Jose Luis Magana / AP
The transfer case containing the remains of Army Spc. Daquane D. Rivers of Marianna, Fla., sits at the end of the loader ramp during a foggy night, upon arrival at Dover Air Force Base, Del. on March 17.
Details surrounding Rivers' death have not yet been released.
According to iCasulties.org there have been 1,913 U.S. military fatalities in Afghanistan.
A former Air Force mortuary official says the decision that resulted in some cremated remains from 9/11 victims being dumped in a landfill came from higher-ups in the military.
William D. Zwicharowski, a civilian who was interim director of the mortuary at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware in 2002, told The Washington Post that mortuary officials wanted to have the ashes buried at sea. But he says they were overruled.
“We fought the fight, but I had zero clout back then,” Zwicharowski said. “The decision was made at a higher level. Had I had the experience I have now, 10 years later, I would have stood up and probably just not done it.”
Zwicharowski declined to identify the military superiors.
An Air Force spokesman declined to comment but did not dispute Zwicharowski’s account, according to The Post.
A Defense Department report last week said some unidentified human remains recovered from the crash of American Airlines Flight 77 at the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, were incinerated and dumped in a landfill rather than being buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
Read the full Washington Post story
Quinton Keel, one of three officials accused of mismanaging the mortuary at Dover and of retaliating against Dover whistle-blowers, has resigned.
An independent federal investigative agency, the Office of Special Counsel, said Friday that it is in touch with Air Force officials about their final decisions on disciplinary action against the two other accused officials.
In November, the Office of Special Counsel issued a report accusing Keel and two other supervisors of "gross mismanagement" at the Dover facility, where small body parts of U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan were lost on two occasions.
More content from msnbc.com and NBC News
An Army carry team moves a transfer case containing the remains of Spc. Jeremiah T. Sancho Saturday, Oct. 15, 2011 at Dover Air Force Base, Del.
Air Force officials violated whistleblower laws when they retaliated against four civilian workers who reported the mishandling of war remains at the military mortuary at Dover Air Force Base, Del., independent federal prosecutors said on Tuesday.
The Office of Special Counsel concluded that in 2009 and 2010, three Dover mortuary officials retaliated against the employees for reporting the misconduct and must be disciplined. The employees alleged that they faced job termination, indefinite administrative leave and five-day suspensions.
In a written statement, Secretary of the Air Force Michael Donley said “there is no place for reprisal in the Air Force.” He said he has appointed a two-star general to review the findings and take "appropriate action."
“Throughout this process, the Air Force remains committed to this mission as a solemn obligation,” Donley said in the statement. “We continue to care for America’s fallen with dignity, honor and respect and provide care and support for their families.”
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has ordered the Air Force to review its handling of a major scandal at Dover Air Force Base, where the remains of deceased soldiers were lost of buried in landfills. Stan McDowell, whose son's remains went missing, talks to msnbc's Craig Melvin.
In an earlier investigation report released last November, the Office of Special Counsel said it had found "gross mismanagement" at the Dover facility, where small body parts of U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan were lost on two occasions. The Air Force said at the time that it took disciplinary action — but did not fire — three senior supervisors there for their role in the mismanagement. The reprisal accusations were a separate matter and were investigated by the Special Counsel under the Whistleblower Protection Act.
According to The Associated Press the three disciplined in connection with the earlier Special Counsel included Air Force Col. Robert Edmondson, who commanded the Dover mortuary at the time of the incidents, and two civilian supervisors — Trevor Dean and Quinton Keel.
Edmondson was given a letter of reprimand, denied a job commanding a unit at Shaw Air Force Base, S.C., and barred from future command assignments, The Associated Press reported. Dean and Keel took a cut in pay and were moved to non-supervisory jobs at Dover. All three have declined to comment publicly on the matter.
Although the Special Counsel did not identify the three accused of retaliating against the whistleblowers, two officials told The Associated Press that they are Edmondson, Dean and Keel. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of privacy restrictions.
Report: Air Force dumped remains of 274 troops in landfill
The four whistleblowers had alleged that they suffered retaliation for their disclosures, including job termination, indefinite administrative leave and five-day suspensions.
James Parsons, one of the whistleblowers, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that he had not seen the investigators' report but was told Monday that its conclusions support his and the others' claims of retaliation.
Parsons is an embalming/autopsy technician. Two of the other whistleblowers are Mary Ellen Spera, a mortuary inspector, and William Zwicharowski, a senior mortuary inspector. Those three told The Associated Press last November, after the scandal broke, that the Air Force had retaliated against them. Parsons said he was fired in 2010 but reinstated almost immediately. Spera and Zwicharowski said they received letters of reprimand.
Zwicharowski also said he was put on administrative leave for eight months and at one point was labeled "mentally unstable."
Spera and Zwicharowski both said in interviews Tuesday that they had not seen the Special Counsel report.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta expressed deep disappointment in the Dover revelations last fall, and he ordered Donley, the Air Force secretary, to report back to him on the adequacy of the disciplinary actions he had taken.
Panetta also appointed a retired Army general, John Abizaid, to lead an independent assessment of actions taken to improve mortuary operations at Dover. That review is due to be completed by the end of February.
Air Force officials have 30 days to review the OSC’s findings and recommendations, according to the Air Force Times. If they do not sufficiently respond, the OSC can can pursue disciplinary action through the Merit Systems Protection Board.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
An investigation found "gross mismanagement" at the mortuary of the Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. Three of its officials have been reprimanded for losing or mishandling body parts of dead service members. NBC’s Brian Williams reports.
More content from msnbc.com and NBC News
The Air Force confirmed Thursday that unclaimed remains of 274 U.S. service members were disposed of in a Virginia landfill between 2003 and 2008. NBC's Jim Miklaszewski reports.
The incinerated partial remains of at least 274 American troops were dumped in a Virginia landfill, according to government records, The Washington Post reported on Thursday.
Air Force officials said that the dumping was hidden from families who had given authorization for the remains to be disposed of in a respectful and dignified manner, according to the newspaper.
There were no plans to inform families, officials told the newspaper.
New information revealed that the practice, exposed by The Washington Post in November, had become very widespread until it was halted in 2008, the newspaper reported.
Last month, Pentagon and Air Force officials said that figuring out how many remains were sent to the King George County, Va., landfill would take combing through the records of more than 6,300 troops.
Full story in the Washington Post: Air Force dumped more ashes than acknowledged
"It would require a massive effort and time to recall records and research individually," Jo Ann Rooney, the Pentagon's acting undersecretary for personnel, said in a Nov. 22 letter to Rep. Rush Holt (Dem.-N.J.), who has pressured the Pentagon for information on the issue on behalf of one of his constituents, according to the newspaper.
Steve Ruark / AP file
An Army carry team moves a transfer case containing the remains of a soldier on Oct. 15, 2011 at Dover Air Force Base, Del.
Holt reacted angrily to the news, the newspaper reported.
"What the hell?" he told the Post. "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?"
"They just don't want to ask questions or look very hard," he added, according to the newspaper.
According to records the military gave The Post, between 2003 and 2008, 976 fragments from 274 personnel were cremated, incinerated and dumped in the landfill. An additional 1,762 remains, which could not be DNA tested because of damage from explosions, were gathered from the battlefield and dumped in a similar manner, the Air Force told the newspaper.
The widow of an Army sergeant killed in Iraq told the newspaper she was furious when she was told how some of her husband's remains were dumped in the landfill.
"They have known that they were doing something disgusting, and they were doing everything they could to keep it from us," Gari-Lynn Smith told the newspaper. She had been pressing the military for information on the subject for four years — ever since she got a report on her husband's autopsy and learned that some of the remains had not been put in the casket for his funeral, according to The Post.
Changes in disposal policies came about after an in-depth review at Dover was ordered in 2008 by then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
Read more content from msnbc.com and NBC News:
E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSS