Walz’s exit from Minnesota National Guard left openings for critics to pounce on his military record

WASHINGTON — John Kolb, a retired Minnesota National Guard colonel, knew Tim Walz by reputation as an “excellent leader” who adroitly guided the enlisted troops in his field artillery battalion. Distinction with a difference “I’m a retired command sergeant major,” Walz said in 2006 as he campaigned to unseat the six-term Republican incumbent in Minnesota’s 1st Congressional District. It’s rare.” Walz was command sergeant major of the Minnesota Guard’s 1st Battalion, 125th Field Artillery for less than a year, according to the Guard’s personnel office. Facing questions about Walz’s record, the Harris campaign replaced the phrase “a retired command sergeant major” from Walz’s online biography with wording that says he served as one. Shortly before votes were cast in Minnesota’s gubernatorial election, Behrends hung a large yellow banner from a grain bin on his farm that read, “Walz Is A Traitor.” Behrends and a fellow retired command sergeant major, Paul Herr, paid to publish a letter in a Minnesota newspaper claiming that Walz had for years “embellished and selectively omitted facts and circumstances” about his military career.