Amata joins colleague supporting Navy family’s right to benefits

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — Congresswoman Uifa’atali Amata is joining her voice with Senator Mike Lee of Utah urging the U.S. Department of Defense to fully support Navy Lieutenant Ridge Alkonis and his family and excuse his absence from duty as unavoidable in line with the applicable U.S. statute, to continue necessary pay and benefits to his wife and children in this time. 

During a speech from the Senate floor, Lee said he spoke on Nov. 29 with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin after three weeks of requests for a phone call. Lee said he asked Austin for an update on the request for an exception to policy Alkonis made in June to keep his benefits flowing when his leave runs out at the end of this month.

Without Alkonis’ pay, his wife, Brittany Alkonis, and their children, still living in Japan, would be “kicked to the curb” at Christmastime, Lee, a Republican, said during his 23-minute speech on the Navy lieutenant’s plight.

“Secretary Austin callously informed me that day that the request for the exception to policy would not be granted,” Lee said. “I asked him why. He believed it wasn’t appropriate for the department to do that.”

According to CNN, Alkonis was jailed in Japan after a court found him guilty of the negligent driving deaths of Japanese citizens in 2021. 

Alkonis reportedly admitted to Japanese officials that he was unconscious behind the wheel of a car as he drove from Mount Fuji. CNN reported that Alkonis hit an 85-year-old woman and her 54-year-old son-in-law and that both of them died in the crash.

But the lieutenant claims he was dealing with acute mountain sickness when the accident happened.

On Friday, Amata sent a letter to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, and highlighted the strong remarks made by Senator Lee on the Senate floor Thursday.

 “I bring to your attention again the matter of Lt. Ridge Alkonis,” she said in her letter to Defense Secretary Austin, “and want to align myself with the heartfelt statement Senator Mike Lee made yesterday on the Senate floor.” Congresswoman Amata has been committed to the facts of this case since the beginning, including a letter to Secretary Austin in October of 2021 requesting support for the Lieutenant, speaking on the House floor this July, and now this urgent call to preserve the family’s finances.

Senator Lee emphasized the last phrase of the following U.S. statute: A member of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Space Force, Coast Guard or National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, who is absent without leave or over leave, forfeits all pay and allowances for the period of that absence, unless it is excused as unavoidable.

 “That is exactly what the Department of Defense should do right now, is excuse as unavoidable Lieutenant Alkonis's absence,” said Senator Lee. “It seems to me that if ever there were an instance perfectly tailored for this statute, if ever there were an absence that needed to be excused as unavoidable, it is that of Lieutenant Ridge Alkonis…”

Aumua Amata thanks Senator Lee for supporting this U.S. Navy family in their time of distress, and appreciates the fact that Senator Lee’s remarks brought national level reporting and attention to the matter.

Senator Lee called the decision an obvious one, and had this to say: “This is not a way to treat those who stand in harm's way so that we can live and be safe and be free. This isn't a way to treat anyone. None of us would treat our employees that way. I don't know anyone who would. On top of everything else, it is not just the fact that they have now stated they are going to deny it; it is that they have waited so long to do so and that they still haven't had the decency to say so in public. Then, on top of all of that, they are going to have her kicked to the curb at Christmastime in a foreign land. This is just disgraceful.”

Amata concluded her letter, “I commend Senator Lee for his dogged efforts on behalf of Lt. Alkonis and his family, and I share his outrage at the possible denial of Ridge’s benefits so close to the holidays over a situation that was not under his nor his family’s control. We as a country have more humanity and heart than that. Mr. Secretary, please again review and grant the exception necessary for Lt. Alkonis and his family to continue with the service benefits he has earned. I acknowledge that these events have led to a complicated situation, but what isn’t complicated is our duty to support our servicemembers and make sure their families are taken care of. Thank you, and all of our military, for their service.”

BACKGROUND

While stationed in Japan in May 2021, Alkonis was driving home with his family and their Australian labradoodle after a visit to Mount Fuji, near Tokyo. They had gone to an area about 8,000 feet high and accessible by car. After parking, the family hiked on a mostly flat trail for a few hours, Brittany Alkonis said. On their way home at 1 p.m., Ridge Alkonis was talking to his oldest daughter as he drove.

But mid-sentence, Alkonis suddenly fell unconscious, his family said. The vehicle, going about 25 mph, veered into a parking lot and crashed into several cars that were then pushed against two pedestrians: an 85-year-old woman and her 54-year-old son-in-law. They both died. A third person, a daughter of the elderly woman, was injured. Brittany Alkonis sustained an ankle injury.

(Background information sourced from The Washington Post and CNN)