Millions of Dollars Wasted at Arlington Cemetery

Thursday, October 01, 2009
Thurman Higginbotham

Accusations of contractor fraud and mismanagement of grave sites have been leveled on the “nation’s most sacred shrine”—Arlington National Cemetery. Investigations by Salon.com have found the cemetery’s deputy superintendent, Thurman Higginbotham, gave out more than $5 million in contracts beginning in 2003 to computerize Arlington’s vast records—with little to show for the expenditures. Among the contractors hired by Higginbotham, one was an accused pedophile and another’s competence handling sensitive private data was called into question.

Salon also has reported instances of cemetery officials trying to bury a service member, only to discover an unmarked grave in the same location. Arlington’s leadership has been reluctant to admit problems with its management of grave sites, even though a report to Congress found numerous discrepancies between burial maps, the location of headstones and burial records.
                                                                                                                                                    -Noel Brinkerhoff

Millions in Contracts, No Work Completed (by Mark Benjamin, Salon.com)
Grave offenses at Arlington National Cemetery (by Mark Benjamin, Salon.com)
 

Comments

Me 13 years ago
This is the third major story of graveyard mismanagement to hit the headlines in the last two years. See any common threads? If PC speech codes and diversity brainwashing rule your day, the answer will be "no."
James W. Hall 13 years ago
Mr. Thurman Higginbotham is either crooked or ignorant,or both.His mismanagement at Arlington cemetery is unforgivable.He should be fired from this job immediately.He has brought shame upon himself in his incompetence in doing substandard work for our government in such a special place as this.John Metzler's job performance needs to be scrutinized very carefully as well and if found to be questionable,then he should be relieved as well.All who are buried here deserve nothing but the best from their country,and it is the duty of those of us that are left behind to accept nothing less.
C Anderson 14 years ago
According to Mr. Benjamin, in the Salon articles, Thurman Higginbotham is guilty of lying to Army investigators at best and wire fraud at worst. When the mismanagement of such large sums is added to such record, it is a wonder that Mr. Higginbotham is still employed at Arlington cemetery.

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