The Minnesota National Guard revealed earlier this week that Gov. Tim Walz, the 2024 Democrat vice presidential candidate, had his rank reduced to master sergeant a day before he retired, which means that he never retired as a command sergeant major as he has claimed numerous times in political ads and in political settings. Minnesota National Guard Director of Manpower & Personnel Army Col. Ryan Cochran said in a statement sent out to journalists on August 13, 2024 (emphasis added):
Governor Tim Walz received his notification of eligibility for retirement on August 3, 2002. He was promoted to sergeant major (E-9) on September 17, 2004, and immediately began serving as the command sergeant major for the 1st Battalion, 125th Field Artillery while his packet was submitted to the National Guard Bureau to appoint him to command sergeant major (E-9). Once approved by NGB, he was laterally appointed to command sergeant major (E-9) on April 1, 2005. He retired from the Minnesota National Guard on May 16, 2005. Our records do not indicate when he made his request to retire. Leadership reviews and approves all requests to retire. He was administratively reduced to master sergeant (E-8) on May 15, 2005, because he did not complete all required U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy coursework.
The statement said Walz’s rank was reduced to master sergeant (E-8) on May 15, 2005, and he retired on May 16, 2005. According to a publicly available Army National Guard document, Walz had his military record corrected on September 10, 2005.
Despite retiring as a master sergeant on May 15, 2005, Walz spent his entire congressional career claiming he was a retired command sergeant major — despite not being a retired command sergeant major. And despite serving in a command sergeant major role provisionally and having that rank rescinded, he put the rank on coins he handed out as a congressman, and on his then-Twitter bio. However, Walz claimed he was a retired command sergeant major (E-9) in his first political ad for U.S. Congress in 2006, and continued doing so throughout his time as a congressman.
He even put the higher, unearned rank of command sergeant major on challenge coins to hand out to people, and put it on his then-Twitter account bio. The Harris-Walz campaign has never addressed why Walz falsely claimed to be a retired command sergeant major, although the campaign quietly updated his campaign biography to reflect he was not a retired command sergeant major but just served as one, according to Politico.
He has also not addressed allegations that he retired to avoid deploying to Iraq, made by multiple men who served with him, including his commander at the time, Retired Army Command Sergeant Major Doug Julin. Julin said in an interview with CNN that Walz had assured him he would lead his battalion into war in Iraq, but then went around him to get approval to retire early.
The campaign has only said Walz “misspoke,” after it circulated a video of Walz in 2018 saying he carried weapons “in war,” despite never being in combat or deploying to a war zone in his 24 year military reservist career.
