Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz - the vice presidential candidate pick of Democrat presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris - has listed on his official biography a higher military rank than the one he ultimately retired with, drawing criticism from some veterans and accusations of stolen valor.
Walz served in the Minnesota Army National Guard and retired at the rank of master sergeant, or an E-8.
His bio implies that he retired at the rank of command sergeant major, or an E-9.
Two retired Army Command Sergeant Majors, Thomas Behrends and Paul Herr, wrote in a letter published November 2, 2018, in the West Central Tribune, a local news outlet, that Walz on September 17, 2004, was "Conditionally promoted" to Command Sergeant Major but then later failed to meet the conditions of the promotion, which they said was later nullified.
In November of 2005, while the battalion trained for war at Camp Shelby, Mississippi, it received an offer from retired Master Sergeant Walz.
Behrends went on to serve in Iraq on a nearly two-year deployment - while Walz ran for Congress and began calling himself "Command Sergeant Major."
Behrends told the outlet: "He was saying that and there were campaign letters coming in the mail saying that. They said, right on there, he's a retired command sergeant major. Just tooting his own horn, hanging on the coattails of people that actually are command sergeant majors that went through all the process and put all the time in."
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