Tim Walz. Um. Okay.

Tim Walz's wife Gwen, a former teacher, is a 'champion' of college behind bars (Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy, USA Today, August 7, 2024)

 

Lt. Colonel Duckworth has been investigated for stolen valor previously, as has CSM Walz.

Personally I am not a fan of either one.

 

There are some questions about his military record. Wiki is saying he actually retired as a Master Sergeant and some stuff circulating from vets (allegedly) says he dropped out of the Sergeants Major Academy and was therefore moved down one rank. His highest award seems to be ONE Army Commendation Medal. At that level one would have expected more. There are medals usually given to higher ranking enlisted soldiers and officers (especially at retirement). Quite curious.

 

Not at all curious.

First, there aren't any questions about his military record. None. No mysteries at all. It's all there.

Second, he didn't "drop out of the Sergeants Major Academy." It is a non-resident (DL) course and he didn't complete it. Huge difference.

Third, the Reserves and Guard are noted for a lack of decorations awarded. This is because the military tends to award decorations after the member completes an assignment and is moved to another permanently. That rarely happens in the Reserve and Guard, where members tend to stay with their units--often for an entire career.

Finally, he wasn't "moved down one rank." He had been promoted to Master Sergeant, then Sergeant Major. However, to retire as a sergeant major, he would have had to complete his senior NCO course AND served in grade for (I believe) 3 years. But instead of doing those things, he opted to retire as a master sergeant, his last permanent grade. (Not "rank.")

NB: I was enlisted, an NCO, and an officer. I served in both the Regular Air Force and the Air Force Reserve. While I had a pretty stellar enlisted experience, I was never decorated, not even after being selected for Officer Training School. (I was subsequently awarded 3 Commendation Medals and a Meritorious Service Medal.) It happens.

 

First, it is incorrect to say there aren't questions about his military record. There are. Whether they end up being substantive or not is another thing.

He didn't complete the requirements for the Sergeants Major Academy. Period.

Finally, I found it strange that you corrected me using rank for Master Sergeant and said it was a grade. I am younger than you but we were always told that rank is the title like Sergeant, Captain, and so on. Grade is a pay grade designation such as E-5 or O-3. And in fact we were chewed out for confusing the two.

 

Vance served a single four-year enlistment in the public affairs section in the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing, and according to his memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, the Republican nominee was “lucky to escape any real fighting.” Still, that hasn’t stopped Vance from accusing Walz, who served with the Army National Guard for 24 years, of exiting the service before his unit was deployed to Iraq.

Walz actually left his unit months before it received a mobilization order for Iraq. The unit deployed to Iraq almost a year after Walz retired.

“You introduced him as a combat correspondent, which was what his title was, but when you dig a little deeper into that, he was a public affairs specialist, someone who did not see combat, which certainly the title ‘combat correspondent’ kind of gives you a different impression. So he may be the imperfect messenger on that,” Keilar said.

https://newrepublic.com/post/184718/jd-vance-tim-walz-military-record-questions

 

Horse hockey. If he was in Iraq he was in a combat zone. These have official designations.

Waltz could have gotten run over in Italy. I understand there's some bad traffic.

I love when these guys downplay someone's service when they served in a combat zone. They may not have served outside the wire but it was still in a combat zone. These things have official designations you know.

So, calling himself a combat correspondent is not a stretch being that he was in a combat zone and has the MOS designation for public affairs.

I don't know what the Marines get but if he had been in the Army he would have got a combat patch for serving in a combat zone (by being in IRAQ). Civilians...yeesh.

 

Then you were chewed out mistakenly, because this is dead wrong.

"Grade" refers to titles like Captain and Staff Sergeant. But E-5 and O-3 are "pay grades."

"Rank" is a relative term. One person might out-rank (or "rank") the other.

I've held the grades of Staff Sergeant and Captain (among others). My respective pay grades were E-5 and O-3. But none of these were "ranks."

 

We will have to agree to disagree. Perhaps due to different branches and eras.

No biggie.

 

Different eras? Seriously?

 

Seriously. It is amazing how terminology seems to change relatively quickly so that you don't even use the same acronyms anymore in the military.

 

Not this time. While "rank" is often used to mean "grade," nothing about it has changed. We serve in grades and are paid in pay grades. One person out-ranks the other based on their grades.