Another video has surfaced in which Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz gives the false impression that his National Guard service included deployment to combat zones in Iraq or Afghanistan.
Mr. Walz, who retired from the National Guard as his unit prepared to go to the Iraq War, delivered a speech marking the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks in which he briefly described his military career.
The Democratic vice presidential nominee then launched into a description of his visit to Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan.
“I stood one night in the dark of night on the tarmac at Bagram and watched a military ramp ceremony,” he said, pointing to state and congressional officials sitting nearby at a 9/11 remembrance ceremony at the Minnesota State Capitol. “If you’ve seen it, which these folks, many have, unfortunately, you don’t leave the same. And it makes you wonder, what are we doing?”
Mr. Walz’s detractors said this is another example of him embellishing his military service by juxtaposing his 24-year National Guard career with a visit he made to the war zone as a congressman.
Thomas Behrends, a retired command sergeant major of the Minnesota National Guard who served with Mr. Walz, said the 9/11 speech is part of a pattern of stolen valor.
“He’s got this manipulative thing with words that borderline lies. He basically says it to embellish the truth,” Mr. Behrends told The Washington Times.
The Times reached out to the Harris campaign for comment, but did not hear back.
Mr. Behrends replaced Mr. Walz in the Guard leadership post when Mr. Walz resigned to run for Congress in 2005. A few months later, his former battalion deployed to Iraq for nearly two years.
Mr. Behrends, who has criticized Mr. Walz since he began his political career, said the Walz campaign literature from the start described his military service in a way that could lead voters to believe he served in a combat zone.
“His campaign literature way back when was like, ‘When we were in Italy supporting the troops that were going into Afghanistan,’ It was like the 173rd airborne at that time went to Iraq, and they airdropped into Iraq,” Mr. Behrends said.
Their battalion deployed in 2003 to support Operation Enduring Freedom, but that he was stationed in Vicenza, Italy, and never saw combat. He returned to the U.S. in April 2004, according to the Minnesota National Guard.
Tom Schilling, another former Minnesota National Guard member, told The Times that Mr. Walz engaged in stolen valor just by misrepresenting his rank for many years following his retirement.
The Harris-Walz campaign’s website finally removed the reference to Mr. Walz as a “retired command sergeant major,” instead denoting that he once served at the command sergeant major rank.
He retired as a master sergeant in 2005 for benefit purposes because he did not complete additional coursework at the U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy.
Mr. Schilling said that Mr. Walz benefitted politically for many years saying he was the higher rank or not correcting those who also made the same error.
“I saw him campaigning saying he was a command sergeant major, and I knew that he wasn’t, and I know it’s a lie, and I felt this was dishonest,” he said.
The Harris campaign on Saturday found itself walking back a reference Mr. Walz made in a 2018 video the campaign circulated in which he talked about gun control and said he carried a firearm “in war.”
The campaign said he misspoke.
“He did handle weapons of war and believes strongly that only military members trained to carry those deadly weapons should have access to them, unlike Donald Trump and JD Vance who prioritize the gun lobby over our children,” the campaign said.
• Kerry Picket can be reached at kpicket@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.