U.S. officials have found the remains of 274 troops dumped in a Virginia landfill, more than the military originally acknowledged.
News of the dumped bodies was discovered at the pressing of the Washington Post at which time records from the Dover Air Force Base mortuary revealed that 274 troops were sent to the landfill along with 1,762 unidentified remains that were collected from battlefields around the world.
Damaged remains that were dumped only occurred when DNA testing could not find a match among military databases.
Exposed last month the practice of dumping military remains was stopped in 2008 after it was determined that the military was not alerting the families of fallen troops to their practices.
Speaking about the embarrassment last month Pentagon officials said that it would take “massive effort” in order to identify the remained that have been disposed.
Angered by the situation New Jersey lawmaker Rush Holt noted:
“We spent millions, tens of millions, to find any trace of soldiers killed, and they’re concerned about a ‘massive’ effort to go back and pull out the files and find out how many soldiers were disrespected this way?” he says. “They just don’t want to ask questions or look very hard.”
Do you think the military should do more to ensure such practices do not occur in the future?
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