Both the unit Chaplain and Walz’s replacement have made it publicly clear Walz knew about the upcoming deployment and actually made an end run around chain of command to put in retirement papers. Both called him a coward. When the Chaplain publicly calls you out, you have to really be a piece of shite.
So no gray area on that.
And yes, providing support services from a barracks it Italy counts as “ support” to OEF. So technically, he did “ support” OEF but its clear from the archive articles, interviews and statements that Tiananmen Tim passed himself off as as a combat veteran, even alluding to sharing the suffering of PTSD.
The guy is at best a clown car Walter Mitty and at worst, an embellisher of his resume with the feats of other better men…to advance his political career.
In 68-76 I ‘supported’ the Viet Nam war with long range ALS commo. I didn’t ‘deploy’. I was Permanently Changed of Station (PCS). I’ve never once tried to imply or weasel word that I served in a combat zone - EVER. 6 yrs 11 months overseas out of a stint of 8 years and 3 months.
Just saying 24 years in the National Guard would have been good enough for me.