amendment, and former Superintendent John C. Metzler Jr., who said he was pained by the shortcomings of his staff, The Washington Post reported. Both men were allowed to retire last month.

The cemetery, resting place of thousands of U.S. military veterans -- including Gen. Omar Bradley and Gen. John "Black Jack" Pershing, President John F. Kennedy and his brothers, civil rights martyr Medger Evers and mystery writer Dashiell Hammett -- has recently been investigated five times by the Army. Problems include what may be thousands of misidentified graves.

Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., who heads the subcommittee, said there is a "long scenario of catastrophic incompetence."

"No one took full ownership, and if you don't have full ownership, then you can't take full blame," McCaskill said. "Because there wasn't one person's head who was going to roll, nobody's heads will. It's the old finger-pointing."

© 2010 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

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Staff Sgt. Jeffrey Roskos with the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment, "The Old Guard," participates in the annual Flags-In ceremony, May 23, 2013, at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia. Soldiers place American flags in front of more than 260,000 gravestones in the cemetery in honor of Memorial Day. UPI/Kevin Dietsch
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