Washington (CNN) -- The Air Force admitted Thursday that it sent more sets of military personnel remains to a Virginia landfill than it originally acknowledged.





Backtracking on initial information about how it handled the remains of American service members killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Air Force now says the cremated body parts of hundreds of the fallen were burned and dumped in the landfill.





Earlier, the Air Force said only a small number of body parts had been buried in a commercial landfill and claimed it would be impossible to make a final determination of how many remains were disposed of in that manner.





The Washington Post broke the story Thursday, and the Air Force now confirms that body fragments linked to at least 274 fallen military personnel sent to the Dover Air Force Base Mortuary were cremated, incinerated and buried with medical waste. That procedure was in place between November 2003 and May 1, 2008. The Air Force also said that 1,762 body parts were never identified and also were disposed of, first by cremation, then by further incineration and then buried in a landfill.





Congressman Rush Holt, D-New Jersey, Thursday accused the Pentagon of what he called "willful blindness" in not acting faster to identify and correct the problems and fully report them.





"For years, this has been handled unceremoniously and insensitively and, I would say, dishonorably," Holt said in a telephone interview. He said he had been asking the Pentagon for months about information about Dover, on behalf of a constituent whose husband was killed five years ago.





"They don't get it. They don't understand the degree of dishonor involved in all of this," Holt said.





Last month, the Defense Department told the congressman that exact numbers could not be determined. "Without individual case-by-case review, the exact number of Service-directed disposition of subsequent remains cannot be determined," said a fact sheet sent to Holt in November. "It would require a massive effort and time to recall records and research individually."





When bodies are not intact -- for instance, in the aftermath of a crash or explosion -- a body may be released to the family before some parts have been identified by the Air Force Mortuary at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. Families can elect to be notified when parts are identified or leave it up to the military to dispose of them appropriately. Since the policy was changed in 2008, the unclaimed body parts are buried at sea.





An earlier report found instances of mismanagement and inadequate accounting at Dover, noting that some body parts were missing from the mortuary and in one case an arm was sawed off so a body would fit in a casket. An independent group of experts is now investigating what happened at the mortuary and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has ordered the Air Force to look at how mortuary employees there were disciplined. Two civilians were transferred to other jobs and a military officer received a career-ending letter of reprimand.





Holt pointed to how the United States spends millions each year searching for the remains of service members missing in action from previous wars, for instance in Southeast Asia. "That makes us proud to be an American, that we would do that," Holt said. "It is a level of response that honors our soldiers."





The mistakes at Dover send a different message, Holt said. "It sends shudders to think that we engage in this kind of desecration."





But at the Pentagon, aides to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Panetta is satisfied with how the Air Force responded in regard to the landfill policy and new information about how many of the American fallen were involved.





"I think the secretary is comfortable with the way the Air Force has handled this," said Pentagon spokesman Capt. John Kirby.





And Kirby strongly pushed back against criticism by Rep. Holt.





"I don't think there is another federal agency in this town, I don't think there is another institution in this country," that understands more about how to properly treat the remains of fallen troops, said Kirby, tapping the briefing room
Who handles remains of the returning war dead? What does  the New Jersey congressman say? Which mortuary receives the returning war dead? What did an earlier report find? What did the earlier report find? What did the congressman say? Who feels the Pentagon did not act quickly enough? Who is handling the remains of the war dead?
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question: Who handles remains of the returning war dead?, answer: Air Force | question: What does  the New Jersey congressman say?, answer: "willful blindness" in not acting faster to identify and correct the problems | question: Which mortuary receives the returning war dead?, answer: Dover Air Force Base | question: What did an earlier report find?, answer: instances of mismanagement and inadequate accounting | question: What did the earlier report find?, answer: instances of mismanagement and inadequate accounting at Dover, | question: What did the congressman say?, answer: "For years, this has been handled unceremoniously and insensitively and, I would | question: Who feels the Pentagon did not act quickly enough?, answer: Congressman Rush Holt, | question: Who is handling the remains of the war dead?, answer: The Air Force