The Army has suspended a retired three-star general from his lucrative consulting job after he appeared to mock first lady Jill Biden in a tweet.
Retired Lt. Gen. Gary Volesky, a former commander of the 101st Airborne Division, was sacked after responding to a tweet from Mrs. Biden about the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and return abortion oversight to the states.
“For nearly 50 years, women have had the right to make our own decisions about our bodies. Today, that right was stolen from us,” Mrs. Biden tweeted.
“Glad to see you finally know what a woman is,” Mr. Volesky responded in a tweet that has since been deleted.
According to media reports, an Army spokesperson on Saturday said Lt. Gen. Theodore Martin, commanding general of the Combined Arms Center at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, suspended Mr. Volesky from his consulting job that reportedly paid him $92 per hour.
An investigation will determine whether Mr. Volesky violated Army decorum rules with his tweet, according to USA Today, which first reported the suspension.
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The rules, however, are not so cut-and-dried. Mr. Volesky is retired from the Army and doesn’t command any troops, and Mrs. Biden is not part of the military’s chain of command.
Mr. Volesky served in the Gulf War, the war in Iraq and the war in Afghanistan. He was awarded a Silver Star — the nation’s third-highest combat award for valor — for his actions in the 2004 siege of Sadr City, an attempt by U.S. and Iraqi government troops to destroy the main power base of insurgent forces in Baghdad.