A lot of people were given a provisional rank of general in WWII and then moved to colonel post war.
If someone like that ran for office claiming to be a WWII general, would that be acceptable?
I think there is a difference between being given a field promotion to command troops in battle, and being given a provisional promotion to attend a college and then dropping out of that college and losing the rank.
At the Harris-Walz rally going on right now, Harris just called him "Sergeant Major" Walz, so he's no longer using the Command Sergeant Major rank that he claimed when he entered Congress.
-PJ