OPINION:
Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz has, on occasion, implied that he was in direct combat on foreign land when he was not.
The most conspicuous false claim was recently retracted by the Harris-Walz campaign.
The Minnesota governor said “I carried in war” guns he wants to ban in the U.S. In a 24-year National Guard career before retiring as a master sergeant, Mr. Walz did not serve in combat. He deployed to Italy as part of a security detail for Allied air forces but didn’t enter Iraq or Afghanistan.
In a speech at the Minnesota State House on a “Day of Remembrance” marking the 20th anniversary of 9/11, Mr. Walz left the impression he saw combat.
Among the speakers were two women: Jill Stephenson, who lost her son, an Army Ranger, in Afghanistan, and Mariah Jacobsen, whose father died on the hijacked United Flight 93. Brave passengers organized an in-flight reaction force to try to rescue the plane from al Qaeda suicide pilots who then crashed the jet in a field near Shanksville in southwestern Pennsylvania, killing all onboard.
After the women spoke, Mr. Walz delivered remarks. He said at one point: “I had the privilege of serving in this state’s National Guard. And when I left, I had a 2-year-old, and when I came home, I had a 3-year-old. But as I listened to Jill and I listened to Mariah, the guilt. I came home, and my daughter went on.”
A military veteran expressing guilt about returning home when others did not is typically something a combatant says.
The video is posted on YouTube under the headline “9/11 Day of Remembrance at the MN State Capitol (9/11/21).” Credit is given to the Minnesota Military & Veterans Museum, which also has a link on its website.
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There are also instances where Mr. Walz left uncorrected statements that he fought in a foreign war.
At a 2007 press conference when Mr. Walz was a congressman, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, praised him as a war combatant.
“He will speak for himself, but I want him to know how much we all appreciate his service to our country, whether it’s in the classroom or on the battlefield,” Mrs. Pelosi said, according to a video found by the Washington Free Beacon.
When Mr. Walz came to the lectern, he thanked her but did not correct the erroneous biography.
National Review reported that when Mr. Walz appeared on C-SPAN in March 2016, the interviewer recited his biography and said Mr. Walz “served with his battalion in Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan.”
Mr. Walz nodded yes, though he had never served in Afghanistan.
“Why did Walz not immediately stop and correct the record when he was described inaccurately as a veteran of the Afghanistan war?” wrote the National Review’s Mark Antonio Wright.
In his civilian political life, Mr. Walz has gained unique status by repeatedly claiming he retired as a command sergeant major when he did not.
At the Sept. 11, 2021 ceremony, he was introduced as the highest enlisted rank to ever serve in Congress.
Mr. Walz was conditionally promoted to command sergeant major in 2004 but never graduated from the Sergeant Major Academy, as required. The Army National Guard demoted him to master sergeant when he submitted papers to retire in May 2005. His retirement, as he campaigned for Congress, came after his artillery unit learned they would likely deploy to Iraq. They did so for over 20 months.
Mr. Walz’s official governor biography states that he retired as a command sergeant major.
It says, “After 24 years in the Army National Guard, Command Sergeant Major Walz retired from the 1-125th Field Artillery Battalion in 2005.”
The Harris campaign biography says he served for 24 years in the National Guard, “rising to the rank of Command Sergeant Major.”
The Harris-Walz campaign has removed the references to the vice presidential nominee carrying weapons in war.
In a video speaking to supporters in 2018, Mr. Walz said, “And we can make sure that those weapons of war that I carried in war is the only place where those weapons are at.”
Some of Mr. Walz’s National Guard colleagues have accused him of “stolen valor” for falsely claiming combat experience and a higher rank.
The Stolen Valor Act of 2013 pertains only to a person falsely claiming the award of a combat medal.
• Rowan Scarborough is a columnist with The Washington Times.
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