Pentagon prioritizes abortion subsidies over service members’ final transport.
The Defense Department’s Failure to Support a Fallen Marine’s Family
The Defense Department is facing well-deserved backlash following revelations that the family of a U.S. Marine killed during Joe Biden’s failed Afghanistan withdrawal was left to transport their loved one’s remains to her final resting place without assistance from the Pentagon.
On Tuesday, Rep. Cory Mills, R-Fla., informed Fox News the family of Marine Corps Sgt. Nicole L. Gee — who was one of 13 service members killed during the United States’ 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan — told him they were left to foot the bill for transporting Gee to Arlington National Cemetery. Christy Shamblin, Gee’s mother-in-law, further confirmed to Fox that “the Defense Department did not refuse to pay for the transport, but that [Gee] was flown to Sacramento, which was her hometown and recruiting station, where services were held.”
“Shamblin’s son, who was Gee’s Husband, told her that the cost to transport the Marine’s body to Arlington National Cemetery after the services in California would be $60,000,” the report reads. The nonprofit known as Honoring Our Fallen ultimately stepped up where the Pentagon fell short, attaining a private flight for Gee’s body to Arlington.
According to Mills’ office, an amendment attached to last year’s National Defense Authorization Act “no longer require[s]” the Pentagon “to pay for the transport of fallen service members’ bodies for multiple legs.”
While the Defense Department may not be willing to fully foot the bill for Gold Star families to lay their loved one’s to rest, the agency is seemingly content with subsidizing its female service members’ travel costs to receive abortions. As The Federalist’s Jordan Boyd previously reported, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin “announced in February that the taxpayer-funded Pentagon would grant up to three weeks of paid time off and travel for U.S. military members and their family members to obtain abortions.”
When asked about the subject during a White House press briefing last week, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby defended the barbaric policy, claiming military leaders have a “foundational sacred obligation” to ensure female service members are able to kill their unborn children. Kirby also baselessly asserted that failure to uphold such a policy would harm military readiness and lead to retention issues.
Increased scrutiny over the Pentagon’s subsidizing of baby-killing in recent weeks is in large part due to Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., who since March has been using his power to block personnel moves by the U.S. military requiring Senate confirmation in protest of the policy. Predictably, Democrats and establishment Republicans have united in their condemnation of Tuberville.
On Wednesday, for instance, a group of senators led by Rhode Island Democrat Jack Reed took to the Senate floor to accuse Tuberville of treating military nominees as “political pawns,” despite it being their party that’s using the U.S. military to conduct a left-wing social experiment.
“The Senator from Alabama has achieved something that Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin could have only dreamed of. Our military and our nation are weakened by his actions,” Reed said while ignoring the detrimental effects the Biden Pentagon’s embrace of DEI ideology has had on military recruitment.
[[READ: It’s Joe Biden, Not Tommy Tuberville, Who Brought The ‘Culture War’ To The Military]Senate Democrats have even used the Armed Services Committee’s recent confirmation hearing for Gen. Charles Q. Brown — Biden’s nominee for Joint Chiefs of Staff chair — to go after Tuberville. During the hearing, Sen. Jackie Rosen, D-Nev., took her asinine criticisms of Tuberville a step further, indirectly accusing the Alabama Republican of partaking in an “extreme, anti-choice agenda.”
Tuberville has since indicated he will continue his hold on nominees going into the Senate’s five-week August recess, according to The Hill.
Shawn Fleetwood is a staff writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He previously served as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood
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