Controversy Surrounds Gov. Tim Walz’s Military Service Claims

A veteran who served alongside Governor Tim Walz, Kamala Harris’s running mate, has accused him of exaggerating his military service and abandoning his unit before deployment.

In an interview on “The Ingraham Angle,” Retired Command Sergeant Major Thomas Behrends, who claimed to be a member of Walz’s battalion, criticized the Minnesota governor for misleading the public about his military career. According to Behrends, Walz retired from the Minnesota National Guard just before his unit was deployed to Iraq in 2005.

The Minnesota National Guard reported that Walz’s unit received deployment orders to Iraq in July 2005, while Walz had submitted his retirement papers five to seven months prior, retiring in May 2005. Despite this, Behrends alleges that Walz has falsely presented himself as a retired command sergeant major, a rank he never officially held.

Behrends told Fox News host Laura Ingraham that Walz’s actions were “far darker than a lot of people think.” He claimed, “He’s used the rank that he never achieved in order to advance his political career. He still says he’s a retired command sergeant major to this day, and he’s not.”

Questions about Walz’s military service arose after Vice President Kamala Harris announced him as her running mate for the 2024 Democratic ticket. Walz’s official biography on his governor’s website describes him as a retired “command sergeant major,” and he has claimed to have carried a gun “in war,” despite not having seen active combat.

The Minnesota National Guard confirmed to “The Ingraham Angle” that Walz retired as a master sergeant. Behrends explained, “To most people, that would mean that he was actually in combat, carrying a weapon in a combat zone, getting combat pay, and being in a dangerous and hostile environment where he is getting shot at.” He added, “If he thinks Italy was a combat zone or a war zone, and he was carrying that in war, he’s delusional.”

Behrends noted that Walz had been promoted to command sergeant major in 2004 but was required to serve two additional years to retain the promotion. By retiring early, Walz’s promotion was voided, reducing his rank to master sergeant.

“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, a retired master sergeant,” Behrends concluded.