National Cemetery Administration: A Scandal That Nobody's Talking About

Above, Riverside National Cemetery. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

There is something wrong with the national cemetery system.

It is under the National Cemetery Administration division of the Veterans Administration which is under the umbrella of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

I am sure you've heard of the scandal that involves the VA hospitals where veterans were made to wait resulting in the deaths of many. The Obama Administration promised to fix the problem, but we are about 2-3 years into this and the problems are just as bad now as they were then.

My Aunt Rose passed away on January 5, 2016. She was the widow of my Uncle Ralph, who was a U.S. Army Korean War veteran. He is buried at Riverside National Cemetery. It would seem to be a non-issue to have my aunt buried with my uncle. Yet, she was only buried today (February 2, 2016), nearly a month after her death.

Having families wait for their loved ones to be buried almost a month after their death is not "being treated with dignity." Yet that term is throughout the National Cemetery Administration's website.

Something is dreadfully wrong with the National Cemetery Administration. They try to blame it on the high number of funerals. But that is a bunch of hogwash. There was always high numbers of funerals, My mom was buried 13 days after she passed away in 2010 at Riverside National Cemetery. Apparently, Obama's Administration didn't have enough time after taking office the year before to screw things up sooner.

Perhaps I should talk to Paul Bannai about this. He used to head up the national cemeteries under the Reagan Administration.

I hope the news media picks up on this. But, you know darn well they won't.