Rep. Cory Mills (R-FL) told Fox News Digital that the family of a fallen U.S. Marine had to pay to move the body of their loved one.
The staggering price came out to $60,000 to move the Marine’s remains to Arlington National Cemetery.
The family of Marine Corps Sgt. Nicole L. Gee, one of the “Fallen 13” who died in the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, said the price tag placed a financial burden on them.
Fortunately, a nonprofit stepped up to pay the egregious cost.
The government has billions to send to Ukraine with zero accounting but they stuck a U.S. soldiers family with a $60,000 bill for transporting his dead body after he died serving our country in Afghanistan. You’re absolutely insane if you’re okay with this. pic.twitter.com/5MW3dXCyU6
— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) July 26, 2023
Fox News reports:
The Gee family secured the funding, which came to “a staggering $60,000,” to move their loved one’s body after a nonprofit organization stepped in to cover the cost, Mills said.
According to Mills’ office, the option for the Defense Department to decline to pay for transport of the body was made possible by an amendment to last year’s National Defense Authorization Act, which states that the secretary of Defense may provide a fallen service member’s next of kin “a commercial air travel use waiver for the transportation of deceased remains of [a] military member who dies inside a theater of combat operations.”
Gee’s remains were initially flown to her hometown of Roseville, California, for a ceremony, but the responsibility for transporting Gee to her final resting place at Arlington National Cemetery would fall on the family. Honoring Our Fallen, a nonprofit dedicated to assisting the families of fallen American service members, stepped up to help the family move Gee via private jet to Virginia.
The Biden administration sends billions of dollars to Ukraine yet won’t provide funds for fallen U.S. military service members.
It’s disgraceful treatment by the federal government.
Rep. Mills expressed his disgust at the Pentagon’s treatment of the families of fallen troops.
“It is an egregious injustice that grieving families were burdened to shoulder the financial strain of honoring their loved ones. This is an unacceptable situation that demands immediate rectification,” Mills said.
Daily Mail provided more information about Gee:
Gee was one of two female Marines who died in the Kabul blast nearly two years ago.
Her older sister Misty Fuoco, said her sister would text her regularly from Kabul to tell her how ‘amazing’ her job was, and described her as ‘fearless.’
Advertisement‘She was a big advocate of positive mental health and helping others and she was just absolutely thrilled with the work she was doing in Afghanistan,’ she said.
‘She and I didn’t get to communicate as much as we did before she was deployed but when she did, she would let me know [she was safe].
‘Her words were, ‘I love it. I’m so amazed by everything here’. She couldn’t wait to tell me more about it. There was so much happiness and passion in what she was doing.’
In a message sent to Misty on August 14, less than two weeks before she was killed, Nicole wrote: ‘Don’t be scared either! There’s a lot in the news lately… But there’s a LOT of Marines and soldiers going to provide security.
‘We’ve been training for this evacuation and it’s actually happening so I’m excited for it. Hopefully it’s successful and safe. I love you!!!’
She added of the moment she learned Nicole was dead: ‘I just stood still, speechless, processing. Thinking, no way. That’s not what you just said. Then you think, well he wouldn’t just say that as a joke or just to say that.
‘You wait for the second phone call that says so sorry for the terrible mix up but there isn’t any mix up and what happened, happened.
