In 1989, the Commandant of the Marine Corps, Gen. Alfred M. Gray Jr., wrote a letter to the Secretary of the Navy recommending that Lonetree's sentence be reduced from 30 to 15 years.
[7] According to Time magazine:[8] 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., suspected by his superiors of helping the Soviet KGB filch classified U.S. documents from diplomatic offices in Moscow and Vienna.
In 2001, Lonetree testified as an expert witness at the trial of former United States Army Reserve Colonel George Trofimoff, who was charged with spying for the KGB.
After remorsefully describing his own recruitment by the Soviet State, Lonetree publicly sobbed on the witness stand and apologized for his actions.