Walz apparently fudged details of service in Army National Guard, prompting accusations of 'stolen valor'

Tim Walz, the far-left Democrat governor of Minnesota who was just selected to be border czar Kamala Harris' running mate in 2024, apparently misrepresented details regarding his re-enlistment in the Army National Guard, prompting at least one of his former colleagues in Southern Minnesota’s First Battalion-125th Field Artillery to accuse him of engaging in "stolen valor."

Now 60, Walz joined the Army National Guard more than 40 years ago, when he was 17 years old. He then put in 20 years of service and retired.

'What the hell kind of leadership is that?'

Shortly after his retirement, the terrorist attacks of September 11 happened, and Walz re-enlisted just weeks later. In April 2005, he was promoted to the rank of command sergeant major before retiring again the following month and launching an ultimately successful campaign for Congress.

That's when aspects of his story become dicey.

For one thing, sometime in early 2005, Walz and other members of his battalion received word that they would be deployed to Iraq soon. Walz, the highest noncommissioned officer in the unit, then abruptly retired in May, leaving the unit without a designated leader.

Thomas Behrends, a former member of Walz's unit and now a retired command sergeant major of the Minnesota National Guard, said he stepped in to take Walz's place and eventually spent nearly two years fighting in Iraq while Walz stayed home and campaigned.

"I was like well, for Pete’s sake, if this guy quits, if I say I’m not going to do it, I mean, what the hell kind of leadership is that?" Behrends told Alpha News back in 2022. "If a company would say we’re going to deploy to Iraq and the foreman says, 'I’m not going,' what does that say to the 500 that work in that factory?"

Another problem with Walz's retirement in May 2005 is that it falls several months short of a four-year enlistment and more than two full years short of a six-year enlistment.

Yet according to Alpha News, which ostensibly viewed Walz’s Report of Separation and Military Service form, Walz initially pledged to serve six years when he re-enlisted in September 2001, meaning his contract with the Army National Guard would not be fulfilled until September 2007.

In apparent contravention to that document, Walz insisted that when he retired in 2005, he had put in four years as promised.

"After completing 20 years of service in 2001, I re-enlisted to serve our country for an additional four years following Sept. 11 and retired the year before my battalion was deployed to Iraq in order to run for Congress," Walz wrote in the Winona Daily News in 2006.

'Walz lied in his campaign literature that he retired as a command sergeant major. Not true.'

Furthermore, Walz also seems to have misrepresented the rank he held at his retirement. He technically received a promotion to command sergeant major a few weeks before he retired and has previously boasted on campaign websites that he retired with that rank, according to screenshots shared by Alpha News.

"It kind of just sat there, you know, when he was a congressman. He bragged that he was a retired command sergeant major and the highest-ranking person ever in the House," Behrends said.

Yet Walz never completed the training or the requisite coursework for a command sergeant major at the U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy, and his discharge documents were later amended to say that he retired with the rank of master sergeant, not command sergeant major.

While officials with the National Guard told Alpha News that Walz could use the title of command sergeant major, he could not say he retired with it.

"Walz lied in his campaign literature that he retired as a command sergeant major. Not true," said Tony Wenzel, a retired platoon sergeant for the Minnesota Army National Guard.

"Tim Walz was reduced in rank to master sergeant and that is what he will receive retirement benefits for."

Behrends went even further. "It’s stolen valor is really what it is," he insisted. "I don’t know of anybody else that’s done what he’s done."

Finally, despite decades with the National Guard, Walz insulted many of his fellow guardsmen and demeaned them as mere teenage "cooks" after Minneapolis Democrat Mayor Jacob Frey requested that Walz, who had since been elected governor, send along the National Guard to help quell the violent BLM riots of 2020.

"I don’t think the mayor knew what he was asking for," Walz said in August 2020. "I think the mayor said, 'I request the National Guard, whew, this is great. We’re going to have massively trained troops.' No. You’re going to have 19-year-olds who are cooks."

The rioters ultimately burned down a police precinct and caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damage citywide.

"If he would have went to Iraq, he’d still be hiding under his desk over there because that’s just, you know, just the cowardice that I see portrayed with him," Behrends said of Walz.

For years, Behrends, Wenzel, and others who served in the Minnesota Army National Guard say they have tried to correct the record regarding Walz's service so that voters aren't misled.

"I could never vote for Tim Walz as our governor, when he abandoned his fellow soldiers like he did," Wenzel stated in 2018.

When asked for comment, a spokesperson for Walz told Alpha News, "Normally this type of partisan political attack only comes from one who’s never worn a uniform."

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