[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 9]
[Senate]
[Pages 11967-11968]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




             TRIBUTE TO MAJOR GENERAL TIMOTHY J. LOWENBERG

 Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, today I wish to recognize Major 
General Timothy J. Lowenberg for his exemplary record of service to the 
Washington National Guard, Washington State, and the United States of 
America.
  MG Timothy J. Lowenberg will retire on July 31, 2012 after a 
distinguished career with the Washington National Guard and 44 years of 
military service to this country. General Lowenberg has been the 
Adjutant General for Washington State since September 1999 and in this 
role he has served as the commander of all Washington National Guard 
forces, Director of Washington State's Emergency Management programs, 
and Homeland Security Advisor to the Governor of Washington. Beyond 
these already extensive responsibilities, General Lowenberg is 
recognized nationally for his work on Homeland Security policy. In a 
defining mark of General Lowenberg's forward-leaning leadership, he 
established the Washington State Domestic Security Infrastructure in 
1999, prior to the events of 9/11. This collaborative effort to 
establish a Statewide system capable of responding to major disaster 
events preceded the establishment of the Department of Homeland 
Security by several years.
  While his list of titles would be a strong credit to any individual, 
an equally impressive aspect of General Lowenberg's career has been his 
ability to provide this leadership during one of the most dynamic 
periods of Washington State's history. During his tenure, General 
Lowenberg has led Washington State in the response to 53 Governor 
Emergency Proclamations, 10 Presidential Major Disaster Declarations, 
and one Presidential Emergency Declaration. Beyond the sheer volume of 
emergencies General Lowenberg has addressed during his time as Adjutant 
General, he has displayed great flexibility and a talent for adapting 
to the needs of any given situation. One of his signature 
accomplishments was working with me and others toward the establishment 
of the 2010 Olympics Security Committee and the construction of the 
2010 Olympic Coordination Center. In the years that led up to the 2010 
Vancouver Winter Olympics, General Lowenberg recognized the need for 
local, State, Federal, and international cooperation to ensure an 
effective and smooth response to the games. He managed to operate this 
committee without the benefit of a National Security

[[Page 11968]]

Special Event designation, achieving the desired outcome without the 
benefit of additional funding.
  Had General Lowenberg spent his time as Adjutant General only 
responding to emergencies and planning for disasters, he would still 
have been able to retire as one of the most accomplished Adjutant 
Generals in the country, but he also commanded the Washington National 
Guard during a time of war. Though it is easy to forget, our world 
looked quite different in 2001. The servicemembers who initially 
deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq didn't have Mine Resistant Ambush 
Protected vehicles, up-armored Humvees, or even the kind of extensive 
body armor we see today. Some National Guard members deployed to war 
zones without body armor, necessary equipment, or even vehicles. In the 
face of these hardships, General Lowenberg and the Washington National 
Guard stood fast and persevered. Over the last decade Washington Guard 
members have deployed and sacrificed alongside the Active-Duty military 
again and again, and in the words of former Secretary of Defense Robert 
Gates, the Washington National Guard and all State Guard members have 
changed from, ``a strategic reserve to an integral part of the 
operational force.''
  While these brave servicemembers were deployed, General Lowenberg 
worked with me to modernize Cold War-era benefits that no longer 
sufficiently supported the post-9/11 Guard members and their families. 
Guard members deploying in the early half of the last decade were doing 
so without the promise of adequate veterans' benefits, without 
appropriate TRICARE benefits for their families, and without the 
skilled behavioral health resources to keep pace with the toll that 
repeated deployments would eventually take. General Lowenberg pushed 
for improved Guard member access to TRICARE and VA benefits, and to 
make sure that Guard members and members of the Reserve component have 
improved access to the behavioral health specialists they need while 
they are on inactive duty or on annual training.
  When these Guard members came back from deployment, they came home to 
a country that was well intentioned but not well prepared to receive 
them. When Washington Guard members began returning from their first 
deployments to Iraq, unemployment for some units was extremely high. I 
have never accepted the premise that it is acceptable for 
servicemembers who have sacrificed so much to return home from 
deployment and struggle to find work to support their families, and 
neither has General Lowenberg. General Lowenberg fought for funding for 
the Yellow Ribbon Reintegration program and to expand efforts such as 
the Washington State Joint Services Support Directorate, J9, program to 
help more Guard members find employment. The positive impact from these 
programs helped the men and women of the Washington Guard find stable 
work and these efforts became such a success that the lessons from 
these programs have spread throughout the country. Members of the 
Washington Guard now boast an unemployment rate below the national 
average and the work that General Lowenberg put into reducing Guard 
unemployment laid the foundation for my VOW to Hire Heroes Act and 
other efforts to help veterans access secure employment, including 
overhauling the Transition Assistance program for the first time in 20 
years and making it mandatory.
  These changes to National Guard since 1999 have been historic, but 
General Lowenberg has always maintained the ability to understand what 
is important. Out of all the memories I have of General Lowenberg, the 
ones that will stay with me the longest are from the catastrophic 
flooding that hit Washington in January 2009. The Washington State 
flood of 2009 caused the biggest urban evacuation in the history of the 
State, and I cannot begin to describe the scene that I witnessed out of 
the back of a Chinook as General Lowenberg and I surveyed the damage. 
That flood broke levees, shut down Interstate 5, and compromised the 
integrity of Howard Hanson Dam. Through all of that chaos and the 
lengthy effort to move Federal funding to repair the Howard Hanson Dam, 
General Lowenberg directed relief, recovery operations, and 
preparedness efforts with an unparalleled understanding of emergency 
management that didn't ignore the effects that flood and damaged dam 
had on small communities and individuals. Under General Lowenberg, 
Washington State had the best possible leadership for these and other 
demanding situations.
  I join the people of Washington State in congratulating General 
Lowenberg on an impressive career, and I look forward to seeing what he 
will accomplish in what I know will be an active retirement.
  General Lowenberg, thank you for your service. You will be missed. 


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