Tim Walz: Leadership Under Scrutiny

In the coming days and weeks, you will hear a lot about Tim Walz. You'll hear about his leadership, you'll hear about his time in office, and you'll hear about his military service. But here's the truth you won't hear from the mainstream media: Tim Walz abandoned his men before a combat deployment and he abandoned his city when it was literally on fire. That's the kind of leader Tim Walz truly is.

You're already no doubt hearing about how Walz spent 24 years in the Army National Guard and retired as a command sergeant major. He is fond of referring to himself as the highest-ranking enlisted soldier to serve in Congress. Here's the truth: He indeed spent 24 years as an enlisted soldier in the Minnesota National Guard. As far as I can tell, he deployed once to Italy and once to Norway.

However, when it was finally his turn to deploy in the actual Global War on Terror, Walz instead chose his own aspirations over leadership. In a letter posted to Facebook in 2018, veterans from his unit said Walz retired from the National Guard after learning his battalion would be deployed to Iraq—though he assured his troops he would join them. Walz would have been the Battalion Command Sergeant Major, the highest-ranking non-commissioned officer and arguably the most important leader in his unit.

Failures in Leadership

In the moment they needed him most, when they were about to deploy to Iraq, Walz chose to abandon his men to run for Congress. According to sources within the unit, three of his soldiers died on that deployment. This isn't a leader. This is a man who uses others to further his own ambitions, then discards them when they become inconvenient.

He abandoned his men and left the military before completing the school necessary to become a Command Sergeant Major—though this hasn't stopped him from using the title on the Minnesota government site in his bio. To me as a combat veteran, this kind of abdication of leadership is unforgivable. It's the true measure of the man, and all I need to know about him.

Response to Crisis

But this wasn't his only failure of leadership. He did the same thing when it came to the 2020 Black Lives Matter riots. After allowing the largest city in his state to be overrun by violent protestors who burned entire districts to the ground, Walz scoffed at the mayor's request for National Guard support, referring to the Minnesota National Guard as a bunch of "19 year old cooks."

Were it anyone else, they could plead ignorant. But this was an unforgivable error for a 24-year veteran of the same State's Guard. Having served, Walz should have known that the Minnesota National Guard boasts 180 Military Police in the 34th Military Police Company and more in the 257th Military Police Company, as well as Air National Guard Security Forces, an infantry battalion, and a cavalry regiment.

Still, he refused to deploy his Guard to protect his residents. This isn't leadership; it's pandering to extremists to protect his personal ambition. Instead of holding responsible those who destroyed 1,500 businesses and buildings, caused $500 million in damage, and killed three people, he turned his ire on the police.

Call to Action

In the end, no matter what you hear about Tim Walz, this is the truth: when his men needed him before what would have been his only combat deployment, he was nowhere to be found. He bailed on them to chase political aspirations, and three of them died. When his state needed him, he was nowhere to be found. He waited days to call in the National Guard, froze in panic, and then three of his citizens died.

And now we’re expected to believe that when we need Tim Walz the most, when the fate of the country is on the line, he will be there for us. History shows us that this is too great a lie to believe.

Dan Hollaway is a veteran of the 82nd Airborne and holds a Master's in Homeland Security from Penn State University. He is the host of Drinkin' Bros Podcast and the Citizen Podcast.