Jack E. Lechner Jr. shown at Arlington National Cemetery on Oct. 29, 2013. (Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post)
Jack E. Lechner Jr. was removed as superintendent of Arlington National Cemetery earlier this month after a review of his performance “called into question his ability to serve successfully as a senior leader,” an Army spokesman said Friday.
Patrick Hallinan, executive director of the Army National Military Cemeteries program, will fill in temporarily until a new superintendent is found. The Army did not elaborate on why Lechner was removed one year after he was appointed to the position. Attempts to reach him were unsuccessful.
Arlington Cemetery is the nation’s premier military burial ground, and is the final resting place for Supreme Courts justices, service members from virtually every U.S. conflict and Presidents John F. Kennedy and William Howard Taft.
The cemetery said that its operations were unaffected by the change in leadership.
