Tim Walz never served as a command sergeant major in the National Guard.
Everyone knows this, but the DNC introduced Walz as a command sergeant major.
The introductory video introducing Stolen Valor Tim Walz at the DNC refers to him as a Command Sergeant Major.
Freakish Timothy was NEVER a Command Sergeant Major. pic.twitter.com/e4hZNYQ2Sr
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) August 22, 2024
Thomas Behrends, who served with Walz in the National Guard, earned the title of Command Sergeant Major and retired with it.
Behrends and others in the battalion have been calling out Walz since his first congressional run in 2005.
In 2016, Behrends urged Walz to stop referring to himself as a “retired command sergeant major” because he did not have that title when he retired in 2005:
In 2016, Behrends penned a private letter to Walz, thanking him for his service but imploring him to stop using the title, which he said Walz didn’t earn.
“It saddens me that after your long career in the National Guard, that you did not fulfill the conditions of your promotion to Command Sergeant Major,” said the letter, a copy of which was provided to ABC News. “It’s quite a title to have, when it has been earned. I would hope that you haven’t been using the rank for political gain, but that is how it appears.”
In 2009, Iraq David Thul brought concerns to Walz’s congressional office in Minnesota after he saw pictures of Walz holding a sign that said “Enduring Freedom Veterans for Kerry” in 2004.
That title is only awarded to those who “served on the ground in Afghanistan during the Global War on Terrorism.”
Thul taped his talks with Walz’s aide, who said she was “not aware” of him ever serving in Afghanistan.
Thul explained to the aide that “there’s a huge difference between being deployed to a base in Italy and being in a combat zone in Afghanistan.”
In 2018, Behrends and Paul Herr, another retired Command Sergeant Major, slammed Walz during his first run for governor.
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Comments
It’s only a lie to honest people.
Lying must be in the DNA of DemoncRats.
He retired as Master Sergeant. Fact. Should we not ask why he was busted down a rank from the Dems claims?
What was he busted for? Simple question THEY have to answer.
He never completed the schooling for the Command Sgt Major billet.
He didn’t complete the coursework required for it.
As with so many other things, they are simply rubbing our faces in it now.
I’m surprised he didn’t come to the convention wearing a medal of honor.
Convention isn’t over yet.
He’ll show up wearing a civic crown.
That is not true. He did serve as one for a while; the original lie the Dems told was that he retired as one. He did have the rank when he filed for retirement, but then it was rescinded so it’s not the final rank he had.
My understanding is that he was awarded the rank of Command Sargent Major in preparation for the deployment of his Brigade but that it was rescinded and he was returned to Master Sargent when he elected to retire rather than deploy and fulfill the duties of the rank. Is that not correct?
No, it wasn’t in anticipation of deployment, since the deployment had not yet been announced (though he knew it was coming).
It was rescinded because he hadn’t done the course work required for it.
So, how did he “know about it” if it hadn’t been announced. Sounds like s distinction without a difference to me.
It’s like: everybody “knows” that Kamala is the nominee, but it hasn’t been officially announced yet.
Because it was planned long before the announcement, and many people knew.
The official announcement of the deployment was in March 2005, the official order came in August, the unit mobilized in October, and actually deployed to Iraq in March 2006. But his commanding officer confirmed that Walz knew about the coming deployment by November 2004 at the latest.
In April 2005, after everyone knew the deployment was coming, he got his promotion, and issued a press release saying that he intended to go to Iraq with his unit. But a month later he changed his mind and suddenly retired. Since he hadn’t done the coursework for his new rank, it was reduced. Apparently this didn’t actually happen until September, but it was backdated to the day before his retirement in May.
Confused yet?
The bottom line is that he is entitled to truthfully say that he served as a Command Sergeant Major, which he did for a few weeks, but not that he retired as one. Thus the claim in this post, and in the tweet by the Trump War Room, i.e. that he never served as one, is incorrect.
Milhouse is correct.
He was “frocked” to the rank of Command Sergeant Major (CSM). Which means he wore the insignia, carried out the daily duties, and was entitled to be addressed as “Sergeant Major.” All he lacked was to complete the academic coursework. Back in the day, it could be completed by correspondence course, or in residence at Fort Bliss, TX. He did neither and was returned to the rank of Master Sergeant (MSG) upon retirement.
As the senior enlisted person in the 1st Battalion, 125th Field Artillery Regiment (1-125 FA), his primary duty would have been to ensure all personnel in the battalion were properly equipped, trained, and prepared to deploy and to serve in combat.
As the battalion CSM, especially in a Guard unit, he would have known of the pending deployment well in advance of the issuance of the formal deployment order. He knew and decided to retire instead of deploying with his unit, requiring another CSM to be assigned in his place and assume his duties.
I retired from the US Army in 1999, and I will not denigrate or question the character of his service in uniform. I will say that it is my belief that he failed in his obligation to his soldiers, and I vehemently resent the past and continued claims that he is a “retired Command Sergeant Major.”
He’s not entitled to that.
thats why they continue to creat LIES ABOUT TRUMPS POV TOWARDS THE MILITARY
SO THEY CAN “BALANCE” THEIR WORLD
sicko lefty will stop at nothing until stopped….see ww2 for verification of this
Walz’s true medal of honor is
cities being burnt to the ground
I’ll be impressed when we find he’s a closet gay with a phony birth certificate, and that he suspended an Ivy League law license because of those pesky, ruinous fees.
rumor has it that he whacks it to
the communist monthly centerfold
randy weingarten was last months hottie they say
There’s no such thing as an “Ivy League law license”. 0bama’s law degree is from an Ivy League university, which used to be something to be proud of until everyone woke up to the fact of the university’s wokeness.
His license is from the State of Illinois, and once he decided that he was unlikely to need it any more he did what pretty much every retired lawyer does, and had it suspended. There’s no shame in that; it’s not even remarkable. As I understand it Illinois charges an annual fee for a suspended license too, but it’s much lower than the fee for an active license, and there’s no CLE requirement. He can reactivate it whenever he likes, by paying the difference in fees and taking some catch-up CLE classes. But there’s no reason why he would ever want to do that.
Oh, and the birth cert he eventually released is genuine. Arpaio’s a nut.
I have no knowledge of his sexual preferences, nor any interest. Michelle is obviously female, and she’s the only other person whose business it is.
There’s a bit of confusion about Walz’s rank, which is understandable because it’s a little inside-baseball. Walz was never a ‘Command Sergent Major.’ He held that title ONLY because he was ‘frocked.’ To retire in that grade, he would have needed to be actually promoted, which he never was and couldn’t have been because he ‘retired’ before he was qualified for promotion (he failed to complete the requisite school).
I’m not exactly sure how it works in the Guard. In the regular reserve components, you generally have to meet the minimum time-in-grade to retire as an officer/SNCO and keep your retirement rank. It’s generally 2-3-years time-in-grade. Sometimes that ‘frock’ time will count towards that time-in-grade and sometimes it won’t. But, whatever the case, he was never really a Command Sergent Major.
Seems to me the time frocked would count if you completed the requirements. Which he didn’t.
I retired in 2011. At the time of my retirement (and all the years before), ‘frock time’ did not count towards time-in-grade. I believe that was guided by statutory law. But, as I was retiring, DoD was having significant problems filling leadership billets in units due for deployment. So, they got creative where they had to. There may be some number of retirees out there who benefited from this time-period. But, they’re the exception not the rule. Generally, if you’re not getting paid as an E-9 or an O-9 (for example), you’re not building your time-in-grade even if you’re wearing those rank insignias and serving in an O-9 or E-9 billet.
But he was a CSM. He had the rank and the duties. As you say, he didn’t retire as one, because a day before his retirement he was reduced back to Master Sergeant. But for the time between when he got the rank and when he lost it, he had it. (And that reduction seems not to have actually happened until four months after he retired, but it was backdated to the day before the retirement, precisely so that his retirement rank would be correct.)
No, he wasn’t. In fact, you’re highlighting another significant problem with Walz’ retirement that has gone largely unnoticed. As I explain above, when you’re ‘frocked’ your neither being paid nor earning time-in-grade as the rank you’re assuming the identity of. He never ‘lost’ it because he was never promoted. He couldn’t have been promoted because as he had not completed CSM school, he wasn’t yet eligible for promotion. My guess is whoever filled out his retirement package (it was probably him, but I’m not certain how it works in the Guard. It may have been his unit’s Admin), used CSM as his rank identifier in that package. When that paperwork was processed by the Guard administrative service, they obviously recognized the lack of a CMS promotion warrant in his service jacket and made the appropriate correction to his retirement package.
But, the record is quite clear here and verified by a number of reliable sources including the Commanding Officer of 125th Field Artillery unit, John Kolb. Walz was never promoted to CSM.
Walz did not have the Army’s core values’:
Loyalty – to himself
Duty – he ran from it
Respect – he deserves none
Selfless service – more like Selfish service
Honor – Stolen Honor
Integrity – he had none
Personal Courage – totally lacking
I come here to read analysis of a legal type on the world around us. I am disheartened to see that LI is falling victim to other “media” sites by giving analysis on issues about which it apparently has no understanding – Military Issues.
The very first sentence of the article is wrong and makes other mistakes either technically or through omission throughout the article. Might I suggest that if you are speaking on a technical topic you don’t understand, you have a subject matter expert (perhaps a military person, in this case) review it prior to publication.
“Tim Walz never served as a command sergeant major in the National Guard.”
Except he did. And you have lost credibility from the first sentence.
He was “frocked” to CSM (while still an E-8 Master Sergeant) o/a 17 Sept 2004. To receive this “conditional” promotions he, err … had to meet certain conditions. One of which is a training program that lasts about 2 years and then an additional 2 years Time in Grade (TIG) as a serving CSM.
Walz chose to “Fail to Train” which is military lingo for quitting and going back on his agreement for the 2/2 requirements. He filed for what is called a “nonregular” retirement because it was before he was scheduled to ETS (expire term of service) in 2007. He was then administratively reduced to his actual rank of E-8 when he retired.
Thus, he is not a “Retired Command Sergeant Major”. By my estimate which should be pretty accurate … he wore the rank of CSM for about 14 days of service.
Yeah, just took a look at your previous (concern trolling) posts. Less than ten total posts, actually, and all just like this droopy concern troll post. Here’s an idea, find a fun new way to express yourself. Elsewhere.
I’’m still trying to figure out how “Sergeant White Guy Taco” fits into Walz’ military profile.