Over the past several days there’s been quite a bit of discussion and debate about the military service of Gov. Tim Walz, D-Minn. But let’s cut through the noise.
As a veteran of two wars, I can tell you that there are three things old soldiers never forget: the name of their basic training drill sergeant, the rank at which they were discharged or retired, and their time deployed in a combat zone.
Walz seems to have trouble with the latter two.
Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate has made his military service an issue in this election because he has — in the words of some of his political allies — “misspoken” about his service in the National Guard.
Please understand, I’m not questioning his service to our nation, which was by all accounts honorable. It’s his repeated “misrepresentation” of his deployment status and his military rank that have caused Walz and the Democrats political heartburn, and rightly so.
Walz’s former unit deployed to a war zone; he did not. He retired in 2005, just a few months before his fellow soldiers were sent off to Iraq.
Thousands of service members have never deployed to a combat zone. That doesn’t lessen their service to our great nation. But on occasion over the years Walz has, at the very least, suggested that he did deploy to a combat zone. As a member of the Minnesota National Guard, Walz was indeed deployed in the War on Terror, but he was a long
