Free Republic

Her grave was robbed. A Brooklyn family was devastated to find their long-dead father lying next to a stranger at Washington Cemetery -- in the same plot their mother purchased years ago for her future resting place. Klara Tranis, 84, spent $3,200 on side-by-side plots in Section 5 of the city's largest Jewish cemetery in Midwood back in 1987, when her beloved husband of 42 years, Wolf Tranis, died at 59.

CHICAGO (CBS) – Cook County sheriff’s officials have found bodies stacked on top of each other – some buried eight at a time — at a south suburban cemetery. As CBS 2’s Susanna Song reports, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart says Homewood Memorial Gardens, at 600 Ridge Rd. in Homewood, desecrated the bodies of people who couldn’t afford to purchase burial plots.

Bones delay Blue Island stadium By Steve Metsch smetsch@southtownstar.com Jan 18, 2011 02:31AM Blue Island Park District Commissioner John Spizzirri isn’t joking when he calls the hill at Blue Island’s Memorial Park, “Curse Hill.” Over the past year, the construction of a new stadium there has been delayed by weather, building woes and, yes, bones. Human bones. “We didn’t find any full skeletons,” said park board president Fred Bilotto. “It’s all pieces. A femur here. A rib there.” Construction workers discovered the bones in September while excavating for the foundation of a new football stadium at the park. When the...

Buena High School JROTC cadets place wreaths at grave markers on Saturday. (Ty Holland • For the Herald/Review) SIERRA VISTA — A year ago, when just 242 holiday wreaths were laid on the graves of veterans in Sierra Vista, a group of local women thought those who served this country deserved better, and they decided to do something about it. On Saturday morning, each and every one of the nearly 1,400 graves at the Southern Arizona Veterans Memorial Cemetery was adorned with a touch of red and green as a result of their effort.

Army launches probe over Arlington National Cemetery remainsBy Jade Walker – 1 hr 51 mins ago The U.S. Army has opened a criminal investigation at Arlington National Cemetery after the cremated remains of eight people were dumped into a single grave, The Washington Post reported. The urns were discovered last October in a grave site marked "Unknown," even though cemetery records showed that only one set of remains was to be buried there. Since then, Army investigators have positively identified three of the remains and notified the families, USA Today reported. Officials are still trying to identify the other remains....

"Police look for link between C4 explosives in Manhattan cemetery and bizarre note found nearby" SNIPPET: "Eight blocks of the plastic, military-grade explosive, formally known as Composition 4, were found in a black plastic garbage bag just inside Marble Cemetery, on E. Second St." SNIPPET: "The explosives were buried near the back wall of the old cemetery, and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said "you could reasonably glean from that that it was put there to threaten any structure" on the other side. The back wall of the cemetery abuts some brownstones and is about 100 feet from the notorious E...

Marlet Spangler was robbed while visiting his wife's graveyard. Marlet Spangler's wife, Norma, died seven years ago at 81. Spangler, 92, misses her and just about every day, he drives to Prospect Hill Cemetery in Manchester Township to visit her grave. He usually spends a few minutes visiting her and then, he said, "he walks around looking at the graves, you know, monkeying around." On Wednesday, just after noon, he was at his wife's grave when he heard a car pull up near his car. A moment later, a man in his late 20s or early 30s, had pulled a...

WASHINGTON, June 30, 2010 – The Army is taking every measure possible to fix the problems at Arlington National Cemetery, and it should continue to manage the nation’s “most hallowed ground,” Army Secretary John M. McHugh told a congressional committee today. The top two officials in charge of cemetery were disciplined earlier this month after an Army investigation found the cemetery’s management to be dysfunctional. “For 146 years, the Army has proudly served in the administration of this hallowed ground,” McHugh told the House Armed Services Committee. “Clearly, we lost that commitment and that record of success. I want to...

WASHINGTON, June 22, 2010 – Officials at Arlington National Cemetery have established a special call center to address concerns worried family members may have about the potential mishandling of their loved ones’ remains. Family members with concerns can call 703-607-8199 Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. EDT. The call center opened June 11, a day after Army Secretary John M. McHugh announced the findings of a months-long investigation into the cemetery’s records management. The report noted at least 200 cases of improper internment of remains, including lost accountability for remains, names and graves listed as empty. More...

Thanks to the wonders of globalization, I’m writing this in a fairly decrepit salon de thé off the rue de la Liberté in Tangiers, enjoying a coffee and a stale croissant grilled and flattened into a panini. What could be more authentically Moroccan? For some reason, the napkins are emblazoned with “Gracias por su visita.” Through a blizzard of flies, I can just about make out the plasma TV up in the corner on which Jimmy Carter, dubbed into Arabic, is denouncing Israel. Al Jazeera doesn’t so much cover the Zionist Entity as feast on it, hour after hour, without...

You haven’t been to America until you’ve walked the hillsides of Arlington. On the Virginia side of the Potomac, in the capital of our nation, where heroes lie row upon row. It is one of the most stirring and sacred places in our country. The despoiled farm of a Confederate general, hallowed by those buried in its soil, it is a place of the heart. Presidents are buried there, and generals and admirals, and the common soldiers and sailors of the last 150 years. The precision of the guards at the Tomb of the Unknowns, the green of the grass...

WASHINGTON, June 10, 2010 – The top two officials in charge of Arlington National Cemetery here were disciplined after an Army investigation found the cemetery’s management to be “dysfunctional,” Army Secretary John M. McHugh announced today at the Pentagon. Secretary of the Army John M. McHugh announces at a June 10, 2010, Pentagon press conference that in light of findings of inappropriate practices and mismanagement at Arlington National Cemetery, he is relieving the cemetery’s current superintendent and deputy superintendent of their duties and placing Kathryn Condon (right) in the newly created role of Executive Director of the Army National Cemeteries...

- June 10, 2010 Army Fires Top Two Administrators Over Mismanagement of Arlington Cemetery Army Secretary John McHugh has fired the top two officials overseeing Arlington National Cemetery over allegations of mismanagement, including burying a service member's body on top of another, Fox News has confirmed. fox news Army Secretary John McHugh has fired the top two officials overseeing Arlington National Cemetery over allegations of mismanagement, including burying a service member's body on top of another, Fox News has confirmed. McHugh will announce Thursday that he is replacing Arlington National's superintendent, John Metzler, and his deputy, Thurman Higgenbotham, who had...

CARTHAGE, Tunisia, May 30, 2010 – Less than a mile from the 2,000-year-old ruins of ancient Carthage, Tunisian groundskeepers worked under a bright Mediterranean sun to prepare for Memorial Day observances to honor the 2,841 Americans buried here, as well as the thousands more who gave their lives in the North Africa campaigns of World War II that laid the bloody groundwork for the Allied liberation of Europe. Abdallah Lagahre, a Tunisian stone mason, refreshes gold leaf lettering on the gravestone of Medal of Honor recipient Army Pvt. Nicholas Minue at the North Africa American Cemetery in Carthage, Tunisia, May...

WASHINGTON, May 27, 2010 – Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates today met with more than 40 members of the 3rd. U.S. Infantry, The Old Guard, at Arlington National Cemetery, as they finished placing American flags on each of the graves in Section 60 of the cemetery. Video With flags in hand, members of the Army's Old Guard march out to their assigned sections during the “Flags In” ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Va., May 27, 2010. More than 1,500 servicemembers, Old Guard and other ceremonial units gathered for the sacred ritual that marks the start of the Memorial Day...

An umbrella group for Swiss Muslims says they should be able to be buried “with dignity” and is therefore calling for Islamic cemeteries in every Swiss canton. Farhad Afshar, president of the Coordination of Islamic Organisations in Switzerland, told the Sunday newspaper Sonntag he was preparing a legal case concerning freedom of religion.

George Watkins worked through the weekend on his Eagle Scout project. His project was to place pavers that were donated as a fundraiser for the Historical Soldiers Memorial Cemetery section at the Southern Arizona Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Sierra Vista. He placed more than 4,000 pavers, a job that took two days to complete with the assistance of several Scouts and adult leaders. Photo by Mark Levy, Herald/Review

This Veterans Day 2009, the only remaining unidentified veteran's grave in the Indian River Cemetery is the Tomb of the Unknown soldier. All other veterans' graves have been identified by name, war, date of death and location and catalogued into a database and map created by a Morgan School senior, Devon Isaacson for his Eagle Scout accreditation. While veterans' graves are marked with bronze service medals issued by the U.S. government, Devon is the first to produce a collection of Clinton's interred servicemen in the historic Cemetery . . . In his project, Devon divided the cemetery's 45 acres into...

ELIZABETH -- Many of the headstones marking the graves in New Jersey’s oldest cemetery are no longer readable, not only because they’re worn, but because they’re partially underground. While excavating around the headstones in the Old First Presbyterian Church cemetery in Elizabeth last week, archaeologist Seth Gartland found stones had sunk several feet, leaving only the top half exposed. When workers elevated the decaying stones, Gartland discovered inscriptions that had long been hidden. Tony Kurdzuk/The Star-LedgerRows and rows of markers in the cemetery of the First Presbyterian Church on Broad St. The cemetery is currently undergoing a project of preserving...

Five fallen U.S. sailors from what has been described as America's first war on terrorism lie in a crumbling cemetery in Libya, their graves identified only by their heroism on a night more than 200 years ago. They represent a lingering legacy of the Intrepid -- a small ship used in a daring raid in 1804 to destroy the captured American frigate Philadelphia anchored in Tripoli Harbor, denying the enemy use of the former U.S. warship. Much the same tactic was attempted six months later when the Intrepid sailed into the same harbor, packed with gunpowder for use as a...