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SALT LAKE CITY — A Utah household is watching and ready as their cherished one, a U.S. Navy lieutenant, sits in a Japanese jail after a medical accident killed two folks.
Lt. Ridge Alkonis was deployed to Japan and has lived there along with his spouse, Brittany Alkonis, and their three youngsters for six years.
Brittany went to Brigham Young University and has household right here in Utah. Ridge served a Latter-day Saint mission in Japan, which simply provides another layer to why this has been so devastating for him and his household.
“There’s a lot of people that we love in that country, that we love dearly, and when all this is said and done, we’ll never see them again,” Brittany mentioned.
About a 12 months in the past, the household hiked Mt. Fuji in Japan and, on the best way house, Ridge handed out on the wheel, crashing right into a parked automobile and killing two Japanese folks.
Ridge was investigated by the U.S. Navy, and so they concluded it was a medical emergency that induced the accident. However, he was placed on trial in Japan and sentenced to 3 years in jail.
“There’s a lot of things we need to heal from. There’s the crash itself was traumatic; it was scary,” Brittany defined. “What we have gone through with the Navy has led to a lot of trauma. You know, my No. 1 focus right now is getting my husband reunited with his children.”
Brittany now fights for her husband day by day in Washington D.C., the place each Utah Sens. Mike Lee and Mitt Romney have joined their trigger, pushing for the discharge of a U.S. service member.
“It’s the U.S.’s job to make sure that when they send their service members to Japan, that they’re adequately protected and there’s someone there to stand up for their rights,” she mentioned.
And different members of the family are doing what they will to assist Ridge.
“We wish he was free, and we’re hoping for it, and we’re doing everything we can to get him free,” mentioned Wendy and Jerry Houck, grandparents of Brittany.
“They’re all amazing. They’re just the last people in the world that deserve something like this to happen to them,” added Ryan Bowcutt, Brittany’s brother.
Brittany is attempting to work with the Department of Defense and others to get her husband house. She’s making efforts to satisfy with President Joe Biden in hopes that he may help.
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Erin CoxErin Cox is an Emmy sward-winning particular initiatives reporter for KSL-TV.