TERRESA MONROE-HAMILTON | American Wire
The family of one of the Marines who died in Afghanistan during the catastrophic U.S. withdrawal was forced to pony up thousands to transport her body to its final resting place.
Thirteen Gold Star families lost loved ones in a suicide bombing in Kabul, Afghanistan in 2021 as people were being evacuated. Rep. Cory Mills (R-Fla.) was shocked after finding out that one of them had to foot the bill to transport their 23-year-old daughter to Arlington National Cemetary due to a change of policy at the Pentagon.
Mills is an Army veteran. He told Fox News Digital in an interview that when he met with the families of the “Fallen 13” last week, he was “enraged to learn that the Department of Defense had placed a heavy financial burden” on Marine Corps Sgt. Nicole L. Gee’s family. They were forced to secure funding from a non-profit in order to move her body after her 2021 death in Afghanistan.
Gee’s body was originally transported to the family’s home in Roseville, California for a ceremony, but the Marine’s final destination was Arlington National Cemetary. That move cost “a staggering $60,000.” Mills noted that a non-profit made sure that the fallen Marine would rest with other heroes for her ultimate sacrifice.
Mills’ office pointed out that the option for the Defense Department to decline payment for the transport of the body was made possible by an amendment to last year’s National Defense Authorization Act, which says 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.”
Honoring Our Fallen is a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping the families of fallen American service members. They are the ones who stepped in to move Gee by private jet to Virginia for the family.
Mills contended that the responsibility for the transport of fallen heroes should be shouldered by the Defense Department, not the grieving families of America’s finest.
“Typically, our fallen heroes are flown back home for a solemn service and then laid to a final rest at Arlington Cemetery with the utmost respect and honor,” Mills noted, according to Fox News Digital. “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.”
Gee was one of two female Marines that perished in the Kabul bombing almost two years ago.
The Marine’s older sister, Misty Fuoco, says her sister would text her about how “amazing” her job was and that she was utterly “fearless.”
“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 sadly commented, according to the Daily Mail.
“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,” Fuoco recounted.
Gee texted her sister less than two weeks before the bombing, “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!!!”
Her sister remembered the moment she found out that Gee had fallen.
“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,” Fuoco stated the day after the notice.
“Still, it’s been a little over 24 hours now and it’s still just as hard to understand as it was yesterday morning. You take it one moment at a time, one thought at a time,” the devastated sister added, according to the Daily Mail.
Gee’s husband was also stationed at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville, North Carolina.
The other brave Marines who died in the blast were Marine Corps Sgt. Johanny Rosario Pichardo, Staff Sgt. Darin T. Hoover, Cpl. Hunter Lopez, Cpl. Daegan W. Page, Cpl. Humberto A. Sanchez, Lance Cpl. David L. Espinoza, Lance Cpl. Jared M. Schmitz, Lance Cpl. Rylee J. McCollum, Lance Cpl. Dylan R. Merola, and Lance Cpl. Kareem M. Nikoui.
The Army lost Staff Sgt. Ryan C. Knauss and the Navy lost Corpsman Maxton W. Soviak in the ISIS terrorist attack.
