Ohio Sen. JD Vance slammed the timing of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s retirement from a more-than-two-decades-long military career as a means of avoiding a deployment to Iraq on Wednesday, calling it “stolen valor garbage” and testing a new line of attack on the newly minted Democratic vice presidential contender.
There is no evidence that Walz retired to avoid a wartime deployment, and it’s a move that may not work — Walz has faced similar attacks from opponents before during successful races for Congress and governor, in which he explained his Army record in detail but did not make it a central part of his campaign.
The attacks are reminiscent of the 2004 campaign to discredit the distinguished war record of Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry, who served in Vietnam and later criticized the war — an effort led by Chris LaCivita, now a senior adviser to the Trump campaign.
What remains to be seen is if the tactic will be as successful 20 years later, when the Republican presidential nominee evaded military service, and Vance, despite his deployment to Iraq, has no combat experience either.
Yup. His battalion needed a CSM, and he was the CSM. I’m sure there was some sort of requirement that “within X months of promotion, soldier will attend SGM academy, etc. etc.” When you’ve already done 20+ years and you’re about to retire and go into politics, I completely understand deciding not to uproot your life for 10 months, or doing an 18-month Distance learning course (which still has a 2 week residence requirement at the end), and where taking a slot will deprive another NCO who may intend to serve longer from attending.
My dad (who is very weird and now pretty MAGA, unfortunately) did 10 years in the Marines, followed by another 20+ in the National Guard and Army Reserves, and retired as a CSM. That last push to get back into shape and study for E9 was grueling for a pharma rep in his late 40s, and he had to go hunting for a unit that even needed a CSM, eventually commuting for drill from Jacksonville to Tampa every month.
My best man from my wedding did twenty years active duty in the Navy, and his last post was as Commanding Officer. Yes, it was a small recruiting unit in our hometown, and it was completely structured in a way to let him retire as a CO in the town where he wanted to be after his military career, probably the same as the CO before him, but that’s just a thing they do. When you’re a good soldier/sailor/etc., the military looks after you and tries to help you meet some of your objective goals, even if it’s a bit squishy.
Walz and Harris should be a tiny bit more clear, at least in written materials where you can put the boring nuance, but there’s very little to see here and I don’t think it will matter much to swing voters.