by Robert F. Croskery, Lieutenant Colonel (Ret.) US Army

Kamala Harris picked her perfect match in Tim Walz: He let Minneapolis burn; and she raised money to bail out the arsonists.

Meanwhile, Walz has spent years touting his “war record” only recently claiming that his “poor grammar”  caused him to claim that he “carried weapons of war in war”. Now:  that claim is a whopper.  There is nothing wrong with the structure, order, subject-verb agreement, or sentax of the sentence “I carried weapons of war in war”.  Its problem is that it is a lie.  Walz never deployed to war. Oh, he could have.  In fact, he promised he would.  He told his Brigade Command Sergeant Major that he was deploying with his troops, when he knew that deployment was coming, many months in advance of the actual order.

Now: for the civilians reading this, here is a quick primer for background, subject to exceptions but generally true.  There are three general categories of people in the Army:  Warrant Officers, Commissioned Officers, and troops (who may be promoted to Non-Commissioned Officers (NCOs), all of whom (except Corporals, the lowest NCO rank) have the term Sergeant in their title.  Warrant Officers are rare, highly respected technical experts, graded WO 1-4, whose pay matches the first four ranks of commissioned officers.  Commissioned officers have company grades (lieutenants and captains) and run platoons and companies  (or batteries, in Artillery).  There are the field grades, majors and colonels, who run battalions and brigades (generally 700-2500 troops). Finally there are the general officer grades (rare) who run divisions, command Army Posts, and are in charge of major commands throughout the world. NCOs deserve great credit for being the “backbone” of the Army. 

And the very pinnacle of the NCO ranks is the Command Sergeant Major, also known as an E-9.  To have that “Command” appended to the front of the title, a Sergeant Major (E-9) must also be the senior enlisted counselor to a commander of an Army unit.  Now:  Tim Walz did not retire as an E-9.  For months he was the Acting Command Sergeant Major in a Minnesota National Guard Unit, the 1-125th Field Artillery Battalion.  (I have not yet mentioned the US Army Reserves and the National Guard. Both share the fact that they train one weekend a month and two weeks a summer, and are subject to call-up in times of emergency to DEPLOY, or be activated for several months up to a year. The main difference is that the National Guard is subject to control by the governor of a state. A retirement from the reserves or national guard may take place in 20 years, but usually is less than four years of actual active duty.  Reserve retirements start drawing checks at 60 years, and persons who have retired but are not getting checks are known as “gray area” retirees.)  Now you know more than most civilians (and many of those pompous newscasters spouting nonsense), so let’s talk about Tim Walz. 

Tim Walz deployed to Vicenza Italy on August 3, 2003, and was on duty there for about eight months. Hence the title of this article:  the Tim Walz and the Great War against Meatballs. Vicenza is the center of gold jewelry production and a US Army base. There are also many fabulous Italian restaurants, making one wonder if Command Sergeant Major (CSM) Walz declared war on unusually tough meatballs, attacking savagely with “weapons of war”, a knife and fork.  Well, a knife can be a weapon of war, you know. We Infantry Officers (Infantry was my first assignment) generally call such knives ”bayonets”.  

In any case, Walz never got close to the Taliban, and his biggest fight (later, as Governor) turned out to be arranging for Tampons to be in boys’ bathrooms. He won. Common sense lost. He did earn his nickname, “Tampon Tim”, from that famous conflict.  But I digress.

Eventually, around April, 2004, his unit returned from the deployment to Italy. To be fair, the deployment technically was “in support of” Afghanistan.  But it would be a real whopper to call yourself an “Enduring Freedom Veteran” when you got no closer than about 3300 miles away, roughly 500 miles more than the distance from Los Angeles to New York City. Enduring Freedom veterans were in Afghanistan battling the Taliban, not in Vicenza, Italy battling pasta.  Yet here is a picture of Tim Walz, proudly holding up a sign declaring he is an “Enduring Freedom” veteran.  That is kind of like me claiming I “played football for the Cincinnati Bengals” when I actually tried out for the practice squad—and got cut.  (I do root for the Bengals.  I have had some good times, and a whole lot of bad ones. But hope springs eternal.)

Tim Walz learned (as did the rest of the leadership elements) that the unit would deploy to Iraq the following year.  Why does the leadership learn well in advance of the actual order? Because there are a lot of preparations that need to be made before the order comes down.  (In March, 2005, a Walz campaign ad spoke of a “possible” deployment to a war zone. It was more than possible: it was a certainty, barring an unforeseen change, and did happen—just not with Tim Walz).

Four senior leaders from Tim Walz’ unit all agree: 1) when Tim Walz chose to run for congress (spring 2005) he knew his unit was scheduled to deploy because he had received a sen ior leader’s warning order in Fall 2004  2) in numerous meetings subsequently, he assured all he would be deploying with his unit; 3) he was under a stop-loss that should have stopped him from deploying, but 4) jumped the chain of command to get his 4187 (retirement approval)  signed by someone unaware of his promises. 5) troops in his unit died in Iraq; 6) even his early campaign ads said he might be campaigning from Iraq.

But don’t take it from me. Hear for yourself, from the Senior NCOs that were there.

https://youtu.be/qY89NZ2sRg0?si=9aIeXULMVSWnEkEb 

Eventually, Tampon Tim got his retirement approved —weeks before the official deployment order– by jumping the chain of command.  What he did next was even worse. In addition to the aforementioned claim that he carried “weapons of war in war”,  he claimed, at least implicitly, that he retired as a Command Sergeant Major.  Want proof?  Look at the next picture, showing the coin he commissioned as a Congressman, That arrow at top left points to the emblem of a Command Sergeant Major.  When he commissioned the coin, he was NOT a Command Sergeant Major.  He retired as an E-8 Master Sergeant, a respectable rank but not one that allowed him to make that claim. 

I will finish by quoting two senior NCOs who knew him well and had him pegged, Thomas Behrends and Paul Herr, both ACTUAL Command Sergeants Major. What follows is their statement:

“Tim Walz has embellished and selectively omitted facts and circumstances of his military career for years.

We, retired Command Sergeants Major of the Minnesota National Guard, feel it is our duty and responsibility to bring forth the truth as we know it concerning his service record.

So, we have put together a timeline of his service post 9/11. To the best of our knowledge, this information is completely true, having been verified by all those who served in positions with first hand knowledge of the facts and circumstances of his service and departure from the Minnesota National Guard.

Many of the dates and time frames are from his official discharge document and the reduction order reducing him to Master Sergeant.
…

The bottom line in all of this is gut wrenching and sad to explain. When the nation called, he [Tim Walz] quit. He failed to complete the United States Army Sergeants Major Academy. He failed to serve for two years following completion of the academy, [from] which he dropped out.
He failed to serve two years after the conditional promotion to Command Sergeant Major. He failed to fulfill the full six years of the enlistment he signed on September 18th, 2001.

He failed his country. He failed his state. He failed the Minnesota Army National Guard, the 1-125th Field Artillery Battalion, and his fellow Soldiers. And he failed to lead by example. Shameful.

Thomas Behrends
Command Sergeant Major (Retired)
Paul Herr
Command Sergeant Major (Retired)” 

Stolen Valor and dishonesty is not what we want in our political figures. And the fact that Kamala picked him, when his dishonesty is well known, confirms her poor judgment.  By all means, send Tim Walz into retirement, where he can resume his Great war on Pasta.  But keep him out of the White House.