Retired Command Sergeant Major Thomas Behrends criticized Vice Presidential candidate Governor Tim Walz for what he considers over his portraits of military service.
Behrends slammed Walz for alleged deception of the public about his military service. The same report by the New York Post disclosed that Walz retired from duty in Iraq with the Minnesota National Guard after his unit was placed on notice for deployment to the Middle East back in 2005.
The Minnesota National Guard confirmed to Fox News that Walz had retired five to seven months ahead of his retirement in May 2005 and there was no order for deployment from it until July.
Behrends also discussed Trump’s running mate Senator JD Vance, who accused Walz of “stolen valor,” by telling Fox News host Laura Ingraham, the situation was “far darker than a lot of people think about your type.”
“He’s used the rank that he never achieved in order to advance his political career,” he said. “I mean, he still says he’s a retired command sergeant major to this day, and he’s not. He uses the rank of others to make it look like he’s a better person than he is.”
The questions on Walz’s military service came from a vice-allegiant Vice President Kamala Harris following her selection as his running mate for the 2024 Democratic ticket.
Although Walz is referred to as a retired “command sergeant major” in his official governor’s website bio, and said on that page he had served carrying a gun “in war,” the Minnesota National Guard told Fox News’ ‘The Ingraham Angle’ this week that at retirement when leaving active duty, Walz was ranked as an E7 master sergeant.
“To most people, that would mean that he was actually in combat, carrying a weapon in a combat zone and getting combat pay and in a dangerous and hostile environment where he is getting shot at,” Behrends said.
“I mean, if he thinks Italy was a combat zone or a war zone, and he was carrying that in war, he’s delusional,” he added.
Walz was promoted to command sergeant major in 2004; however, Behrends said additional service for the promotion to become permanent was a stipulation of his getting two more years. Behrends said he would have been promoted to a rank of master sergeant had the Walz retirement happened only one day earlier.
“What he did, basically, was he quit. He didn’t complete that condition of doing two years after graduation, so he gets reduced to a master sergeant, and that’s what he is right now, is a retired master sergeant.”
Minnesota National Guard’s director of Operations, Army Lt. Col. Ryan Rossman added further clarification in a comment to Fox News: “He was technically a Command Sgt Major when he deployed to Europe with his battalion but to RETIRE as a CSM you have to go through a final course which he had not completed so from a benefits perspective the Army retired him as a Master Sgt (lower enlisted rank.) But according to National Guard records he was a Command Sgt Major technically when deployed. The lower rank was as a result of benefit requirements and a technicality.”
Walz’s campaign issued a statement refuting the claims: “After 24 years of military service, Governor Walz retired in 2005 and ran for Congress, where he chaired Veterans Affairs and was a tireless advocate for our men and women in uniform — and as our Vice President of the United States, he will continue to be a relentless champion for our veterans and military families.”
But Behrends was not happy with that answer. “From what I get from the soldiers that I went to Iraq with, probably 98% of them are completely against him embellishing his record,” he said. “Don’t try to make it look like you were a command sergeant major. Don’t try to make it look like you were going to some place that was in support of Operation Enduring Freedom… that’s just all embellishment and lies to try to make things look better.”
“We all did what we were supposed to do, we did the right thing, and it’s dishonorable what he did,” Schilling said. “He left somebody else to take over his spot. He just ditched us.”
