The Rhode Island Office of Veterans Affairs is in damage control mode after workers at the state’s Veterans Memorial Cemetery discovered seven bodies buried in the wrong place, and nearly two dozen other graves with misaligned markers.

“I extend my most sincere apologies to all of the families impacted by this unacceptable mistake,” Rhode Island Veterans Affairs director Kasim Yarn announced Monday. “Our veterans and their families make tremendous sacrifices for our nation and we owe each of them respect and dignity, especially in their final resting place.”

The problem surfaced last week when a crew at the cemetery dug up a plot that was supposed to be reserved for the wife of a veteran, but discovered a body already in place, as well as six other graves that were mismarked, WLNE reports.

Cara Condit, administrator for the Rhode Island Memorial Cemetery, called the families of those affected by the discovery on Monday.

“Most wanted an explanation from me to explain to them how it happened and they were appreciated that we took the time to call them,” Condit said.

When cemetery officials dug deeper into the issue, they realized a total of 21 graves there were mismarked, a mistake officials attributed to “human error,” WJAR reports.

For seven years, many of those morning their loved ones at the cemetery visited the wrong grave site.

And it’s not the first time cemetery officials have made that mistake.

Julie Winward told the news site her mother was buried in the wrong place in 2011. Winward’s mother, Mary Roach, was set to be buried next to her husband, former Rhode Island State Sen. Donald Roch, and the misplaced coffin wasn’t discovered until Winward questioned officials about why the spot marked for her mother wasn’t freshly excavated.

“You go to that grave, and you pray in front of that grave,” Winward said. “But to know that they’re not where they’re supposed to be – when you find out about it, it hurts deep.”

Winward said officials at the time also cited “human error” for the mix-up.

“They just basically said it was human error,” Winward told WJAR. “And somebody just made a mistake with the number that she was supposed to be in.”

“I said, ‘Her name is on the coffin.’ I don’t know how you can’t make that connection,” said Winward.

The Rhode Island Veterans Cemetery also created a public firestorm last summer when a visitor discovered workers had treated American flags from grave sites like garbage, heaping the warn flags in piles next to a dumpster and in an open storage shed, WPRI reports.

“It just broke my heart because everyone in this cemetery fought under that banner and every fiber of that flag is their blood, sweat and tears,” said Stan Sinezyk, who posted pictures of the improperly discarded flags online after visiting his father’s grave.

“My father fought under that banner,” he said, “and to see them like that is an absolute disgrace…”

Yarn, who was named the state’s first Director of Veterans Affairs last year, said the cemetery officials responsible for the most recent mistake are no longer employed by the Office of Veterans Affairs and he believes it was an isolated incident.

“This is human error, no malice,” Yarn told WLNE.

The misaligned graves are now properly in place, Yarn said.

“Regrettably, when seven additional cement vaults were added to the misaligned row, they were buried in the adjacent plot by mistake,” he said. “To correct this issue, the Veterans Cemetery grounds crew properly aligned all of the grave markers over the weekend and shifted the seven cement vaults on the top level over to the adjacent grave site to align them properly with those on the lower level.”