VIRGINIA – Hundreds of American soldiers were cremated and dumped into a Virginia landfill without notifying a majority of the families.

At least 976 body parts of 274 U.S. soldiers recovered from war zones abroad were ditched in a Kings County, Va., dump after arriving at Dover Air Base between 2004 and 2008.

The Air Force came clean about the practice last month after whistleblowers complained about sloppy work at Dover, the main entry for fallen soldiers coming from battlefields overseas.