A former battalion commander of Tim Walz’s National Guard unit is the latest to attack the vice presidential nominee for stolen valor, saying it’s an “affront” for him to claim a title he did not earn — and accusing him of running when service got too tough.
John Kolb, who became Lieutenant Colonel of the Minnesota unit a few months after Walz quit to run for Congress, joined the attacks soon after Vice President Kamala Harris admitted her running mate “misspoke” about retiring as a Command Sergeant Major.
In a widely shared Facebook post, Kolb said Walz not only “retired early” and “broke his enlistment contract,” the Democrat also failed to “complete the Sergeants Major Academy” and “did not successfully complete any assignment as a Sergeant Major.”
Cuttingly, Kolb said he did “not regret” any of that — because Walz “got out the way for better leadership.”
But he was infuriated by Walz “sitting, frocked, in the [Command Sergeant Major] chair.”
“He did not earn the rank or successfully complete any assignment as an E9,” Kolb said of the highest rank in the unit.
“I can sit in the cockpit of an airplane, it does not make me a pilot,” Kolb wrote in a post with the hashtag #NotmyCSM.
“Similarly, when the demands of service and leadership at the highest level got real, he chose another path.”
Kolb shared his views in a post with Thomas Behrends, the Guardsman who replaced Walz when he suddenly quit and has since called him a “coward” and a “traitor.”
He drew a clear contrast between Walz and the man who replaced him, saying Behrends “sacrificed to answer the call” and “earned the privilege of being called Command Sergeant Major.”
The post was shared by many, including former first son Donald Trump Jr.
“Holy shit, Tim Walz’s Battalion Commander absolutely destroys him over his Stolen Valor. How long is the leftwing media going to keep ignoring all of this?” Trump Jr. asked.
Walz, who quit the Minnesota Army National Guard just before Kolb came into power, has faced heat from veterans for misrepresenting his rank.
The two-term Democratic governor had been facing pressure to clarify his military record after a 2018 video surfaced of him touting his career in the National Guard as a reason for increased gun control.
“We can make sure that those weapons of war, that I carried in war, is the only place where those weapons are at,” Walz said in the clip.
Sen. JD Vance, former President Donald Trump’s running mate, has jumped to capitalize on Walz’s blunder.
“What bothers me about Tim Walz is this stolen valor garbage. Do not pretend to be something that you’re not,” Vance said. “I’d be ashamed if I was him and I lied about my military service like he did.”
