WASHINGTON – A retired three-star general has been suspended from a $92-an-hour contract consulting the Army and is under investigation after posting a tweet that mocked first lady Jill Biden on a hot-button social issue, according to the Army.
Retired Lt. Gen. Gary Volesky, the Army’s former top spokesman and recipient of the Silver Star for gallantry in Iraq, had been a “senior mentor,” advising senior military officers, staff and students participating in war games and other military activities. Lt. Gen. Theodore Martin, commander of the Combined Arms Center, suspended Volesky pending the outcome of the inquiry, Cynthia Smith, an Army spokeswoman, told USA TODAY.
Volesky was responding to a First Lady Jill Biden’s comments on SCOTUS and abortion rights.
“For nearly 50 years, women have had the right to make our own decisions about our bodies,” the Democratic first lady’s statement said about the ruling, which in effect outlawed abortions in more than half the country. “Today, that right was stolen from us.”
A Twitter account under Volesky’s name replied: “Glad to see you finally know what a woman is.”
On Saturday, an army spokesperson said the commander of the military branch’s combined arms center, Lt Gen Theodore Martin, had suspended Volesky from his consultancy pending an investigation into whether the tweet in question violated decorum rules for retired officers.
In Other Retired Generals Behaving Badly News:
Army seeking to recoup nearly $40,000 from Michael Flynn for foreign payments
The Army is seeking to recoup nearly $40,000 from former President Donald Trump’s first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, accusing the retired three-star general of violating the Emoluments Clause by accepting foreign payments without disclosing them.
The Army wrote to Flynn in May saying it would seek to recoup $38,557 from him for payments he received in 2015 related to RT, when Flynn was paid through a speaker’s fee to travel to Russia and to speak at a conference hosted by the Russian state media organization. At the conference, Flynn was seated next to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
