HONOLULU — Congresswoman and former presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard has left the Hawaii Army National Guard for a new assignment with a California-based Army Reserve unit, military officials said.
HONOLULU — Congresswoman and former presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard has left the Hawaii Army National Guard for a new assignment with a California-based Army Reserve unit, military officials said.
Gabbard’s new part-time assignment as an Army Reserve civil affairs officer follows 17 years with the Hawaii National Guard, The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported Sunday.
The Hawaii National Guard confirmed Gabbard, who holds the rank of major, made the switch in June, but the transfer to an out-of-state unit was not formally announced, even to the state’s National Guard personnel.
Gabbard’s new posting, the 351st Civil Affairs Command, is based in Mountain View, California, but has subordinate units in other Western states.
The Army Reserve supports the active-duty Army and has more commands and promotion opportunities. Like the National Guard, most Army reservists serve part-time.
“The House in Congress isn’t scheduled to be back in session til Nov. 16th so I’m taking advantage of the time to do some great Army Civil Affairs training! I’m grateful to be able to do it in Hawaii,” the 39-year-old Democrat said in a social media message posted Thursday.
Gabbard’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Gabbard served in the Hawaii Legislature and Honolulu City Council before being elected to the U.S. House in 2012.
She has said a deployment to Iraq and Kuwait with the Hawaii Guard greatly shaped her outlook.
She received a Combat Medical Badge in 2005 for “participation in combat operations under enemy hostile fire in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom III,” the Hawaii National Guard said.
U.S. Representative Tulsi Gabbard has done an excellent job for us. She’s a voice of calm and reason in a tumultuous time. As millions are polarizing to the right and left extremes, Tulsi remains a moderate who can speak to both factions.
This is the leadership we need in America today. We’re oscillating back & forth from right to left; and generally landing on gridlock. We must seek leaders who can reach across both isles if we are to move forward. A divided nation will fall and our divisions now are wider than the Waimea canyon.
Thank you, Tulsi, and mahalo nui loa! Survey out today showed 40% approval for our Congresswoman. Interesting, as this is about the size of the middle today. Each group of extreme right and left carries about 30% of the population. Extremes pull us apart. The middle brings us back together.
Unite if we want to be successful. Tulsi is a uniting and aloha energy.
…wider than the Grand Canyon!
Maybe even the Great African Rift.
Mahalo Tulsi, for displaying what courage and ethics are all about to the usual suspects.. And much luck to you in the future, although your success so far has very little to do with “luck”.
Tulsi wants a job on Fox News
Hopefully Humans will realize one day that the earth is but an island in a great sea…. Much luck to Gabbi.. who’s roots run deep in aloha. Samoa and Hawaii