2024 Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris’ vice president pick, Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN), embellished and excluded crucial facts about his military career.
In a letter from retired Command Sergeant Major Thomas Behrends and retired Command Sergeant Major Paul Herr, Walz lied about how long he served in the National Guard despite signing up for another deployment but then quitting early.
According to Walz, he reenlisted in the military to serve an additional four years in the National Guard following the September 11 terror attacks, adding that he retired the year before his battalion was deployed to Iraq so that he could run for Congress.
However, that is untrue.
Instead, he reenlisted for an additional six years and quietly retired a year before his battalion was deployed to Iraq.
More from Behrends and Herr's letter below:
Even if he had re-enlisted for four years following Sept.11, his retirement date would have been September 18th, 2005. Why then did he "retire" on May 16th, 2005, before his supposed four-year enlistment was up? And he makes it sound like he "retired" a year before his battalion deployed to Iraq; when in reality he knew when he "retired" that the battalion would be deployed to Iraq.
The bottom line in all of this is gut wrenching and sad to explain. When the nation called, he quit. He failed to complete the United States Army Sergeants Major Academy. He failed to serve for two years following completion of the academy, which he dropped out of. 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.
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The letter criticized Walz for abandoning fellow soldiers when they needed a leader the most. The most disturbing part is that Harris’ running mate was promoted to Command Sergeant Major in less than eight months and then quit before his duties were met. He was then reduced to Master Sergeant for retirement and served at that rank. However, Walz never qualified for that rank but still reaps its retirement benefits.
On the contrary, Republican vice president nominee JD Vance (R-OH) served in the Marines for four years as a combat correspondent. He deployed to Iraq with the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing, making him the first veteran to appear on a presidential ballot since John McCain in 2008.
Former Marine Corps special operations team leader Elliot Ackerman said the U.S. needs a leader who has served the country, can make tough decisions, and has experienced life on the battlefield.
Iraq War veteran and the CEO of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, Allison Jaslow, suggested that the idea of a Marine on the ballot alone could appeal to Americans and encourage them to vote for Vance.
Jaslow pointed out that voting for a deployed service member who put their lives on the line shows they are willing to defend the Americans at home.
"The idea of war or what it takes to defend ourselves from terrorism is all too often an abstract concept that people want to intellectualize, when in reality, it’s something that impacts real human lives ... in ways that are lost on many of the American people in real-time today,” Jaslow said. “Having a veteran serve in elected office would mean that the men and women whose lives are on the line to defend what we have here at home would be more top of mind than they otherwise would be.”
Vance criticized Walz for misleading the country about his military career, calling it "shameful" for the governor to have made a promise to his unit that he would follow through on the deployment and drop out instead right before the troops were slated to leave.
"As a Marine who served his country in uniform when the United States Marine Corps, when the United States of America asked me to go to Iraq to serve my country, I did it. I did what they asked me to do, and I did it honorably," Vance said. "When Tim Walz was asked by his country to go to Iraq, you know what he did? He dropped out of the Army and allowed his unit to go without him, a fact that he's been criticized for aggressively by a lot of the people that he served with."
According to an Ipsos poll, nearly half of Americans believe veterans should be elected officials, with 76 percent of voters thinking veterans would make better decisions than those with prior experience in law enforcement, business, or entertainment.
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