Firefighter’s Military-Service Discrimination Claims Partially Survive in Alaska Federal Court
A federal judge in Alaska has allowed portions of a lawsuit brought by an Anchorage firefighter/EMT alleging military-service discrimination and retaliation to move forward, while dismissing older claims as time-barred.
Chris Keen, a firefighter/EMT with the Anchorage Fire Department, sued the Municipality of Anchorage claiming he was denied promotions because of his military obligations as a member of a United States Air Force Special Warfare unit. According to the complaint, Keen’s military service required repeated leave from the fire department, and he alleged that those absences became a factor when he sought advancement within the department.
The case centers in part on a 2021 letter of counseling issued to Keen regarding work performance. Keen sought to have the letter removed from his personnel file and, in November 2021, asked his union to file a grievance, writing that the letter treated his “limited attendance at work” as a contributing factor even though “almost all of my recent absences (or historical absences) from work were for military service.” He told the union: “I consider this to [be] discriminating and harassing based on my military service.”
In a November 30, 2021 response, the union’s legal counsel advised Keen that there was “no reasonable chance of success in pursuing a grievance based on the letter of counseling” and explained that the union’s representation extended only to contractual rights under the collective bargaining agreement, not independent legal claims such as USERRA. Keen was told he could proceed independently at his own expense.
Two days later, Keen filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Labor, alleging that his military service affected promotional opportunities for positions including safety officer and senior fire captain. The Department of Labor investigated and in May 2022 advised him that it did not find evidence supporting a USERRA violation, but informed him he could seek private counsel or file suit.
Keen eventually filed suit in July 2025. The city moved to dismiss Keen’s suit. The court converted the motion into one for summary judgment. U.S. District Judge Sharon L. Gleason ruled that all Keen’s contract-based claims arising before July 17, 2022 are barred by Alaska’s three-year statute of limitations. That included claims tied to the 2021 letter of counseling. The court held that by late 2021 Keen was aware of his USERRA claims and had been expressly notified by union counsel of his right to pursue them independently.
However, the court declined to dismiss later promotion-related contract claims involving alleged denials of advancement in 2022 and 2025, including senior fire captain and battalion chief promotional processes. Although Keen did not file separate grievances for those later events, the court found factual questions remained as to whether pursuing additional grievances would have been futile after the union had already refused to act in 2021.
The court reached a similar conclusion on retaliation and whistleblower-related claims. Claims tied to 2022 promotions were dismissed under Alaska’s two-year limitations period, but claims tied to 2025 promotional decisions survived. The municipality argued that Keen’s 2021 Department of Labor complaint was too remote in time to support retaliation claims four years later, but the court found the record too limited to resolve that issue at summary judgment.
As a result, the municipality obtained dismissal of older contract, whistleblower, and state tort claims, but the case will proceed on Keen’s USERRA claims and on certain contract and retaliation claims tied to events occurring in 2025.
