(Congressional Agenda) – Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, running mate of the party’s presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, is now facing allegations of “stolen valor” from several former military colleagues who say he ducked out of deploying to Iraq in 2005. You know, serving in the military is to be commended whether a person is liberal or conservative, so long as they did their duty to serve our country. However, if you skip out on your duties while sworn to protect this nation and its way of life against enemies both foreign and domestic, that makes you a coward.
A report from The Western Journal has revealed that a number of liberal-leaning news networks are gushing over the governor, including Newsweek, who touted his service by saying he’s “the longest-serving military veteran to be a vice presidential nominee.”
“The 60-year-old served 24 years in the Army National Guard, where he reached the rank of command sergeant major. The Newsweek account included praise from retired Army Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling, who wrote on X that those who reach that rank ‘know what they’re doing,'” the article disclosed.
“They uphold standards. They speak their minds to all ranks (private to generals). They’re not afraid of getting bad news because they know how to fix things when they go wrong …” Hertling went on to write. “While I don’t know the details of @GovTimWalz career wearing the cloth of our country, just the fact that he volunteered to serve and wore the CSM rank tells me a lot about him.”
Some individuals who served with Walz in the armed forces have a different opinion of him and his time in the military, raising a number of questions about his actions when his unit was called up to deploy. When the governor was running for re-election as an independent in 2022, retired Command Sgt. Maj. Doug Julin was quoted by Alpha News saying that Walz “abandoned his soldiers” in 2005.
The WJ noted, “Julin, who retired from the Minnesota National Guard in 2012 with 35 years of service, described “a backdoor deal” that allowed Walz to skip his unit’s deployment to Iraq. He said Walz insisted early in 2005 that he would be going on the deployment, despite talk of running for Congress. Julin told Alpha News that Walz confirmed ‘I’m going forward’ with the deployment.”
“Then out of nowhere in June of 2005, Tom Behrends is there as the new CSM,” he recounted. “Julin said he was most upset with how it was handled because Walz didn’t come to him as brigade command sergeant major, the position he held at the time,” Alpha News added.
“He went around my authority to get out of the position. I probably would have told him, ‘No, you’re going on the deployment,’” Julin divulged during the interview.
"As soon as the shots were fired in Iraq, he turned and ran the other way and hung his hat up and quit," said Tom Behrends, a retired command sergeant major who replaced Gov. Tim Walz on a deployment to Iraq.https://t.co/WthN26TnSc
— Phil Kerpen (@kerpen) August 6, 2024
He later told Alpha News that when Walz pulled out of his deployment it “set a tone” with other troops in his unit.
“Soldiers are thinking, ‘What does he know that I don’t know?’ That’s the kind of message it sends,” he explained in the conversation with Alpha News. “I don’t know anybody that wanted to go to war then, but we went because we were tasked to do it.”
The retired military man then stated his belief that Walz “uses the military to promote himself when he abandoned his soldiers.”
“He let the soldiers down. How can you be entrusted to be the governor of Minnesota when if something is not to your liking, you quit or you serve yourself and not others?” Julin commented.
The individual who then took Walz’s place on the deployment, Tom Behrends, had an interview with KSTP-TV in 2022 where he declared that the governor was conditionally promoted to command sergeant major back in 2004.
“After a few weekend Guard drills and being notified we were going to war, he quit in May of 2005. What kind of leader does that?” Behrends remarked. “As soon as the shots were fired in Iraq, he turned and ran the other way and hung his hat up and quit.”
Tim Walz ‘embellished’ military career ‘for years,’ dropped from National Guard unit ahead of Iraq deployment https://t.co/uENnPDkFBU pic.twitter.com/WooALalHcC
— New York Post (@nypost) August 6, 2024
“It’s stolen valor is really what it is,” Behrends proclaimed during his interview.
Walz addressed the accusations his colleagues made against him during an event in 2022, telling KSTP, “I don’t know if Tom [Behrends] just disagrees with my politics or whatever, but my record speaks for itself, and my accomplishments in uniform speak for itself, and there’s many people in this crowd, too, that I served with.”
He then added, “It’s just unfortunate.”
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