By Brooke Mallory, OAN Staff
Wednesday, August 7, 2024 2:58 PM
The Minnesota National Guard is disputing Gov. Tim Walz’s military record, alleging the Democratic vice presidential nominee did not hold the rank of master sergeant when he retired, as he claimed. Newsweek report.
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According to the Minnesota State’s official website, Governor Walz’s official biography states that “Sergeant Major Walz retired from the 1-125th Field Artillery Battalion in 2005.” But in a statement Wednesday, Lt. Col. Kristen Auger, state spokesperson for the Minnesota National Guard, said the governor retired as a sergeant major “because he did not complete additional coursework at the U.S. Army Sergeant Major Academy.”
According to Army standards, soldiers who fail to complete the required courses are automatically demoted.
The controversy over Walz’s military service, which began during his first run for governor in 2018, has come under scrutiny again, this time by critics of Vice President Kamala Harris, who named Walz as the Democratic vice presidential nominee in November’s election earlier this week.
The widely held notion of stolen heroism means lying about the extent of one’s military experience. Sergeant Tom Berens, who succeeded Waltz and ultimately deployed to Iraq in his place, argued that it was a true reflection of his moral character and character, saying, “The public needs to know how dismal his leadership of the National Guard was.”
Paul Hare, another retired Minnesota National Guard sergeant major, similarly criticized Waltz for abandoning his battalion just before it was deployed to Iraq.
Waltz was selected to command the 1-125th Field Artillery Battalion as a master sergeant in 2004 and was conditionally promoted to that rank by September of that year, according to letters shared by Berens and Hare on Facebook.
But Waltz’s unit received orders to prepare for active duty deployment to Iraq in early 2005. Waltz then abruptly “left the 1-125th Field Artillery Battalion and its Soldiers in limbo as the battalion prepared for war, resigning without a senior NCO leader,” the letter said.
“When your country calls, you should rush into battle, not the other way around,” Berens said. New York Post “He ran away. It’s sad. He had an opportunity to serve his country and he told America, ‘Fuck you.’ I will not choose him as my running mate.”
“He abandoned us. What kind of leader can do that? As soon as the shooting started in Iraq, he turned around and ran, hung up his hat and quit,” Berens added.
Rep. Jack Bergman, a Republican from Michigan who rose to the rank of Marine lieutenant colonel, told reporters on Wednesday that he plans to further investigate Walz’s time in the National Guard. Bergman is a member of the House Military Personnel Subcommittee and the Armed Services Committee.
““I’m a Marine, and when I hear gunfire, I either go, or I run from the gunfire,” Bergman said. “My staff is thoroughly reviewing the details of Mr. Waltz’s service to ensure that the portrayal he is being told about his service is accurate. And the bottom line is that if he enlisted because he couldn’t hear the gunfire, he should never have enlisted in the first place.”
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