The Minnesota National Guard is disputing Governor Tim Walz’s military biography, saying that the Democratic vice presidential candidate did not hold the rank of command sergeant major at the time of his retirement.
Army Lieutenant Colonel Kristen Augé, the state public affairs officer for Minnesota National Guard, told Just the News on Wednesday that the governor did not retire as “Command Sergeant Major Walz” in 2005, as stated on Minnesota’s official website, but as master sergeant “because he did not complete additional coursework at the U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy.” A soldier who does not complete the requisite coursework is automatically demoted, according to Army regulations.
The National Guard’s statement comes a day after Vice President Kamala Harris revealed that she picked Walz as her running mate and the two made their debut as the Democratic ticket on Tuesday at a rally in Philadelphia.
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Newsweek reached out to Walz’s office via email for comment.
It is not the first time that Walz has faced scrutiny over his military background.
When he first ran for governor in 2018, two retired senior officials with the Minnesota National Guard wrote an open letter criticizing Walz for retiring shortly before his battalion was to set for an active-duty deployment in Iraq, quitting months after they were ordered to mobilize and “leaving the 1-125th Field Artillery Battalion and its Soldiers hanging.”
“He had the opportunity to serve his country, and said ‘Screw you’ to the United States. That’s not who I would pick to run for vice president,” Thomas Behrends, one of the retired officials who signed the letter, told the New York Post on Tuesday.
Walz’s counterpart, Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance, an Ohio senator, took aim at the Walz over his departure Wednesday, saying: “When the United States of America asked me to go to Iraq to serve my country, I did it.”
“When Tim Walz was asked by his country to go to Iraq, you know what he did?” Vance, a Marine Corps veteran who served in Iraq, said at a press conference. “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. I think it’s shameful.”
On Wednesday, Augé said Walz served in the Minnesota National Guard from April 8, 1981, to May 16, 2005, after transferring from the Nebraska National Guard.
“While serving in Minnesota,” she said, “his military occupational specialties were 13B—a cannon crewmember who operates and maintains cannons—and 13Z—field artillery senior sergeant,” she said.
“In Nebraska, he served as a 11Z—infantry senior sergeant—and a 71L—administrative specialist. He held multiple positions within field artillery such as firing battery chief, operations sergeant, first sergeant and culminated his career serving as the command sergeant major for the battalion.
“He retired as a master sergeant in 2005.”
