Number of dead U.S. soldiers' remains dumped in landfill sites is revealed by Army... and it's much higher than expected

274 soldiers' remains were thrown in Virginia dump site

Total comprised 976 'body fragments', says mortuary records



The number of dead U.S. soldiers whose remains were dumped in landfill has been revealed and it is much higher than the military originally admitted.

The Army had initially said it was unable to tell how many of the soldiers' bodies, repatriated from Iraq and Afghanistan, had been part of the process that has been a national scandal for America.

But it has now been revealed that the remains of at least 274 troops - comprising 976 body fragments - that could not be identified or were later recovered from the battlefield were incinerated and sent to a landfill site in Virginia, operated by Waste Management Inc.

Shocking numbers: It has been revealed that the remains of 274 soldiers were dumped in landfill in Virginia

The families of the dead had authorized the military to dispose of the remains respectfully and with dignity.

However, the relatives were completely unaware that the remains were being dumped in landfill while the landfill site was not informed what was being thrown away. The Dover mortuary changed its policy to burying the parts at sea in June 2008.

The figures come from a report based on information from a database at the mortuary, where the remains of most war dead return.

According to The Washington Post, Air Force officials claim they don't know when the practice began but that its first record of such a procedure was on February 23, 2004.

The secretive practice which ran for five years, between 2003 and 2008, when the remains of some 6,300 dead soldiers passed through Dover Air Base mortuary.

The scandal is the latest to hit the military base which receives all America's war dead and prepares them for burial.

Dover's mortuary processed over 4,000 sets of remains from 2008 to 2010, most of which were Iraq and Afghanistan war dead

It was earlier revealed that body parts belonging to deceased soldiers were lost or sawed off without the family’s permission.

A damning report found that an arm bone belonging to a dead marine was hacked off without asking his parents by staff at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.

An ankle and some soft tissue went unaccounted for due to ‘gross mismanagement’ and may have been mixed in with the remains of other soldiers.

An 18-month probe into Dover's mortuary, pictured here, revealed one soldier had his arm cut off by staff without the family's permission

Whistleblowers also claimed that the fetal remains of dependents of military personnel were shipped from Germany back to the U.S. in cardboard boxes that had already been used.

The scandal at Dover Air Force base began after complaints by three whistleblowers - civilians who worked as embalmers or technicians - who sparked an 18-month investigation by the Air Force Inspector General.

A separate probe was carried out by the Office of Special Counsel, an independent federal investigative agency which looks into claims by whistleblowers.

Among the most egregious instances was when the family of one marine asked to see his dead body one more time - and staff at Dover had hacked his arm bone off.

The heat from a bomb attack in Afghanistan had caused the soldier’s arm to fuse at 90 degrees to his body so he was unable to fit into his uniform or his casket.

But instead of speaking to his family to see what was for the best, staff went ahead and trimmed it anyway.

The investigation found the two body parts that went missing were a piece of an ankle belonging to a soldier killed by a bomb in Afghanistan in April 2009.

The investigation found two body parts went missing entirely, including a piece of an ankle belonging to a soldier killed by a bomb in Afghainstan and a small piece of flesh belonging to an airman who died in plane crash in Afghanistan

The second was a small piece of flesh belonging to an airman who died in plane crash in Afghanistan in July 2009.

The investigation found two body parts went missing entirely, including a piece of an ankle belonging to a soldier killed by a bomb in Afghainstan and a small piece of flesh belonging to an airman who died in plane crash in Afghanistan

The investigation did not discover what happened to them - but raised the possibility they fell out of the plastic bags where they were being stored in the morgue refrigerator and got mixed in with the remains of others.

The whistleblowers also drew attention to shipping of fetal remains belonging to relatives of military personnel back to the U.S.

Instead of being transported in the more dignified aluminium cases they were shipped in re-used cardboard boxes.

In a statement accompanying her report Special Counsel Carolyn Lerner said the findings were ‘deeply troubling’.

She said: ‘The mortuary for the United States military should boast the best conditions and best practices of any mortuary.’

The report added that there was a ‘pattern of the Air Force’s failure to acknowledge culpability for wrongdoing relating to the treatment of remains of service members and their dependents.

The Dover scandal comes just months after it was revealed Arlington National Cemetery had 211 graves either mislabelled or containing the wrong person's remains

The Dover scandal comes months after it was revealed Arlington National Cemetery had 211 graves either mislabelled or containing the wrong person's remains

There were also cases of remains being moved without families' consent or graves left empty when they should have remains in them.

The cemetery is considered sacred ground and has been the final resting place of the nation's veterans since 1864.

More than 300,000 servicemen and women are now buried there.

General Norton Schwartz, the chief of staff of the Air Force, apologised for the mistakes made at Dover.

He said: 'We understand the obligation of this work, the sanctity of this work, the need for reverence, the need for dignity and respect of our fallen, just as if these were our sons and daughters'.

An Army and FBI probe is still investigating the outrage at the nation’s most hallowed military graveyard.











