Veterans cemetery buries people in wrong graves in Rhode Island

A veterans' cemetery has admitted to burying more than a half dozen people in the wrong graves after markers were incorrectly placed.

Kasim Yarn, director of Veterans Affairs for the state of Rhode Island, made the admission Monday in a statement to the Associated Press.

"We recognize our cemetery is hallowed ground, and we did not meet our obligation to our veterans, their loved ones who are buried here or the families and the veterans who continue to come to our cemetery to pay their respects," Yarn said.

The embarrassing mixup happened after Rhode Island Veterans Memorial Cemetery workers were transferring the remains of a veteran's father in Nov. 2010. The AP reported that during the process of moving his remains, workers inadvertently left two open plots but only accounted for one, resulting in markers being one off from their corresponding plot.

As many as 21 graves were affected, but only seven burials have been performed in the row in question since 2010.

The mistake came to light recently when grounds crews at the cemetery went to dig a grave for the mother of one veteran and found the plot only had room for one person, WLNE-TV reported.

Yarn said the deceased were moved to their correct graves over the weekend. He added that no employees were punished as a result of the incident, and that new measures are being put in place to make sure something like this doesn't happen again.

One of those new measures includes requiring a second cemetery worker to confirm their colleagues are burying bodies in the correct location.

More than 34,000 people are buried at Rhode Island Veterans Cemetery in Warwik. Around 1,200 burials occur each year.

(H/T: Daily Caller)