MN Governor Tim Walz served in the National Guard for 24 years, even coming back for 9/11. It’s how he describes his retirement that’s the problem. He briefly held the position of command sargeant major but it was conditional. There were stipulations that needed to be done that were never done, one of which was serving a specified amount of time. When he retired his rank reverted back to an E8.
Walz needs to watch it
The biography on his website states, “After 24 years in the Army National Guard, Command Sergeant Major Walz retired from the 1-125th Field Artillery Battalion in 2005.” The Minnesota National Guard confirmed that he retired as a master sargeant in 2005 “for benefit purposes because he did not complete additional coursework at the U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy.”
His biography on Kamala Harris’ campaign website at first said that he was a “retired command sergeant major.” Now it says he “served as a command sergeant major”.
In a 2018 interview for governor he was a “retired sargeant major”. In an address to troops in 2009 he was a “retired command sargeant major”.
Words matter
Walz wanted to profit from the higher command after retiring. He said he carried weapons “in war” but he was never in a war.
A video in which he supports limits to the Second Amendment said, “We can make sure that those weapons of war – that I carried in war – are the only place where those weapons are at.” He specialized in artillery but never carried those weapons in combat.
Tom Foreman of CNN even called him out on that.
“Walz did make a comment, speaking to a group — he’s done it a couple of times, where he has used language that suggested that he carried weapons in a fighting situation. There is a difference between being in a combat area, being involved in a time of war, and actually being in a position where people are shooting at you. There is no evidence that at any time Governor Walz was in the position of being shot at, and some of his language could easily be seen to suggest that he was. So that is absolutely false when he said that about gun rights out there.”
Protested Bush
In 2004 he organized a protest against George W. Bush. He was seen holding a sign that read “Enduring Freedom Veterans for Kerry.” Operation Enduring Freedom references the war in Afghanistan.
But he never went to Afghanistan. He was sent to Norway and Italy to support that war. Referencing Operation Enduring Freedom makes people think he was in that war when he wasn’t.
In 2009 an Iraq war veteran spotted this picture and mentioned it to Walz staffers, thinking he might have violated the Stolen Valor law. When he ran for Congress in 2006 he announced he was a veteran of OEF, implying he served in Afghanistan.
