National political reporter Neil W. McCabe said Minnesota Governor and Vice Presidential candidate Tim Walz’s claims about his ranking among retirement from the U.S. military is “a lie.”
Walz, who served in the Minnesota National Guard for 24 years, has numerously referred to himself as a “retired Command Sergeant Major.”
However, while Walz served as Command Sergeant Major, “He retired as a Master Sergeant in 2005 for benefit purposes because he did not complete additional coursework at the U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy,” the Minnesota National Guard told Fox News.
Amid widespread criticism for his false claims regarding his own military service and official rank, Walz’s biography on Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris’ campaign website was updated to say that the governor “served” as a Command Sergeant Major instead of retiring as one:
Governor Walz is a champion for America’s working families. He enlisted in the Army National Guard when he turned 17 and served for 24 years, rising to the rank of Command Sergeant Major.
The Minnesota Governor has also been criticized for the timing of his retirement from the military, which has been seen as an alleged effort by Walz to dodge deployment to Iraq.
McCabe, a veteran himself who served for 15 months in Iraq with the Minnesota National Gaurd’s 34th Infantry Division, said he deployed with the division Walz was a member of and service members who had been on the previous deployment Walz would have served in if he hadn’t retired.
Speaking from his personal experience and the personal accounts of others who served in Iraq, McCabe said Walz “skipped out” on a “very tough” deployment.
“I deployed with the division that Walz was a member of, and I deployed with people who had been on that previous deployment. So, we got their boots on the ground in 2009. He missed out on the 2006 deployment, which was a very kinetic, very high op tempo deployment,” McCabe explained on Friday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.
“Those guys, the 1st Brigade Combat Team of the 34th, they were there for 22 months. After they served their time – like everyone else, they were ready to go home – they came up on the surge, and so the Army said to them ‘Hey, what the heck you guys are here already. We’re going to extend you for this little thing we’re calling the surge.’ And so all of that surge stuff, which was an even higher off tempo, more casualties, they were in the teeth of that. I talked to a lot of guys about that deployment, and it was like talking to somebody about the Wild West or fighting the cowboys and Indians. It was a very tough time, and Walz completely skipped out on that,” McCabe added.
McCabe said he’s not sure how Walz could “get away” with “lying” about his rank in retirement but noted the striking difference between a Master Sergeant and a Command Sergeant Major.
“I don’t know how these people think they can get away with it, but they do, and to say you retired as a Command Sergeant Major when you retired as a Master Sergeant, that’s a big drop off,” McCabe said.
McCabe also addressed Walz’s claim that he was unaware of the upcoming deployment upon retiring, calling it “crazy” and “absurd.”
“The battalion Command Sergeant Major had no idea that his battalion had been training for a deployment, was in the rotation for a deployment, and that the deployment was coming? It’s absurd. It’s crazy. It’s crazy. There are words I can’t use to describe what I think of that story,” McCabe said.
“Let me just say this. There’s a thing in the U.S. Army called the Warning Order or the WARNO. They would’ve received the WARNO a year ahead of time. A year before I deployed, I knew I was being deployed…By 2005, 2006, 2007, the Army had developed a process so that everyone knew who was next. Everyone knew who was coming home. Everyone knew who was replacing them. There were no secrets. [Walz] knew exactly what was going on. And should I also mention that I saw yesterday that in 2003, he was training with another unit that deployed, and he somehow missed that deployment, too,” McCabe added.
McCabe also criticized Walz for claiming that he was a veteran of Operation Enduring Freedom when, in reality, the governor was stationed in Vicenza, Italy, and never saw an active war zone.
“[Walz] presented himself over and over again as an Operation Enduring Freedom veteran. He held a sign saying he was an Operation Enduring Freedom veteran. He referred to himself, in his brochures and campaign literature, as an Operation Enduring Freedom veteran…He was in Vicenza,” McCabe said.
McCabe concluded by pointing out that the Harris campaign would only be forced to change Walz’s biography on its website if the governor’s lies about his military background were “serious.”
“If the Harris campaign started stealth editing their website and others, like Bloomberg, stealth edited their website…If they are reacting to this, they must have numbers and they must have feedback to say, this is serious. People can tell you it’s no big deal. If it’s no big deal, you’re not editing your bio online,” McCabe said.
Watch the full interview:
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “Tim Walz” by Tim Walz.
