Harris campaign tweaks Walz’s military bio after Republican attacks

Walz retired as master sergeant for benefits purposes because he hadn’t completed the required coursework

Kamala Harris’s campaign has tweaked information about Tim Walz’s military record on its website after questions were raised about her running mate’s career with the US Army National Guard.

The website switched language describing Walz as a “retired command sergeant major” to “rising to the rank of Command Sergeant Major,” Politico reported.

The Independent emailed a spokesperson for the Harris campaign for comment.

Walz, who Harris announced as her running mate on Tuesday, enlisted in the National Guard at 17 and served for 24 years, the website states. Throughout his life, he also served as a high school geography teacher and football coach before being elected to the US House of Representatives in 2006.

In 2018, Walz became Minnesota’s governor. He was reelected in 2022.

The campaign website for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz reportedly changed a description of Walz’s military service this week (Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

Republican opponent JD Vance has claimed that Walz lied about his military record by referring to himself as a “retired command sergeant major” and accused him of “stolen valor.”

Walz served as a command sergeant major but retired as a master sergeant for benefits purposes because he hadn’t completed the required coursework, according to said Army Lt. Col. Kristen Augé, the Minnesota Guard’s public affairs officer.

“When the US Marine Corps asked me to go to Iraq to serve my country, I did it,” Vance said during a rally this week. “When Timz Walz was asked by his country to go to Iraq, he dropped out of the Army and allowed his unit to go without him. I think that’s shameful.”

At a campaign rally this week for Walz and Harris, Walz referred to Vance as “creepy” and “weird”.

Vance wasn’t the only person this week to dispute Walz’s military service record. The Minnesota National Guard told Just The News that Walz did not hold the rank of command sergeant major when he retired.

A section of the Minnesota governor’s website still states he retired command sergeant major.

According to Army records, Walz’s nearly two and a half decades in the Minnesota Guard began at age 17 and ended with him holding the rank of Command Sergeant Major, the highest possible rank for an enlisted soldier.

Like most National Guard soldiers, he was frequently deployed in response to national disasters, but he also was sent overseas to Italy in support of Operation Enduring Freedom, the US mission to Afghanistan that toppled the Taliban in the wake of the September 11 attacks.

According to military records, Walz officially retired from the Minnesota National Guard in May 2005, two months before his unit received word that it would be deployed, four months before deployment preparations began and ten months before the unit deployed.