Walz Hit with Accusations of Stolen Valor

This week, Kamala Harris announced that she was adding Minnesota Governor Tim Walz to her ticket as her VP.

This, in my opinion, was a huge mistake.

Shapiro could have delivered at least two states to Harris, but she was apparently afraid of upsetting the far left in the party, so she went with the governor of a state that would easily pacify the extremists in her party.

It’s A Problem

There are several attack points for Walz that the GOP can use against him, most notably how he allowed protesters to destroy cities during the George Floyd rioting.

He is also a socialist, but there is another major issue.

That being the allegations of stolen valor being levied against Walz for allegedly giving himself a higher rank than he held.

Walz was in the Minnesota National Guard for more than two decades, and he claims he retired as a Command Sergeant Major from the 1-125th Field Artillery Battalion in 2005.

However, according to the Minnesota National Guard’s State Public Affairs Officer, Army Lt. Col. Kristen Augé, he retired as a Master Sergeant, a rather significant difference.

A sergeant major is an E-8, whereas a command sergeant major is an E-9, just one rank away from the highest rank possible, which would be Sergeant Major of the Army.

The lack of rank was explained in an article by two retired Army Command Sergeant Majors, Thomas Behrends and Paul Herr, who stated that in 2004, Walz was “conditionally promoted” to Command Sergeant Major, but it was later nullified.

The report stated, “On September 17th, 2004 he was conditionally promoted to Command Sergeant Major. The conditions had been outlined to him when he was counseled and he signed the Statement of Agreement and Certification.

“If the conditions are not met, the promotion is null and void, like it never happened.”

According to Public Affairs, Walz never completed the requirements, so the rank was nullified.

There was more to the story, however, as Walz reportedly quit the reserves when he found out his unit was going to be deployed to Iraq.

They go on to say, “On May 16th, 2005 he quit, leaving the 1-125th Field Artillery Battalion and its Soldiers hanging; without its senior Non-Commissioned Officer, as the battalion prepared for war. His excuse to other leaders was that he needed to retire in order to run for congress.

“Which is false, according to a Department of Defense Directive, he could have run and requested permission from the Secretary of Defense before entering active duty; as many reservists have.

“If he had retired normally and respectfully, you would think he would have ensured his retirement documents were correctly filled out and signed, and that he would have ensured he was reduced to Master Sergeant for dropping out of the academy.

“Instead he waited for the paperwork to catch up to him. His official retirement document states, SOLDIER NOT AVAILABLE FOR SIGNATURE.”

They further explained that on September 10, 2005, his rank was formally reduced back to Master Sergeant, also hinting that he was a coward for the way he dropped out of the service.

Behrends added, “The public needs to know how pathetic his leadership was as a National Guardsman.

“He abandoned us. What the hell kind of leader does that? As soon as the shots were fired in Iraq, he turned and ran the other way and hung his hat up and quit.”

Ironically, Kamala Harris had touted his service in her announcement, but it turns out that when it truly came time for him to serve, he turned tail and ran.