The flap over military service involving Republican J.D. Vance and Democrat Tim Walz marks the biggest controversy of its kind in 20 years. Two decades ago, there was intense scrutiny of John Kerry’s service in the Navy’s swift boat fleet during the Vietnam War, an issue that arose in his 2004 presidential bid. I remember it well after working on President George W. Bush’s reelection campaign that year.
Questions and accusations swirled around Kerry’s Purple Hearts and his Bronze and Silver Star medals. Much of the attention focused on whether Kerry actually deserved his decorations. The circumstances involving Kerry’s three Purple Hearts, awarded to those wounded in action against the enemy, did not result in him ever being taken off duty for medical treatment. His wounds were minor and superficial, but they were wounds nonetheless.
Bronze Stars were commonly awarded to officers in Vietnam; a highly decorated Army colonel once told me that any officer who came home alive got one. As for Kerry’s Silver Star, the third highest military award, some argued his actions did not meet the standard of gallantry required for receiving that medal.
The Swift Boat controversy of 20 years ago hurt Kerry politically, but there’s a big difference between his situation and that of Tim Walz. John Kerry received those medals, and the citations for them are of record; he did not lie to voters. Walz did.
Walz previously claimed to have retired from the Army National Guard as a command sergeant major, designated by the rank of E-9, which is false. He never completed the rigorous requirements to deserve that rank and retired as a master sergeant, an E-8. He simply lied about his rank many times and over many years.
Advancing to the rank of master sergeant is a big deal. It’s something to be proud of. But apparently, Walz wasn’t sufficiently proud of his achievement, so he lied about it in his curriculum vitae. Walz was also less proud of his deployment to Italy in 2003. Instead of just saying he was attached to a European Security Force that year, which is true, he characterized that tour of duty as supporting Operation Enduring Freedom, the mission name for the war in Afghanistan. While technically correct, an Army culinary specialist on that same deployment could similarly claim he cooked and served food to support the Afghanistan war.
As a Navy veteran who knows a lot of other veterans, I know plenty of guys who have embellished their time in service over the years. Most of it is a harmless exaggeration, a gilding of the lily done in private and of no real consequence. But it’s another story altogether when a public official seeking the vice presidency of the United States does it. It’s a deliberate attempt to deceive voters, and Walz knows this. He did it on purpose.
Whether Walz’s self-aggrandizement constitutes stolen valor is a bit thornier. The term itself dates back nearly 30 years; it’s the title of the 1998 book by B.G. Burkett and Glenna Whitley. The subtitle for that book is ‘How the Vietnam Generation Was Robbed of Its Heroes and Its History,’ and it includes a section about men who lied about serving in Vietnam and receiving combat decorations - stolen valor.
Valor describes courage or conspicuous gallantry, and I have not seen anything suggesting that Walz lied about receiving medals he did not earn. But he did turn-tail and retire from the National Guard after learning that his unit might deploy to Iraq, only to later claim he carried a weapon in war. This may be true in the sense that I also carried a weapon in war (the Cold War) by virtue of standing quarterdeck watch armed with a Colt .45 ACP, but neither Walz nor I charged the enemy while brandishing a gun, which is what Walz clearly implied.
Vance, on the other hand, told the truth about his service in the Marine Corps and has been up-front about what he did during his tour in Iraq. He has not claimed to be a combat veteran even though the fighting in Iraq was so asymmetrical that the entire theater was essentially a combat zone.
John Kerry did not lie about receiving his medals; he was awarded each of them. J.D. Vance did not lie about his service in the Marines; he deployed to Iraq during wartime. Tim Walz did lie often. I cannot say whether it constitutes stolen ‘valor,’ but it’s an insult to those who served in combat and a slap in the face to every enlisted man and woman who actually earned their stripes, especially those with the rank of command sergeant major. Whether bums like Walz are qualified to reside at the U.S. Naval Observatory next year is up to the voters.
(Note: The author served six years in the United States Navy and was a deputy assistant secretary at the Department of Veterans Affairs during the George W. Bush administration.)
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