Letters: Accusing Tim Walz of ‘stolen valor’ unfair | Opinions and Editorials

I am appreciative and grateful for the military service of Lt. Col. Richard H. Ellis, Tim Walz, JD Vance, and everyone else who is currently serving or has served honorably in our armed forces.

However, when Ellis accuses Tim Walz of “stolen valor” in a recent letter, I must object. He seems to be referring to Walz’s response to the 2018 Parkland school shooting in which Walz used the phrase “weapons of war that I carried in war.” As a firearms instructor during Operation Enduring Freedom, Walz certainly must have carried a “weapon of war” during a time of war. Could that statement leave the incorrect impression that Walz had personally engaged in combat? Yes. Could he have spoken more precisely? Yes. But it wasn’t a lie, and his point was about the weapon used by a school shooter, not his role in the military.

As for his rank, Walz was promoted to command sergeant major in 2004 and held that rank when he retired in 2005. His rank was dropped to master sergeant a few months after his retirement because he had not completed additional required coursework at the US Army Sergeants Major Academy.

In contrast, a man who is running for president evaded mandatory military service through a dubious medical deferment for bone spurs (which apparently never impacted his activities), said in a 1997 Howard Stern interview that he was a “brave soldier” for avoiding STDs during his single years, called the marines who died at Belleau Wood “suckers” for getting killed and recently filmed a campaign video at Arlington Cemetery after someone in his entourage shoved aside a cemetery employee who was trying the enforce rules prohibiting filming. Someone who has shown so much contempt for our military does not deserve to be their Commander in Chief.