First-ever audit of Arlington headstones finds errors

(Reuters) - More than 64,000 headstones at Arlington National Cemetery outside Washington, D.C. may contain typos or other errors, according to a new government report.

The errors, which mar 25 percent of the 260,000 grave markers in what is arguably the nation's best-known military burial ground, include misspelled names and incorrect ranks, birth dates and death dates.

The report -- the first of its kind in Arlington's 147-year history -- was prompted by two studies from the Army's Inspector General that found "serious mismanagement and process failures" at the cemetery. It was published on Thursday.

The audit team spent a year counting gravesites in the cemetery, photographing the grave markers and then comparing the information on them with all available paper and electronic records.
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