Lieutenant Colonel John Kolb, the former battalion commander of the National Guard unit Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (D) served in, has condemned Walz’s actions as a serviceman.
Kolb became lieutenant colonel several months after Walz left in 2005.
In a Facebook post, Kolb wrote that he does not “regret that Tim Walz retired early from the Minnesota Army National Guard, did not complete the Sergeants Major Academy, broke his enlistment contract or did not successfully complete any assignment as a Sergeant Major. Unwittingly, he got out of the way for better leadership.”
The man who took Walz’s place, Thomas Behrends, was the “right leader at the right time,” Kolbs wrote. “He sacrificed to answer the call, leaving his family, business and farming-partner brother to train, lead and care for soldiers. He earned the privilege of being called Command Sergeant Major. Like a great leader he ran toward and not away from the guns.”
“I have no opinion of Mr. Walz’s decision to leave service at the time he did.” Kolb continued.
“It was his right to retire early. I also have no criticism of his service as an E7 and E8 in the MNARNG. By all accounts and on the record, he was a competent Chief of Firing Battery/Gunnery Sergeant and First Sergeant. I cannot say the same of his service sitting, frocked, in the CSM chair,” Kolb wrote. “He did not earn the rank or successfully complete any assignment as an E9. It is an affront to the Noncommissioned Officer Corps that he continues to glom onto the title. I can sit in the cockpit of an airplane, it does not make me a pilot. Similarly, when the demands of service and leadership at the highest level got real, he chose another path. #notmyCSM”
Walz’s official bio claims that “after 24 years in the Army National Guard, Command Sergeant Major Walz retired from the 1-125th Field Artillery Battalion in 2005. Tim won his first election to the United States House of Representatives in 2006 and was re-elected for another five terms serving Minnesota’s First Congressional District in Southern Minnesota.”
According to two retired Army Command Sergeant Majors, however, Walz was “conditionally promoted” to Command Sergeant Major but later failed to meet the conditions of the promotion.
