Mike Lee rips military for stopping pay for Navy officer imprisoned in Japan

Desert News ^ | Dec 22 | By Dennis Romboy

[RandFan]

Sen. Mike Lee called out Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin for cutting off the pay of Navy Lt. Ridge Alkonis while he serves a three-year prison sentence in Japan.

“Secretary Austin callously informed me that day that the request for the exception to policy would not be granted. I asked him why. He believed it wasn’t appropriate for the department to do that,” the Utah Republican said last week in a Senate floor speech, referring to a Nov. 29 phone call with the secretary.

The Department of Defense’s decision to not extend Alkonis’ pay and benefits while he serves his sentence amounts to having his wife, Brittany, and three children “kicked to the curb” at Christmas time, Lee said.

Lee has blasted the military in a string of tweets on his personal account @BasedMikeLee over the past few days.

“@SecDef, please don’t stop paying Lt. Ridge Alkonis. You shouldn’t be hanging him and his family out to dry ten days from now,” he said.

Alkonis was convicted of negligent driving in the deaths of an 85-year-old Japanese woman and her 54-year-old son-in-law on May 29, 2021, while the family was driving down Mount Fuji after a day trip.

A Japanese judge determined that Alkonis had fallen asleep at the wheel and lost control of his vehicle, which plowed into pedestrians and parked cars in a restaurant parking lot two hours from Yokosuka Naval Base, where he was serving as anti-submarine warfare officer.

But U.S. Navy investigators determined that Alkonis suffered from acute mountain sickness and lost consciousness. His wife and children said that he was not sleepy and appeared to black out. They said that once he passed out, he was unresponsive to their screams and one daughter’s kicks. He remained unconscious even during the crash itself.

[Brellium]

There's a back log of people who have earned the right to permanent residency and whose applications have yet to be processed. This is what the bill was for.

H1b's? yeah, probably.

[ViLaLuz]

Yet traitor Bowe Bergdahl kept on and was even promoted.