Veterans more and more calling out Walz’s army report: ‘Shameful’

Veterans are more and more publicly criticizing Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz over his army report following Vice President Kamala Harris naming him as her 2024 working mate. 

“When your country calls, you are supposed to run into battle – not the other way,” retired Command Sgt. Maj. Thomas Behrends instructed the New York Post final week, when Walz was named Harris’ working mate. “He ran away. It’s sad.

“He had the chance to serve his nation, and stated ‘Screw you’ to the United States. That’s not who I’d choose to run for vp.”

Behrends’ comments were shortly followed by a deluge of news coverage surrounding Walz’s 24 years in the Army National Guard as questions mounted surrounding his service record and claims of “stolen valor” gained traction. 

Walz served in the Minnesota National Guard’s 1st Battalion, 125th Field Artillery after transferring from the Nebraska National Guard in 1996. He retired as a master sergeant in 2005.

FORMER LEADER OF WALZ’S BATTALION PUBLISHES SCATHING MESSAGE AIMED AT GOVERNOR’S MILITARY CAREER: REPORT

Criticisms have mounted that Walz retired just months before his battalion deployed to Iraq as war raged in the Middle East following the 9/11 attacks. Walz put in his papers for retirement at least five months before his battalion received deployment orders, according to the Minnesota National Guard.

“He subverted the chain of command, and he went across the chain of command. The brigade [sergeant] main had no clue. These are all essential details, and he did it to repeatedly feather his personal mattress… That was the shameful a part of it,” retired Command Sgt. Maj. Paul Herr told Fox News last week. 

While ​​former Minnesota National Guard Command Sgt. Maj. Doug Julin appeared to bolster criticism that Walz retired as the unit prepared to deploy during an interview with CNN. Julin said the battalion – “together with my boss, commander, and the command workforce” – had multiple meetings to discuss deployment months before Walz sought retirement. 

WALZ ACCUSATIONS OF ‘STOLEN VALOR’ PROMPT BATTLE BETWEEN HOUSE VETERANS

The grieving mom of Sgt. Kyle Miller, who died at the age of 19 in 2006, also issued a scathing response regarding Walz’s retirement just before the 1st Battalion, 125th Field Artillery unit deployed to Iraq. 

“My son wasn’t even 21 years outdated. He couldn’t even purchase alcohol. Yet he took the step to serve our nation whereas Walz discovered the easiest way to run away,” Miller’s mother, Kathy Miller, told the Daily Mail last week. Kyle Miller was killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq while he was deployed by Walz’s former battalion. 

“It was the coward’s method out.”

After retiring, Walz launched a successful congressional campaign, and served as a member of the U.S. House representing Minnesota from 2007 until 2019, when he was then sworn in as the Gopher State’s governor. Harris announced last Tuesday that she selected Walz to join her on the 2024 ticket, after speculation that she would choose Walz, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro or Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly as her running mate. 

Walz has subsequently been slammed by a number of veterans for allegedly misrepresenting his service in the military, including identifying himself to the public as a retired “Command Sergeant Major.”

Walz was promoted to the command sergeant major rank following a deployment to Italy in 2004, but did not complete coursework with the U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy to retain the rank in retirement. Walz instead retired as a master sergeant, one pay grade below command sergeant major. 

JD VANCE ACCUSES TIM WALZ OF ‘LYING’ ABOUT MILITARY SERVICE: ‘STOLEN VALOR GARBAGE’

The battalion commander of Walz’s former Minnesota Army National Guard unit issued a scathing message on Facebook over the weekend, saying it’s “an affront” to the military if Walz continues using a rank he did not retain upon retirement. 

“By all accounts and on the report, he was a reliable Chief of Firing Battery/Gunnery Sergeant and First Sergeant. I can not say the identical of his service sitting, frocked, within the [command sergeant major] chair. He didn’t earn the rank or efficiently full any task as an E9,” John Kolb, retired lieutenant colonel of the 1st Battalion, 125th Field Artillery, wrote on Facebook, according to the Daily Mail. 

“It is an affront to the Noncommissioned Officer Corps that he continues to glom onto the title. I can sit within the cockpit of an airplane, it doesn’t make me a pilot. Similarly, when the calls for of service and management on the highest stage obtained actual, he selected one other path,” Kolb wrote in the reported social media post.

Fox News Digital reached out to both the Harris campaign and Walz’s gubernatorial office earlier this week asking why Walz did not complete coursework with the U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy before retiring from the Minnesota National Guard in 2005, but did not receive comment explaining the decision. 

Instead, the Harris campaign directed Fox Digital to a Minnesota Public Radio article from 2018, when a public affairs officer for the Minnesota National Guard told the outlet “it’s official for Walz to say he served as a command sergeant main.”

VP KAMALA HARRIS PICKING GOV. TIM WALZ AS RUNNING MATE MET WITH MEDIA SCORN: ‘SUCH A WEIRD CHOICE’

“[The public affairs officer] stated the rank modified as a result of Walz retired earlier than finishing coursework on the U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy together with different necessities related along with his promotion,” the article explained. 

Last week, the Harris campaign updated its biography for Walz to omit a reference that he is a “retired Command Sergeant Major,” updating the bio to show Walz “served as a command sergeant main.”

Walz has also come under fire from veterans who say he misrepresented serving in a combat zone. Walz was deployed to Italy in 2003 to assist U.S. operations in Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom, but has never served in a combat zone. 

In one video shared by the Harris campaign last week, Walz declared he wants to ban guns like the ones he “carried in struggle.”

DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISTS GROUP BOASTS IT HELPED MAKE WALZ HARRIS’ RUNNING MATE: ‘FORCE THAT CANNOT BE IGNORED’

“I spent 25 years within the Army, and I hunt. I’ve been voting for commonsense laws that protects the Second Amendment, however we will do background checks. We can analysis the impacts of gun violence. We can be certain these weapons of struggle that I carried in struggle are solely carried in struggle,” Walz said in a video posted by the Harris campaign last week. 

The Harris campaign said last week that Walz “misspoke” when he claimed he carried firearms “in struggle.” 

“In making the case for why weapons of struggle ought to by no means be on our streets or in our school rooms, the Governor misspoke,” Hitt added. “He did deal with weapons of struggle and believes strongly that solely army members skilled to hold these lethal weapons ought to have entry to them, not like Donald Trump and JD Vance who prioritize the gun foyer over our youngsters,” campaign spokeswoman Lauren Hitt told the media. 

Republican Virginia Senate candidate Hung Cao slammed Walz for suggesting he served in a combat zone. 

“For 20 years, they let this man go by with a lie that he deployed to Iraq, which he didn’t, and that he retired as a Command Sergeant Major which he didn’t. I imply, that’s simply blatant lies,” Cao, a retired Navy captain, told The New York Post last week. 

Ohio Sen. JD Vance, who joined former President Trump on the 2024 Republican ticket last month, has also criticized Walz for his military record. 

HARRIS’ RUNNING MATE FACES RENEWED SCRUTINY AFTER HIS ‘WEIRD’ SOCIALISM COMPARISON RESURFACES

​​”As a Marine who served his nation in uniform when the United States Marine Corps, when the United States of America requested me to go to Iraq to serve my nation, I did it. I did what they requested me to do, and I did it honorably,” Vance said. “When Tim Walz was requested by his nation to go to Iraq, you recognize what he did? He dropped out of the Army and allowed his unit to go with out him, a undeniable fact that he is been criticized for aggressively by a number of the those who he served with.” 

When asked about the mounting criticisms from veterans, the campaign directed Fox Digital to a handful of favorable comments from veterans about Walz’s decades-long service. 

“This is the insane factor. Every month hundreds of individuals retire. The undeniable fact that Walz did 25 years, 5 OVER retirement eligibility, and 4 years after 9/11, is honorable. Many individuals at 25 years as we speak would get out even when there was a deployment risk as a result of they DID THEIR DUTY,” former Rep. Adam Kinzinger, a lieutenant colonel in the Air National Guard, posted to X last week. 

“He was there each single time we wanted him for over a decade and Republicans will inform you this too. Everybody who’s labored on the Hill is aware of that Tim Walz delivered for veterans, on psychological well being, on the Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention Act, he was the lead sponsor, on the GI invoice, on VA reform… When the rubber meets the street for veterans particularly, Tim Walz has been there,” veteran Paul Rieckhoff, founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, said of Walz on MSNBC. 

“He was nearly as good a soldier as you’ll discover,” Joe Eustice, a 32-year veteran of the National Guard who led the same battalion as Walz, told CNN, noting that he is not voting for Walz. 

Criticisms from veterans on Walz’s military career, however, stretch back years, only surfacing at the national level after Harris named him as her running mate. 

VETERAN WHO SERVED IN TIM WALZ’S BATTALION ADDRESSES STOLEN VALOR ACCUSATIONS: ‘FAR DARKER THAN PEOPLE THINK’

“Tim Walz has embellished and selectively omitted details and circumstances of his army profession for years,” Behrends and Herr wrote in a letter published by the West Central Tribune in 2018. 

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FRESH NEWS APP

“When the nation referred to as, he stop. He failed to finish the United States Army Sergeants Major Academy. He did not serve for 2 years following completion of the academy, which he dropped out of. He did not serve two years after the conditional promotion to Command Sergeant Major. He failed to satisfy the complete six years of the enlistment he signed on September 18th, 2001. He failed his nation. He failed his state. He failed the Minnesota Army National Guard, the 1-One hundred and twenty fifth Field Artillery Battalion, and his fellow Soldiers. And he failed to guide by instance. Shameful,” the pair continued. 

Walz is anticipated to affix Harris in Chicago subsequent week, the place the Democratic National Convention might be held forward of the ultimate stretch earlier than Election Day. 

Get the most recent updates from the 2024 marketing campaign path, unique interviews and extra at our Fox News Digital election hub.

Fox News Digital’s Gabriel Hays contributed to this report.