August 10, 2024
The stolen valor of Tim Walz
By Mike McDaniel
I was an enlisted Airman, serving as a Security Police Officer during the Cold War. I did not reach high rank. I served stateside and experienced no combat. I didn’t make a career of it, nor was I festooned with medals, though I did get some “attaboys.” I am, therefore, not America’s foremost expert on the military, though I did learn what the lowliest troop in any branch learns and never forgets: one does not claim awards and rank they did not earn.
Doing that grossly violates military concepts of duty and honor, and diminishes the sacrifices and achievements of those who did earn awards and attain rank. There are few things in the military that will bring greater disgust and shame down on those who forget those concepts. Probably worse is claiming one served in combat when one didn’t. Even those who served in a combat zone but never went outside the wire will normally go to great lengths to say: “Yeah, I served in Wherethehellisthatastan, but I was never in combat.”
Doing that, trying to aggrandize oneself without the accomplishments that accompany such aggrandizement, is known as Stolen Valor, and few things anger our military members--active duty, reserves and veterans--more. They all know the sacrifices of military life, and it is adherence to duty and honor, and loyalty to one’s compatriots, that binds them together and sets them apart from those who never served. It’s an unforgivable betrayal.
It's interesting to note how many Democrat politicians have committed the sin of Stolen Valor. John Kerry, who served in Vietnam, but put himself up for awards he didn’t earn, later lied about his service and betrayed his country, and Richard Blumenthal who claimed to have served in Vietnam but didn’t, come to mind. In that hall of shame, we can now add Kamala Harris’ Veep pick, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.
more
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2024/08/the_stolen_valor_of_tim_walz.html
