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For first time in decades, Arlington National Cemetery must bury multiple 'unknowns'

When the remains of a Vietnam War soldier buried in the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery were identified in 1998 using DNA, Pentagon officials proudly said that the days of interring service members as "Unknown" could well be over.

But now, for the first time in decades, the cemetery has multiple "unknowns" to bury - and it has itself to blame.

Criminal investigators looking into how eight sets of cremated remains ended up crowding a single grave have concluded that three of them are unidentifiable - not because of the brutality of combat, but because of actions at the cemetery.

The discovery of the mass grave in October came on the heels of a report by the Army Inspector General last summer that revealed widespread problems at the nation's premier military burial ground: unmarked and mismarked graves, millions of dollars wasted in botched contracts to computerize its paper records, and at least four urns found in a pile of excess dirt....
Read entire article at WaPo