Clayton J. Lonetree
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Clayton J. Lonetree is a Native American who served 9 years in prison for espionage.
During the early 1980s, Lonetree was a United States Marine stationed at the United States Embassy in Moscow, USSR. Purportedly, he is the first Marine ever court-martialed for spying.
Tried in Quantico, Va, he was convicted of espionage in 1987, for passing secrets to the Soviets. He initially received a 30 year sentence, which eventually was reduced to 15 years. He served 9 years at the United States Disciplinary Barracks. He was released in 1996.
An excerpt from Time magazine on January 26, 1987 reads:
Marine Sergeant Clayton Lonetree, 25, was so highly regarded at his job as security guard at the U.S. embassy in Moscow that in November 1985 he was detached for special duty at the Reagan-Gorbachev summit in Geneva. Last week Lonetree sat in a brig at the Marine base at Quantico, Virginia, suspected by his superiors of helping the Soviet KGB filch classified U.S. documents from diplomatic offices in Moscow and Vienna. Lonetree, authorities said, had an affair with a female KGB agent who was reportedly working as a translator at the embassy.
The harsh sentence was given in light of serious security breaches at the embassy which later were found to have been the result of the Aldrich Ames case.
