Family Organizes Fundraiser to Transport Marine Remains to Arlington

During the frantic withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, a Marine was killed and her family had to pay $60,000 to transport her body from California to Arlington for burial.

Nicole Gee, 23 years old, was one of 13 service members who lost their lives in a suicide bombing at Kabul Airport in 2021, along with 170 Afghans trying to escape their country.

One of the 13 Gold Star families who lost their daughter in Afghanistan was forced to pay to ship her body back — until nonprofit stepped in to pay $60,000 to move Marine Corps Sgt Nicole Gee’s remains to Arlington National Cemeteryhttps://t.co/4YvFm2Pcs5

— Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) July 26, 2023

The terror attack on the morning of August 26, for which ISIS claimed responsibility, happened during the chaotic evacuation near the US Embassy in Kabul.

During a meeting with the families of the 13 service members killed in the line of duty, Republican lawmaker and Army veteran Cory Mills discovered that one family had to pay for the transportation of their loved one’s body.

Mills stated that to transport Marine Gee’s body to Arlington, her family had to raise an enormous $60,000. Eventually, a charitable organization covered the transportation costs.

It’s pretty sad to hear that when we lost those 13 heroes in Afghanistan… because of this useless President…

This POS administration made the family of Sgt. Nicole Gee pay the bill to transport her body to Arlington.

When this happened, a nonprofit stepped in and raised the…

— Ryan Fournier (@RyanAFournier) July 26, 2023

Gee’s body was flown to Roseville, California for a ceremony in her birthplace.

However, her family received notice that they would be responsible for transporting her body to Arlington National Cemetery, according to Florida Representative Mills.

A nonprofit organization called Honoring Our Fallen, which helps the families of fallen American service members, paid for Gee’s remains to be flown to Virginia on a private jet.

Mills’ office stated that a change to the National Defense Authorization Act allowed the Defense Department to refuse payment for body transportation.

The act states that the Secretary of Defense may grant an exemption to the family of a fallen service member for the use of commercial aviation to transport the body of someone who died in combat.

Mills argued that the Defense Department, not the families of fallen service members, should be responsible for covering the cost of body transportation.

Gee was one of two female Marines killed in the Kabul explosion nearly two years ago.

This article appeared in NewsHouse and has been published here with permission.