Clayton J. Lonetree is a member of the Navajo Nation

Navajo Nation

The Navajo Nation is a semi-autonomous Native American-governed territory covering , occupying all of northeastern Arizona, the southeastern portion of Utah, and northwestern New Mexico...

 who served nine years in prison for espionage

Espionage

Espionage or spying involves an individual obtaining information that is considered secret or confidential without the permission of the holder of the information. Espionage is inherently clandestine, lest the legitimate holder of the information change plans or take other countermeasures once it...

. During the early 1980s, Lonetree was a Marine Corps Security Guard

Marine Corps Security Guard

The Marine Corps Embassy Security Group, formerly Marine Security Guard Battalion, and also known as Marine Security Guards or Marine Embassy Guards, are members of the Marine Corps Embassy Security Group, a battalion-sized organization of U.S...

 stationed at the Embassy of the United States in Moscow

Embassy of the United States in Moscow

The Embassy of the United States in Moscow is the diplomatic mission of the United States to the Russian Federation. It is located in the Presnensky District in the city center of Moscow. Its address is: Bolshoy Deviatinsky Pereulok No...

.

Lonetree is the first US Marine to be convicted of spying against the United States. Lonetree, who was stationed in Moscow as a guard at the US Embassy in the early 1980s, confessed in 1987 to selling documents to the Soviet Union. Lonetree was entrapped by a 25-year-old female Soviet officer named "Violetta Seina" in that year (see Honeypot). He was then blackmailed into handing over documents when he was assigned to Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

. These documents included the blueprints of the US Embassy buildings in Moscow and Vienna and the names and identities of US undercover intelligence agents in the Soviet Union. He was tried in a military court in Quantico, Virginia

Marine Corps Base Quantico

Marine Corps Base Quantico, sometimes abbreviated MCB Quantico, is a major United States Marine Corps training base located near Triangle, Virginia, covering nearly in southern Prince William County, northern Stafford County, and southeastern Fauquier County...

 and convicted of espionage on August 21, 1987.

In May 1991, Lonetree filed an appeal, asking that his conviction be overturned because he had never learned the identity of one accuser, but this was denied. He initially received a 30-year sentence with a reduction in rank

Reduction in rank

Reduction in rank may refer to two separate concepts:*In military law, a reduction in rank is a demotion in military rank as punishment for a crime or wrongdoing, imposed by a court-martial or other authority...

 from E-5 to E-1, a fine of $5,000, the loss of all military pay and allowances, and a dishonorable discharge. The commandant of the Marine Corps

Commandant of the Marine Corps

The Commandant of the Marine Corps is normally the highest ranking officer in the United States Marine Corps and is a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff...

, Gen. Alfred M. Gray, Jr.

Alfred M. Gray, Jr.

Alfred M. Gray, Jr. , is a retired United States Marine Corps general who served as the twenty-ninth Commandant of the Marine Corps from 1987-91. He retired from the Corps in 1991 after 41 years of service.-Personal:Alfred M. Gray, Jr...

, recommended to the Secretary of the Navy that Lonetree's sentence be reduced from 30 to 15 years in a letter written in 1989 that said that the effect of Private Lonetree's actions "was minimal." In addition, he said, the Marine's motivation "was not treason or greed, but rather the lovesick response of a naive, young, immature and lonely troop in a lonely and hostile environment." His sentence was reduced to 15 years, but he was released in 1996 after serving only nine years at the United States Disciplinary Barracks

United States Disciplinary Barracks

The United States Disciplinary Barracks is a military prison located on Fort Leavenworth, a United States Army post in Kansas....

.

According to Time magazine:

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, Va.

Marine Corps Base Quantico

Marine Corps Base Quantico, sometimes abbreviated MCB Quantico, is a major United States Marine Corps training base located near Triangle, Virginia, covering nearly in southern Prince William County, northern Stafford County, and southeastern Fauquier County...

, 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.

He revealed the names of CIA personnel, detailed the work habits of embassy staff, and sketched the layout of the Moscow and Vienna embassy offices. The harsh sentence was given in light of serious security breaches at the embassy, some of which later were found to have been the result of the Aldrich Ames

Aldrich Ames

Aldrich Hazen Ames is a former Central Intelligence Agency counter-intelligence officer and analyst, who, in 1994, was convicted of spying for the Soviet Union and Russia...

case.