https://freebeacon.com/elections/tim-wa ... -2006-run/
Tim Walz Promoted Media Misrepresentations of His Military Service in 2006 Run
Incident adds to pattern of deceptiveness around Walz’s military service
Joseph Simonson, August 8, 2024
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz touted misleading descriptions of his military service during his 2006 congressional run, according to a media kit he distributed at the time obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.
Media kits, or press packets, are standard practice for candidates who seek to introduce themselves to the electorate and often feature a variety of news stories or interviews. In Walz’s case, he hoped to emphasize his public service as both a public school teacher and veteran.
But two of the articles Walz selected gave the impression that he served overseas in Afghanistan. That decision adds to a growing pattern of incidents in which Walz either misrepresented his military service or promoted others’ misrepresentations of it.
A March 20, 2006, Wall Street Journal report included in the kit states that Walz "served overseas during the early war in Afghanistan." Walz told the paper that the Iraq war is "not something that is a political game."
Another, from the January/February 2006 edition of The Atlantic, describes Walz as "a command sergeant major who’d just returned from fighting the war on terrorism." The piece goes on to characterize Walz as one of the "number of veterans from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq" who were running for Congress that year.
Walz, now the Democratic vice presidential nominee, did not serve in either Afghanistan or Iraq, and his title of command sergeant major was revoked after he left the service just two months before his National Guard battalion was informed of a future deployment to Iraq. Walz was stationed overseas in Italy from August 2003 to April 2004.
Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
That Walz was not sent to a war zone came as a relief to him. In 2003, he told a local paper that "in the big scheme of deployments, this probably isn’t too bad. I thought we might end up in Iraq."
Throughout Walz’s first congressional campaign, he leaned heavily into his military service. As the Free Beacon reported Wednesday, Walz released a statement in March 2005 that he fully planned to continue his campaign in Iraq after hearing that his battalion was on the shortlist to deploy there.
"As Command Sergeant Major, I have a responsibility not only to ready my battalion for Iraq but also to serve if called on," he said.
Other press releases from the time, obtained by the Free Beacon and available on archived versions of Walz’s campaign website, implied Walz served in Iraq as well. One from February of that year features an "in the news section" that includes two hyperlinked stories about "Iraq war veterans" running for Congress.
Walz has since cited his military service as a rationale for his support of new gun control legislation. In a video posted by the Harris campaign earlier this month, Walz said, "we can make sure those weapons of war, that I carried in war, is [sic] the only place those weapons are at." But Walz’s suggestion that he was carrying weapons "in war" ignores the fact that he never saw combat.
On at least two instances, Walz described himself as a veteran of Operation Enduring Freedom, the official name of the U.S. government’s war in Afghanistan following the Sept. 11 attacks.
As a first-time congressional candidate in 2006, Walz’s campaign announcement described him as "a veteran of Operation Enduring Freedom," an archived version of the press release shows. Two years earlier, in 2004, Walz organized a protest against then-President George W. Bush in Mankato, Minn. A photo of the rally shows Walz carrying a sign reading "Enduring Freedom Veterans for Kerry."
Such a title historically applies to someone who served on the ground in Afghanistan during the Global War on Terrorism. Walz, a 24-year veteran of the Army National Guard, spent time in Norway in support of NATO forces and in Italy working in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. He told Minnesota Public Radio in 2018 that he had never seen combat.
https://freebeacon.com/elections/tim-wa ... d-nothing/
Tim Walz Falsely Claimed He Served in Afghanistan. When a Local Vet Called Him Out, His Office Did Nothing.
Walz launched his first congressional campaign as ‘a veteran of Operation Enduring Freedom’
Chuck Ross,August 7, 2024
Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz has described himself as "a veteran of Operation Enduring Freedom," the official name of the U.S. government’s war in Afghanistan following the Sept. 11 attacks.
Walz’s claims spurred Iraq war veteran David Thul, a sergeant in the Minnesota National Guard, to approach Walz's aides at the Democrat’s Mankato office in 2009. Thul filmed the encounter, in which a staffer told Thul she was "not aware" of Walz serving in Afghanistan. Thul went on to present the 2004 photo of Walz, as well as Walz's website, to another aide, who acknowledged that constituents could get the false impression that Walz served in Afghanistan.
"Operation Enduring Freedom is limited to Afghanistan and the airspace directly above," Thul told the aide. "Congressman Walz is clearly claiming … to be an Enduring Freedom veteran. Nobody disputes the fact that he is not an Afghanistan or Enduring Freedom veteran. So this represents a fairly serious issue." Asked whether he understood how constituents could falsely "assume that means [Walz] served in Afghanistan," the aide responded, "Perhaps, I guess."
The aide did not dispute that Walz was pictured in the 2004 photograph, and, indeed, a 2006 Atlantic article describes the spectacle of the future governor protesting the Bush visit with a group of high school students. The aide told Thul he would follow up with him. A source familiar with the situation said neither Walz nor his staffers followed through with that pledge.
Walz, who has called himself a "citizen soldier," has been accused before of embellishing his military service. Two Minnesota National Guardsmen said in 2022 that Walz falsely claimed he reached the rank of command sergeant major. But Walz did not fulfill the duties required to maintain that rank before he quit the service in 2005.
And Walz, in a video posted this week by the Harris campaign, called for a ban on the kind of guns "that I carried in war," the Washington Free Beacon reported.
Walz served in the Nebraska National Guard from 1981 to 1996 and the Minnesota National Guard from 1996 to 2005. He resigned that year, quit his teaching job at Mankato West High School, and ran for Congress.
The photo Thul cited in the meeting was taken by Minnesota political consultant Michael Brodkorp. Brodkorp, who has identified Walz in the photo, endorsed the Democrat in his 2022 reelection campaign for governor.
The Harris campaign defended Walz’s military record, citing his deployment overseas during the Afghanistan war. "Governor Walz was deployed to Italy in support of Operation Enduring Freedom while serving in the National Guard," said Harris campaign spokeswoman Lauren Hitt. Walz's aide gave a similar defense in 2009, which Thul rejected.
"We appreciate his service and we appreciate his being deployed, but there’s a huge difference between being deployed to a base in Italy and being in a combat zone in Afghanistan," Thul told the Walz aide in the 2009 encounter.
Walz retired from the National Guard in 2005 and launched his congressional campaign the following year, as his unit was sent to Iraq.
"On May 16th, 2005, [Walz] quit, betraying his country, leaving the 1-125th Field Artillery Battalion and its Soldiers hanging; without its senior Non-Commissioned Officer, as the battalion prepared for war," two retired Command Sergeants Major wrote in a 2018 Facebook post during Walz’s first gubernatorial bid. That post was recently unearthed by the Daily Wire.
A source who served in the Minnesota National Guard at the time told the Free Beacon that Walz’s retirement "left a bad taste in a lot of peoples’ mouths."
I don't know what SOP is in a national guard battalion. In my experience when we had a battalion level deployment we normally became a task force. That was so because other units were attached to our battalion. Those units would vary depending on the mission. When we were deployed to JOTC in Panama every attached unit came with us. I find it odd that the senior ranking NCO of this unit was located a 1000 miles away from his men and their equipment. Was their battalion commander also operating out of Italy? In the piece that OS posted the CSM not deploying with his soldiers left a bad taste in a lot of peoples mouths. I'm certain that in the coming weeks more people that served with the CSM during this time frame will have their opinions to share. I do know when my battalion deployed to Panama in 1980 our battalion SM was right there leading PT every morning we had a formation.
