Tim Walz = Stolen Valor?

Walz enlisted at 17 (1981) and served 24 years in the National Guard.
Feb '05: Walz filed to run for Congress
May '05: Walz retired from Guard
July '05: Walz former unit ordered to deploy

He's not a coward & I appreciate his service as we all should.

LittleCraigyCunt, did you serve for 24 years?

"In early 2003 he was selected to attend the United States Army Sergeants Major Academy. The non-resident course consists of two years of correspondence coursework, followed by a two-week resident phase at Fort Bliss, Texas," Behrends and Herr recounted.

One of the stipulations that is part of enrolling in the academy is a requirement to serve two years following graduation or promotion to command sergeant major.

If soldiers fails to complete the school, they can be separated from the Army and will be reduced in rank to master sergeant, E8, unless the promotion board steps in.

"These stipulations are put in place because the academy is a college level school, the military invests a lot of taxpayer money in the student. The military needs to ensure they will get the return on investment that the taxpayers deserve," Behrends and Herr explained.

In September 2004, Walz was conditionally promoted to the position of command sergeant major of 1-125th Field Artillery Battalion.

Then in early 2005, a warning order was issued to the unit saying prepare to deploy to Iraq.

"On May 16th, 2005 he quit, leaving the 1-125th Field Artillery Battalion and its Soldiers hanging; without its senior Non-Commissioned Officer, as the battalion prepared for war. His excuse to other leaders was that he needed to retire in order to run for congress," Behrends and Herr wrote.

The veterans highlighted that this was false, because all Walz needed to do was seek permission from the secretary of defense to become a candidate, as many reservists have done.

Further, "If he had retired normally and respectfully, you would think he would have ensured his retirement documents were correctly filled out and signed, and that he would have ensured he was reduced to Master Sergeant for dropping out of the academy. Instead he waited for the paperwork to catch up to him. His official retirement document states, SOLDIER NOT AVAILABLE FOR SIGNATURE," Behrends and Herr wrote.

Think you mean not bc he didn't achieve the rank. Apparently he did achieve it in '04 but only for 8 months before retirement but didn't complete the requirements to obtain it fully nor did he retire to be demoted properly, let the paperwork catch up to him.

100% correct.

The Walz quote I transcribed from the video:

"And we can make sure that those weapons of war that I carried in war is the only place where those weapons are at."

Initially I thought this was misleading & implied he was in a war meaning in combat (to be clear Walz was never in combat).

After reading your interpretation I now see that his statement was accurate. He was in a war, he carried a rifle, but never in combat in that war. It may have been a carefully worded, rhetorical statement spoken for effect, but a truthful statement none the less and all politicians engage in rhetoric.

This has been sticking in my mind bothering me HarlemEagle42 so thank you for providing clarity!

"Carried weapons in war" is intended to create the impression that he was on the battlefield. Please don't pretend otherwise, it insults the intelligence of normal people.

Okay, all those parts are fine. It's the ranking he's embellishing in, that still holds true. He claims he's Cmd Sgt Mjr when he isn't, a brief stint if you will. I was thinking they needed to update his Wikipedia page but then the wording corrected me in saying 'highest rank'.

But it's stupid if you think about it. Who goes by highest rank obtained instead of current rank? If someone gets demoted via court marshal or other, you don't refer to your highest rank held.

Think that's just general BS. Stolen Valor resides mostly to military, there is even an Act for it.

In that case Demented Donald should have resigned years ago after that horrific lie about helping to rescue victims at ground zero on 9/11. That is a "literal" example of stolen valor compared to that little misquote by Governor Walz.