Lieutenant Colonel John Kolb, the former battalion commander for the unit that Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (D) has been accused of abandon...
Lieutenant Colonel John Kolb, the former battalion commander for the unit that Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (D) has been accused of abandoning before it was deployed to Iraq, slammed the 60-year-old Democrat this week for stolen valor.
Kolb’s comments come as Walz has faced several days of controversy over misconstruing his service record and his exit from the National Guard.
“Feeling a need to say this: I do not regret that Tim Walz retired early from the Minnesota Army National Guard, did not complete the Sergeants Major Academy, broke his enlistment contract or did not successfully complete any assignment as a Sergeant Major,” said Kolb. “Unwittingly, he got out of the way for better leadership. Thomas Behrends was the right leader at the right time.”
Kolb noted that Behrends, not Walz, “sacrificed to answer the call, leaving his family, business and farming-partner brother to train, lead and care for soldiers.”
“He earned the privilege of being called Command Sergeant Major,” he said. “Like a great leader he ran toward and not away from the guns.”
Kolb said that Walz “did not earn the rank or successfully complete any assignment as an E9” and that his claim that he did “is an affront to the Noncommissioned Officer Corps.”
“I can sit in the cockpit of an airplane, it does not make me a pilot,” he added. “Similarly, when the demands of service and leadership at the highest level got real, he chose another path.”
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