A veteran who served in the battalion with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz told Newsmax on Friday that Walz was "deceiving" people about the rank he achieved before retiring and faulted him for leaving the service before the unit was sent to Iraq.
Walz has come under fire over campaign materials that referred to himself as a "retired command sergeant major," a rank that Walz did serve under at one time, but his rank was reverted to master sergeant upon leaving the Army National Guard because he did not complete coursework for the U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy.
When asked about Walz as a leader, Battalion Sgt. 1st Class Tom Schilling told "Wake Up America" that "for 24 years, he did fine" as a battalion leader, but as "commander-in-chief of Minnesota … he didn’t even respond for the first three days" of protests following the killing of George Floyd.
He went on to say that it was "dishonorable" for Walz to retire with "two years left on his service contract," but said he wouldn’t "use the word liar" to describe him amidst questions that the governor exaggerated his rank.
"I think deceiving is probably something I’m more comfortable with," Schilling said, adding, "When you serve 24 years like he did, he gets the big picture. … When you do what he did and go out into the civilian world and use that to get an advantage on other people, saying he is something that he’s not, that’s really hard to take."
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