Calverton National Cemetery has a grave situation on their hands -- literally.
Identity theft was taken to a whole new level recently when the U.S. military was faced with the papers to bury Willie Hayes, a Vietnam veteran, two weeks ago.
Hayes had valiantly served his country, won several medals and earned himself a plot at a veterans cemetery upon his death.
The problem: Hayes had been laid to rest in the cemetery almost four years ago.
The answer: Apparently a homeless man going by the name of Willie Hayes with the same Social Security number, military records and date of birth of the veteran was buried in a plot in 2003.
The impostor was buried on Christmas Eve, and now his body will probably be exhumed and placed in a pauper's gave in New York.
American Legion spokeswoman Ramona Joyce said if it can be determined that the Hayes buried in 2003 was not a veteran, his remains should be removed: "That cemetery space is earned by our veterans. It is hallowed ground."
Although we're all used to scandals surrounding identity theft -- thanks in part to awesomely hilarious credit card commercials -- I must admit I muttered a shocked "ohhh snap" after reading about poor Willie Hayes.
With the abundance of military frauds running around you would think the brain trust at one of our national cemeteries would better monitor whether the person they are burying actually served. It seems to me that someone in the Department of Veterans Affairs made a rather large mistake (imagine! The VA messing up!). But with the way the military runs today, I think we can only be thankful the consequences weren't more disastrous.
Even Penn State had its own brush with military identity theft this past summer, an embarrassment only lessened by the fact that this place is a ghost town that time of year. Good thing the Collegian still publishes.
As we reported, the personal information, including names and Social Security numbers, of 8,400 Marines was inadvertently posted on June 7 and left up for 12 days on Penn State's Web site, exposing the Marines to potential identity theft. The whole incident happened when a researcher seeking to compare live weapon firing to simulated firing received the data as part of a larger file. To make matters worse, Penn State officials only found out when a Marine was searching online and found his information and name had been cached by Google and was circulating on the Web. The affected Marines were then notified July 6, nearly a month after the post first went up. Talk about responsibility.
In an age where we are asking more and more from our all-volunteer military, it hardly seems like a lot to ask to treat the people who serve our country with the utmost respect. The least we can do is protect their identities and livelihood, even if we'll never be able to pay them back for what they have given us.
