NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: Former Congresswoman from Hawaii, Tulsi Gabbard, recently shared a story from two decades ago.
While campaigning for her reelection, she made the extraordinary decision to "withdraw" from her campaign, don her military uniform, and report for duty to join her battalion in Iraq.
In a candid Instagram post, the 42-year-old opened up about the decision she took in 2004 at the height of the Iraq war.
Gabbard shared her tale with a group named ‘The Veterans Project’ renowned for capturing the legacies of allied veterans through their detailed photographic essays.
The former Democrat shared a snap of her in training as she recalled the journey of leaving the reelection campaign in Hawaii to join the forces in Iraq.
Tulsi Gabbard reveals leaving reelection campaign for Iraq war
The former Congresswoman started her Instagram post by recalling the time she finished training and was on her way to campaign for the 2004 reelection.
She said, “I finished my AIT (Advanced Individual Training) in November of 2003, came back, and was campaigning for reelection in 2004. I didn't have any serious opposition, so it looked to be an easy reelection campaign.”
Gabbard remembered how her name was dropped off from the “mandatory deployment list at first."
She continued, “That summer, the Hawaii National Guard's 29th Brigade Combat Team was called up for a deployment to Iraq. I was in a headquarters medical unit and heard very quickly from my commander.”
Gabbard recalled, “He said, ‘Hey Tulsi. Good news. You don't have to deploy. You're not on the mandatory deployment roster because somebody else already filled the slot. So you get to stay home.’”
Gabbard immediately recalled standing up to the commander and expressing her disappointment in not being deployed.
She expressed, “I said, ‘No, I'm not staying home. That's crazy. There's no way that I'm going to stay back and watch all of you guys go and deploy to Iraq, while I sit here in this fancy office.’ We went back and forth, he pushed back a little bit, and I pushed back some more. He realized I wasn’t budging.”
She revealed that it all worked out as she volunteered for another job in the medical unit and withdrew from her reelection campaign without a second thought.
She further added, “They had a different job in the medical unit that needed to be filled, so I volunteered and took it. I withdrew from my reelection campaign and went to our pre-deployment training at Fort Bliss, Camp McGregor, and Dona Ana, for all the training cycles. We trained there for a few months, then deployed to Iraq for a year after that.”
Internet praises Tulsi Gabbard for putting military service ahead of her reelection campaign
Netizens were full of praise for the former Congresswoman as one said, “This is a leader. So much respect, this little show of support, courage, dedication… choosing duty over comfort. Nothing has changed since 2003, T is still that same leader.”
A second user wrote, “There’s a comment on the thread saying that you have earned the respect of your NCOs…That’s rock-solid validation!” “One of the Greatest Americans living today,” wrote another.
“You also have the respect of all your NCOs, which to me says it all,” a user said. “@tulsigabbard admire the heck out of you!”, another user praised.
