Retired U.S. Army Command Sgt. Maj. Paul Herr, Retired U.S. Army Command Sgt. Maj. Tom Behrends, Retired U.S. Army Sergeant First Class Tom Schilling and Retired U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Rodney Town joined SirusXM host Megyn Kelly in an hour-long interview released on Labor Day that set out in clear terms the depths of the ‘stolen valor’ allegations against Minnesota’s Democrat Governor and Vice Presidential nominee Tim Walz.
Unflinchingly and at times with visibly restrained anger, the four veterans who served alongside Walz meticulously laid out their allegations that the Democrat: has inappropriately, repeatedly, and knowingly, used his provisional, and later revoked rank of Command Sergeant Major for political gain, abandoned his unit the 1st Battalion, 125th Field Artillery Regiment, and claimed to have carried “weapons in war,” falsely implying that he served in a combat zone, and took retirement from his unit when he learned that it was set to deploy to Iraq, only to later claim he was a veteran of Operation Enduring Freedom.
The Veterans’ criticisms of Walz were stark describing Walz actions as “morally indefensible,” stating he has “no integrity,” and referring to him as a “habitual liar” in teaser footage posted to X by Kelly.
The interview was also an opportunity for the Army veterans to rebut defensive remarks about Walz’s service from Ranking Member of the House Armed Service’s Committee,
Democrat Congressman Adam Smith (D-WA). In a previous interview Smith told Kelly that the veterans’ allegations against Walz or as he called them “the lies are being told about Tim Walz “ are “simply not what the facts show,” and added, “If you are a veteran and you are saying publicly that Tim Walz decided to get out because he didn't want to go to Iraq then you are saying something that you cannot possibly know to be true.”
CSM Paul Herr(ret,) answered the accusation telling Kelly, “Whatever camera is looking at me, this is how I know, Adam Smith, that he is again a liar. Because he (Walz) told me and other Sergeant Majors in the meetings that ‘you can count on me I will deploy with my unit,’ his words to my ears and others. So that's how I know I'm not making it up.”
Herr explained, “I have thousands of soldiers, thousands of soldiers that I took in the combat and brought back all well.
If you know me if you knew my blood was boiling right now because Walz has done nothing but lie to feather his own bed his entire career. That's how I know. I was there.
I just didn't make this up. Tom and I just didn't make this stuff up. I was in the meetings. I was part of it. Soldiers died, soldiers went on this you think they're parents didn't want their… their soldiers to take a pass, take a knee and maybe go on the next one, or go on something that maybe Isn't So dangerous? You're darn skippy. He came out and said he was gonna go all the time working behind Doug Jalen's back, going behind the chain of command's back to… to secure his retirement. I mean I still don't know who signed the 4187 to… to allow him to get out. He would have got caught up in a stop loss for sure and he wouldn't have gone anywhere. He already claimed that he wasn't going to do he wasn't going to go out he was going to deploy forward with his unit. “
He added that Walz’s decision to not deploy with his troops was “A morale Crusher, it chews away at the fabric of the military and its ability to do its Mission and it's just… It may not legally be wrong it is morally indefensible.”
“He was literally a Sergeant Major, on paper, conditionally promoted for 14 days,” Herr said.
Later in the interview Herr added, “He’s a habitual liar, he lies about everything. He lies about stuff that doesn’t make sense.” He explained that by claiming to have served in combat, Walz was “taking a piece of their thunder, and you’re trying to capture it and put it in a bottle for yourself, and use that for your own benefit.”
“What I don't understand …is when you say that you served in a function that you didn't. If you served in combat, let's just go there, ‘I served in combat here’ or ‘I did this there’ you are robbing… you are robbing that suffering and that commitment and trifling it down for all the men and women that we have sent in harm's way and have not come back or have come back less. And the people that have their tortured memories okay and everybody that did that commitment you belittle it.”
CSM Tom Schilling(ret.) took over Walz’s assignment with the 125th Field Artillery Regiment and described the impact of his retirement to Kelly.
“When he when he quit in May it was like the rumor went across the state that he had quit and it was like ‘who the hell does that?’ I mean it was just unbelievable that a CSM abandoned his troops you know 500 soldiers basically. But beyond that there's a thousand parents out there that expect that person to lead those people into combat and to train them and to and to do everything they can equip them properly and you know try to get them all home alive if possible. And besides those thousand parents there's all the sisters and brothers out there and everybody in a small hometowns in in the National Guard. I mean there's there's thousands of towns across Minnesota that have guard people in them it's not just where the units at I mean all those little small towns come together well all this great Community is behind all those soldiers there and for that sergeant major or a first sergeant or an E7 or anybody in an NCO position to quit like that it's like losing the patriarch of the family.”
The group described their greatest objection to Walz’s representation of his service being centered around his allowing others to describe him as a veteran of Operation Enduring
Freedom. While he served in Italy supporting US action in Afghanistan in 2003, he was not deployed to Afghanistan or Iraq and never received an Expeditionary Medal as a result.
'You were in Italy ... when you're sucking down a latte, and people are getting shot at, there's a big difference,' Herr said.
In the course of the interview, all four men came to the ultimate conclusion that Walz could have easily come clean and avoided the controversy surrounding his service, and expressed bafflement that he has not. They all closed the interview by agreeing that he should simply apologize. Apologize to his fellow servicemen and to the First Congressional District and
Minnesota at large for the misrepresentation.
Megyn Kelly’s full interview with the four Army veterans is available for viewing on YouTube without a subscription.
Matthew Holloway is a contributor for Conservative HQ. Follow him on X for his latest stories, or email tips to Matthew@theconservativefreelancer.com.
Wicked Walz is a liberal so that automatically means that he's beneath contempt. He's a cowardly liberal so that makes him doubly beneath contempt.