There is much at Arlington National Cemetery to stir the emotions -- the sadness of the next of kin whose loved one was taken from them early and violently, the precise military funerals, the long rows of meticulously maintained graves, the iron discipline of the guards at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

But sad to say, there's now not just one unknown soldier's grave -- there are hundreds, and if current news reports are accurate, perhaps thousands.

According to reports, the cemetery’s internal recordkeeping is a mess. As a result, there are many graves with unknown occupants. Some of these graves are supposedly occupied, but have no headstones, while other graves are marked as empty but have headstones.

Despite spending more than $5 million to digitalize handwritten burial records, Arlington still has no computerized recordkeeping system.

According reports, the Army has known of the problems since at least 1992, but nothing or little was done about it at that time. Another investigation in 1997 produced little results, much less failed to solve the problem. A recent series of articles sparked enough of a public outcry so that the current administrator and deputy administrator were replaced, and a new executive director named to oversee operations.

We hope the Army will carry out a thorough investigation – finally -- and act responsibly to solve the problems.

A well-managed national cemetery is the least this nation can do to honor those who gave up their lives to preserve its freedom.