The chaplain of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s area artillery regiment mentioned there isn’t any excuse for the Democratic VP choose to have deserted his Nationwide Guard unit earlier than a essential deployment — not even working for Congress.
“In our world, to drop out after a WARNORD [warning order] is issued is cowardly, particularly for a senior enlisted man,” retired Capt. Corey Bjertness, now a pastor in Horace, North Dakota, informed The Submit.
Bjertness, 61, was the chaplain for the first Battalion, one hundred and twenty fifth Area Artillery, of which Walz was command sergeant main earlier than retiring in 2005, two months earlier than the unit deployed to Iraq. Walz has mentioned he did so to run for Congress, and he was elected the subsequent yr.
“Operating for Congress isn’t an excuse,” Bjertness mentioned of Walz’s determination to give up. “I finished all the pieces and went to struggle. I left my spouse with three youngsters and a 6-year-old and I used to be gone for 19 months.”
Thomas Behrends, the command sergeant main who changed Walz, beforehand informed The Submit of the Minnesota governor: “He had the chance to serve his nation, and mentioned ‘Screw you’ to america.”
Bjertness added that leaving his troops at such a essential time was irresponsible of Walz, who served for greater than twenty years with the Military Nationwide Guard in Nebraska and Minnesota.
“That signifies that a brand new grasp sergeant wants to come back in and to get to know everybody. Their job is to maintain everybody secure and wholesome,” the pastor mentioned.
“I wanted to hit the bottom working and deal with the troops — and inform them we had been going to struggle,” Behrends, a Minnesota farmer, beforehand informed The Submit of the five hundred troopers underneath his command. “For a man in that place, to give up is cowardice.”
Veteran Tom Schilling agreed — and mentioned that criticism of Walz’s retirement is “not a political factor. It’s a personality factor.”
Schilling, 67, had already served within the Nationwide Guard for 16 years when he re-enlisted after 9/11. He deployed with Walz’s unit to Iraq in 2005.
Bjertness confused that “Gov. Walz ought to obtain the total honors due him for his 24 years of service as a guardsman. Nevertheless, the opposite allegations, which the Nationwide Guard members I’ve visited with imagine to be completely true, make me imagine we’ve yet one more politician who has a really free dedication to the reality.”
Some veterans have lengthy been upset that Walz, the two-term governor of Minnesota, for years publicly recognized himself as a retired command grasp sergeant — regardless of having been demoted when he retired earlier than finishing the two-year dedication required for that rank.
On Thursday, Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential marketing campaign up to date Walz’s on-line biography, eradicating a reference to him as “retired command sergeant main.” It now says the 60-year-old as soon as served on the command sergeant main rank.
“He used stolen valor for private achieve,” Schilling informed The Submit. “It’s unhealthy within the eyes of the troopers, particularly now if he’s one step away from commander-in-chief and doesn’t step as much as lead.”
Walz’s previous unit, whose major job was working safety for US convoys in Iraq, suffered three casualties through the deployment he missed — together with Kyle Miller, 19, who joined the Nationwide Guard whereas nonetheless in highschool, and David Berry, 37.
Schilling mentioned he knew each males, and nonetheless spends time with their households to honor their deaths yearly.
“He was a superb child, actually upbeat and optimistic,” Schilling mentioned of Miller. “He was the primary man to volunteer to trip behind the Humvee — probably the most harmful a part of the transport.” Miller died when his car was hit by a roadside bomb in June 2006. Berry was killed a number of months later in a blast that critically wounded different guardsmen.
Miller’s mom informed the Each day Mail this week that Walz had taken “the coward’s method out” by retiring earlier than deployment.
“These youngsters, they put their life on maintain for 2 years. Many of those youngsters had companies that failed after they got here again they usually had been newly married and the divorce charge went by way of the roof,” mentioned Schilling. “They made the final word sacrifice.”
Schilling mentioned he and his household are pleased with his service, and that the troopers he served with had been doubtless higher off with Behrends — whom he described as a “true chief” — than Walz.
“Truthfully, I feel we lucked out after we bought Command Sergeant Behrends,” he mentioned of the CMS who took over after Walz retired. “Possibly Walz resigned as a result of he knew he wasn’t as much as the job, that he didn’t have the boldness to steer.”
Behrends, who’s from Brewster, Minn., referred to as the Democratic vice presidential candidate “a traitor” for the timing of his retirement.
“When your nation calls, you’re purported to run into battle — not the opposite method,” the retired command sergeant main informed The Submit Tuesday. “He ran away. It’s unhappy.”
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