Tim Walz has been accused by his successor in the National Guard of lying about his military rank for “political gain,” according to personal letters.
Walz, who currently serves as governor of Minnesota, joined the National Guard after high school and served for 24 years in the 1st Battalion, 125th Field Artillery, rising to the rank of command sergeant major.
The now 60-year-old, who was recently announced as Kamala Harris’ running mate, retired in 2005, months after she was warned the battalion would be deployed to Iraq.
Walz decided to run for Congress and was elected in 2006.
In 2016, private letters from his National Guard successor, Tom Behrends, to Walz 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 show
In April 2016, Behrends wrote, “I can no longer remain silent about your rank.”
The letter accuses Walz of failing to meet the requirements for his promotion to Command Sergeant Major, yet continuing to use the title.
“It’s quite a title to have, once you’ve earned it,” Behrends wrote. “I hope you haven’t used the rank for political gain, but that’s how it appears,” he continued.
When he received no response, Behrends wrote a follow-up letter in October of that year to all the chairmen of the committees on which he served in Congress.
Behrends went on to say that Walz’s actions were in a sense “stolen courage” because he “used the blood, sweat and tears of ‘real’ Command Sergeant Majors who performed their duties and lived up to the demands of their rank.”
The battalion commander who led Walz’s former unit also sharply criticized the vice presidential candidate for claims of “stolen valor.”
Kamala Harris’ running mate has already had to backtrack on allegations that he “carried” weapons into combat during his 24 years in the Army National Guard. Family members of soldiers have also accused Harris of being a “coward.”
Harris has also found himself in the unenviable position of having to refute claims that Walz misrepresented his rank when he retired from the National Guard.
Lt. Col. John Kolb, the man who was set to take over Walz’s unit after the governor resigned in 2005, has now completely dismissed the Democrat by claiming he held the rank of Command Sergeant Major and retired before his deployment to Iraq.
Walz, who currently serves as governor of Minnesota, joined the National Guard after high school and served for 24 years in the 1st Battalion, 125th Field Artillery, rising to the rank of command sergeant major.
In private letters written to Walz by his National Guard successor, Tom Behrends (pictured during the Fox interview), from 2016, the governor is accused of lying about his rank for political gain.
Kolb wrote in a Facebook post that Walz “didn’t deserve the rank,” adding that “IIt is an insult to the Non-Commissioned Officer Corps that he continues to cling to the title.’
Kolb continued: ‘By all accounts and on paper he was a competent Chief of Firing Battery/Gunnery Sergeant and First Sergeant. I cannot say the same about his service while seated, vested, in the CSM [command sergeant major] chair. He has not earned the rank or successfully completed an assignment as E9 [the highest rank for non-commissioned officers].
“It is an insult to the Non-Commissioned Officers Corps that he continues to cling to the title.
“I can sit in the cockpit of an airplane, that doesn’t make me a pilot. And when the demands of service and leadership at the highest levels became real, he chose a different path.”