WASHINGTON — A retired three-star general has been suspended on a $92-an-hour contract with the military and is under investigation after posting a tweet mocking First Lady Jill Biden over a hot-button social issue, according to the military.
Retired Lieutenant General Gary Volesky, the former top military spokesman and recipient of the Silver Star for gallantry in Iraq, had been a “senior mentor,” advising senior military officers, staff and students who participated in war games and other military activities. Lieutenant General Theodore Martin, commander of the Combined Arms Center, has suspended Volesky pending the outcome of the investigation, Cynthia Smith, an army spokeswoman, told USA TODAY.
on June 24, the first lady tweeted condemning the Supreme Court’s decision to override the constitutional right to abortion, which read in part: “For nearly 50 years, women have had the right to make our own decisions about our bodies. Today, that right has been stolen.”
Volesky replied with his own tweet: “Glad to see you finally know what a woman is”.
His response represents a violation of decency for a retired military officer and a foray into partisan politics by a Pentagon payroll official, who is supposed to avoid such things, experts say. His tweet has been deleted.
Volesky’s post appeared to echo a March exchange between Senator Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and Judge Ketanji Jackson Brown during the judge’s hearing, in which Blackburn pressured the judge to give a definition. for the word ‘woman’ in the context of transgender rights.
Volesky did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for Jill Biden, Michael LaRosa, declined to comment.
It is not the first time Volesky has posted a tweet with a political undertone. In July 2021, he responded to a tweet from Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., in which she wrote, “I am honored to serve on the Jan. 6 Selected Committee. Our oath to the Constitution must be above partisan politics.”
Volesky replied, “This is all about party politics.” He apparently criticized the commission’s Jan. 6 investigation into the violent attack on the United States Capitol, in which supporters of then-President Donald Trump tried to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s election victory.
Volesky was hired under a Pentagon program as an expert with the experience and skills to bring “enlightened thinking” to the military, according to the Pentagon’s description of the program. According to the military, he was paid $50,046 for his work from November 2020 to August 2021 and $18,952 from September 2021 to June 2022.
Senior officers in uniform do everything they can to avoid the appearance of participating in politics, and civilian control of the military is fundamental to the US government. That principle is under increasing pressure.
Following the January 6, 2021† uprising, Army General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, sent an extraordinary memo to the troops reminding them of their oath to the Constitution. In 2020, Milley apologized for appearing with Trump after peaceful protesters were forcibly removed from Washington’s Lafayette Square so the president could have a photo opportunity.
Volesky’s tweets represent another rift in civil-military relations — that of recently retired senior officers taking political stances. In 2016, retired Marine General John Allen supported Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. Retired Army Lieutenant General Michael Flynn led the “lock-her-up” cheers over Clinton during that campaign; he was later fired as Trump’s national security adviser for lying to federal investigators in 2017 and has become an increasingly partisan figure.
During the Trump administration, several top retired officers, including Admiral William McRaven, the Navy SEAL who led the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, and General Stanley McChrystal, who led the war in Afghanistan, criticized Trump in harsh terms. McRaven accused Trump of “actively working to undermine every major institution in this country,” in a Washington Post op-ed.
Andrew Bacevich, a history professor emeritus at Boston University and a retired army colonel, was dismayed that Volesky would risk the military’s reputation on Twitter.
“What’s hard to understand is why he or any other retired senior officer would undermine the military’s reputation for being above politics just to score some cheap partisan points on social media,” Bacevich said.
As McRaven and McChrystal’s comments crossed the line into political commentary, Volesky’s “snark” continued, said Peter Feaver, a political science professor at Duke University and an expert in civil-military relations. Volesky’s tweet in response to the first lady’s message is not a close call, he said.
“Retired military personnel have the right to express their views and tweet what they want, but that doesn’t make it right,” Feaver said. “And the higher the retired military, the more damaging a errant tweet is to healthy civil-military relations.”
Retired senior officers can make “helpful contributions” when they weigh in on policy issues in their fields, he said.
“But when they stray from core competencies to make shrill partisan jokes, they violate the standards of their profession and make the jobs of today’s senior military leaders much more difficult,” Feaver added.
A highly decorated infantry officer, Volesky was a star in the military and nearly reached the pinnacle of duty. Key to his rise was his bravery leading a rescue mission in Iraq in 2004, during which he led an armored column under fire to retrieve soldiers and their disabled Bradley Fighting Vehicle.
Later, the military appointed him its chief spokesman, leading its office of public affairs. He took command of the army’s storied 101st Airborne Division, some of which he led to Africa in response to the 2014 Ebola outbreak.
More: Volesky led army response to Ebola
Volesky earned his third star and became commander of I Corps at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington State. That order put him overseeing more than 40,000 soldiers, including bases in Washington, Alaska and Hawaii.
After retiring, Volesky signed into the military as a “senior mentor” on a contract basis, advising officers on active duty.
The senior mentoring program flourished at the Pentagon with little scrutiny until a 2009 USA TODAY survey found that the majority of the 158 retired generals and admirals under contract also worked for defense contractors, even when they paid taxpayers more than $300 a day. hours while also collecting government pensions.
Congress instructed the Pentagon to draft rules for the mentoring program, including capping pay and requiring retired officials to file financial disclosure forms. In 2010, the Pentagon listed 355 senior mentors. In 2011, the year after the pay cap and conflict of interest safeguards came into effect, that number dropped to three.
The Pentagon has a unique authority in the federal government to hire retired senior officers like Volesky, whom it calls “Highly Qualified – Senior Mentors.” They possess “unusual, special knowledge, skills, and experience in a professional field; and a judgment that authority and status is accorded by peers or the public,” according to the Pentagon’s description of the program. They are hired “to bring enlightened thinking and innovation,” the description reads.
Senior mentors are held to a higher standard than other retired officers, Feaver said. They are needed to teach active duty officers how to navigate in a politically polarized time.
“They are hired not only for their military expertise, but also for their character and for maintaining professional standards,” he said.
The active leaders Volesky advised as a senior mentor may find it harder to do their jobs because of his tweet, said Kori Schake, a civil and military relations expert and director of foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute. Volesky is entitled to free speech as a civilian, but his status as a retired senior officer ties him to the military in the eyes of the public, she said.
“It does diminish the public’s respect for the military as an institution,” she said.
The tweet also puts the military in a difficult position, Schake said.
“It is certainly inappropriate to have someone so involved in political commentary as to mentor leaders on active duty,” she said. “On the other hand, it is difficult for the military to fire him for exercising protected political speech. He is a US citizen expressing his constitutionally protected views.”
Volesky’s tweeted response to Biden was a clear reference to legal questions about transgender rights. Blackburn, the Republican from Tennessee, had urged Jackson during her confirmation hearing.
“Can you define the word ‘woman’?” Blackburn asked, a clear reference to legal questions about transgender rights.
“I can’t. Not in this context,” Jackson replied. “I’m not a biologist.”
“The meaning of the word ‘woman’ is so unclear and controversial that you can’t give me a definition?” said Blackburn.
Feaver had some advice for military leaders, on active duty or retired, about making political commentary.
“If it feels right, don’t do it.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Army suspends retired general from contract after tweet about Jill Biden
