Posted on 08/10/2024 6:17:31 PM PDT by kiryandil
Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN), Vice President Kamala Harris‘s running mate, may have known he was going to deploy before he used a “backdoor process” to get around his immediate superior in order to get his retirement approved.
His superior, former Minnesota National Guard Command Sgt. Maj. Doug Julin, explained to CNN those details.
Julin said his commander and himself, of the First Brigade 34th Infantry Division combat team, received a notification of sourcing in the fall of 2004. “We were informed that we would be alerted to go to Iraq within the next upcoming year, start preparing your team, getting your team together and let’s get the process in play,” he said.
“In approximately February of 2005, my boss, commander, and the command team, we scheduled a meeting at Camp Ripley Minnesota, for a meeting, getting everybody together so all the battalion sergeant majors, battalion commanders, and their staff would get to see each other and start the team-building there … at that meeting was Gov. Tim Walz.”
After the meeting, Julin said Walz asked to speak with him, and they sat down and spoke one-on-one. Julin said he informed him that Walz would be running for Congress but hadn’t been nominated yet.
Walz filed to run for Congress on Feb. 10, 2005.
In March or April of 2005, they had another meeting at Camp Ripley, in which Walz was present. At the meeting, they spoke about what their mission would be, how they were going to do it, and how they were going to build the team.
Julin explained that Walz then told him after that meeting that he had not been nominated and that he was “going forward with the battalion.” Walz would retire in May 2005, not long after.
Now in June 2005, Julin walked into a meeting at the camp again, and was told Walz had “quit.” “The issue that had came out of this was, first of all, how did Tim Walz quit without discussing with me because I was his next level of leadership.”
“The other issue that came out of this was that the individual that approved this was two levels higher than myself in the enlisted corps and should have had Tim Walz come back to me and discuss why he was going forward or not going forward now after he already told me he was going forward,” he said.
Julin said because of Walz’s rank, he should’ve known protocol for how he was supposed to go about exiting the military. “Tim Walz knew the process and procedures, he went around me and above and beyond me … basically went in there to get somebody to back him … it was just a backdoor process.”
The unit was then alerted toward its mobilization in July 2005. Walz would later go on to win his primary in Sept. 2006, and win his congressional seat in November of that year.
Julin’s comments likely help clear the air around the process in which Walz retired as there has been confusion in the media and in the public as to whether he retired in order to avoid being deployed to Iraq.
According to Julin’s timeline, Walz would have been aware he was deploying to Iraq as he was set to retire. What isn’t known is when he filed his retirement papers, which could’ve been many months in advance.
Other soldiers who served with Walz say the negative backlash against him is “just not right.”
“I don’t agree with a lot of his politics, but Tim Walz is a good man, and he was a good soldier,” Master Sgt. Thomas Eustice told Fox 9. “And for people to vilify him, it’s just not right.”
Either way, Walz could face more backlash in the coming months about how his 24-year military career ended.
With pathological liars like Walz it is critical to ignore everything they say and carefully watch everything they do.
Okay I would be more than happy to give Walz a pass on his unfortunate exit from the service just before being deployed if the records show that he signed his reitirement papers before he was aware of his unit being deployed to Iraq.
He should publish is retirement papers so that the voting public is aware that the Democrat's VP nominee is a coward or not.
I think that the voters are entitled to know and Walz has the power to inform us or not.
What is he waiting for.
His unit was given almost a one year notice that it was highly likely they would be deployed.
He may not have known for certain but he was not going to take the chance.
It actually goes both ways. During the First Gulf War, weight standards were lifted, and everyone could reenlist. But when the war ended (Peace Dividend), units were down sized and everyone was scrambling for a slot.
I haven’t seen this posted elsewhere but a National Review writer found this C-SPAN video from 2016 in which the interviewer says that Walz served with his unit in Afghanistan, and Walz nods along.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?405292-3/us-military-forces-reduction
Now, perhaps nodding and failing to correct doesn’t quite rise to the level of “stolen valor” for which he could be convicted, but it’s nonetheless interesting in the context of his other misrepresentations
Wasn’t he a teacher ? I think you missed the teacher pension
And, if anything happens to Kamala, he’s our our leader. That aw shucks. Im just a soccer Dad act is so transparent. The guy is so obviously a con man.
Backdoor Timpon!
Good one!
Probably a pair of 403(b)s for him and his wife.
Nice chunk of change there.
Ouch!
Betcha it was news to him all these years later that Walz ran when it came time to serve.
I believe your Army Retirement estimate (he is entitled to say US Army Retired) is probably about half your estimate. Reserve and NG retirement pay is based on points, basically one gets a point a day for a max of 365 a year (+1 for Leaps). Normal is 48 Drill points, 14 points Two week annual training, and 15 membership points. Basically 75 points a year. 24 years x 75 points = 1800. However, he earned more for Basic, Italy, and other active duty. To be generous, let’s say he retired with 3000 points.
7500 points about equates to 20 years active service allowing retirement at 50% base pay. So if he had 3000 points that would be 40% of 1/2 his base pay (E8 with 24 years which is about $7000 a month). So half of $7K is $3500, and 40% of that is $1400 a month. Times 12 is about $17,000 a year.
So $15000 a year is probably a very close estimate to what he is actually getting.
What to understand is that states’ National Guards are highly political. Each state has an Adjutant General (AG), a two star General appointed by the Governor, they are the most senior officer in each state.
So the AG’s cousin Billy Bob who was a sergeant finds himself the 1SG of a company, and then a CSM of a Battalion, Brigade, or Division. I’ve seen this. And it is worse in the officer ranks. The chance of getting into any National Guard unit as a Major or above from outside the state is close to zero.
I would not be surprised to find Walz connected to Minnesota National Guard Leadership from 1995 to 2005.
Thanks for the update!
I purposefully low-balled the Army retirement pay [all of the retirement stuff, as a matter of fact] so as not to come off as "nutter" about it.
So what you’re saying is that he’s pretty much crowding half a million a year in retirement income...
It's interesting that the same Minnesota National Guard people who apparently elevated him are now cr@pping all over him for bailing before deployment...
check out this little tidbit on the Army pension if you want your blood pressure to spike:
https://freerepublic.com/focus/chat/4257655/posts?page=34#34
Sorry - I added a zero [150,000 versus your 15,000]. My bad!
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