Tim Walz's Stolen Valor

We have previously written about Tim Walz’s 2018 comment about “weapons that he carried in war”, which more than implied that he had been deployed to combat during his 24 years in the Army National Guard. Rather than having been deployed to Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan, the fact is that Walz was deployed to Italy in support of that operation.

A harmless slip of the tongue, a misstatement?

Now comes this revelation from a 2016 C-Span interview of then-Congressman Walz. As he was being introduced by the interviewer, she read his bio which included the statement that he “served with his battalion at Operating(sic) Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan”. As the interviewer is reading the bio points, Walz nods along, including the above point. The clip of this interview was replayed by C-Span and can be viewed here.

I think it is becoming obvious that Walz has intentionally misled people about his role in Operation Enduring Freedom. He was never deployed to Afghanistan. His deployment in support of Operation Enduring Freedom was to Italy. As the recent C-Span episode (linked above) points out, when people are interviewed, and they are not universally known, it is common practice for the interviewer to rely on bio information that is normally provided by the interviewee. When she came to that point, Walz should have made sure the record was corrected-that he was not in Afghanistan. He did not do that. Instead, he nodded in assent.

As I have pointed out before, whenever I talk about my own military service, which came during the Vietnam War, I am quick to add that my tour of duty was in Germany, not Vietnam. Were I to allow people to assume I was in Vietnam, I would consider myself guilty of stolen valor.

I salute Walz for serving 24 years in the National Guard. But there is a big distinction between spending your entire career in non-combat zones and serving in a there of war. Tim Walz has deliberately inflated his military record in the worst possible way. He has stolen the valor of those who did serve in Afghanistan.