ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA: The grieving family of a marine who lost her life during the chaotic evacuation from Afghanistan in 2021 had to pay $60,000 to transport her body from California to Virginia for burial. Nicole Gee, 23, was among the 13 service members who tragically died in a suicide blast at Kabul Airport in 2021, while helping 170 desperate Afghans trying to flee the troubled country.
The ISIS-claimed terror attack occurred during the withdrawal near the US embassy on August 26, 2021. Last week, Republican lawmaker and Army veteran Cory Mills met with the families of the 13 service members who tragically lost their lives on duty. During the meeting, he was informed that one of the families had to bear the financial burden of moving the body of their loved one. According to Mills, Gee's family was faced with the daunting task of finding a staggering amount of $60,000 to cover the expenses required to transport her body to its final resting place.
How did Nicole Gee die?
On August 26, 2021, Gee, along with 12 other American service members, tragically lost their lives in a suicide bombing outside Kabul's Hamid Karzai International Airport. At the time of the incident, Gee and her fellow service members were deployed on a humanitarian mission to assist in the evacuation of Americans and Afghan refugees seeking refuge from the Taliban as the 20-year-long Afghan war was coming to an end.
Their mission was crucial in helping those trying to escape the volatile situation in Afghanistan, but it also put them in harm's way, resulting in the devastating loss of lives. Gee's name and face gained widespread recognition when a touching photo of her cradling an Afghan baby in her arms went viral on the internet. She had captioned it, "I love my job."
'This is an unacceptable situation'
After Gee's tragic death, her body was flown to her hometown of Roseville, California, where a ceremony was held to honor her. However, her family was informed that they would be responsible for the transportation of her remains to her final resting place at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. Fortunately, a nonprofit organization, Honoring Our Fallen, dedicated to supporting the families of fallen American service members, stepped in and arranged for Gee's remains to be transported to Virginia using a private jet.
Republican Mills strongly advocated for the Defense Department to bear the responsibility of paying for the transportation of the bodies of those who have lost their lives while serving their countries, rather than burdening their grieving families with these costs.
He believed that honoring the sacrifice of fallen service members should include providing proper transportation arrangements without placing the financial burden on the families already coping with the immense loss. "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," he told Fox News. "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."
