Tim Walz has been accused by his successor in the National Guard of lying about his military rank for “political gain,” private letters have revealed.
Walz, who currently serves as governor of Minnesota, joined the National Guard after high school and served 24 years in the 1st Battalion, 125th Field Artillery Regiment, rising to the rank of command sergeant major.
The man, now 60 and Kamala Harris’s recently announced running mate, retired in 2005, months after he was warned the battalion would be deployed to Iraq.
Walz ran for Congress and was elected to office in 2006.
Private letters to Walz from his National Guard successor, Tom Behrends, in 2016 accuse the governor of lying about his rank for political gain.
Tim Walz has been accused by his successor in the National Guard of lying about his military rank for “political gain,” private letters reveal
In April 2016, Behrends wrote: “I can no longer remain silent regarding your rank.”
The letter goes on to accuse Walz of failing to meet the conditions of his promotion to Command Sergeant Major but continuing to use the title.
“It’s a very important title when you earn it,” Behrends wrote. “I hope you haven’t been using the rank for political gain, but that’s what it seems like,” he continued.
Receiving no response, Behrends wrote a follow-up letter to each committee chair he served on in Congress in October of that year.
In the follow-up, Behrends said Walz’s actions were, in a sense, “stolen valor” since he is using “the blood, sweat and tears of ‘real’ command sergeants major who performed their duties and followed through with the requirements of the rank.”
The battalion commander who led Walz’s former unit also criticized the vice presidential candidate for allegations of “stolen valor.”
Kamala Harris’ running mate has already been forced to backtrack on his claims of having “carried” weapons of war into combat during his 24 years in the Army National Guard and faced accusations of being a “coward” from soldiers’ families.
Harris has also been put in the unenviable position of facing accusations that Walz misrepresented his rank when he retired from the National Guard.
Now Lt. Col. John Kolb, the man who would take over Walz’s unit after the governor resigned in 2005, has blasted the Democrat for claiming the rank of command sergeant major and for retiring early from deployment to Iraq.
Walz, who currently serves as governor of Minnesota, joined the National Guard after high school and served 24 years in the 1st Battalion, 125th Field Artillery Regiment, rising to the rank of command sergeant major.
Private letters to Walz from his National Guard successor, Tom Behrends (pictured during an interview with Fox), from 2016 have accused the governor of lying about his rank for political gain.
Kolb wrote in a Facebook post that Walz “did not earn the rank” and added that “IIt is an affront to the NCO Corps that he continues to cling to that title.
Kolb continued: ‘By all accounts and records, he was a competent gunnery battery chief/gunnery sergeant and first sergeant. I cannot say the same for his service sitting, dressed, in the CSM (command sergeant major) chair. He did not earn the rank or successfully complete any assignment as an E9 (the highest rank for non-commissioned officers).
‘It is an affront to the Corps of Non-Commissioned Officers that he continues to cling to that title.
“I can sit in the cockpit of an airplane, but that doesn’t make me a pilot. Likewise, when the demands of service and leadership at the highest level became real, he chose another path.”