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--:-- John Bickley: Welcome to Morning Wire, I'm John Bickley.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And I'm Georgia Howe.
--:-- John Bickley: Today, we're discussing the military record of Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz. He's been accused of exaggerating his rank and role. Joining us to discuss this is retired Command Sergeant Major Thomas Behrens, who actually filled the void left by Walls after he announced his retirement from the force in 2005.
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--:-- John Bickley: Tom, thank you so much for joining us and thank you for your service.
--:-- Thomas Behrens: You're welcome.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Let's start with what prompted your involvement in this entire story, which has really taken over the national headlines. By 2016, you'd begun to call attention to the fact that Tim Walz was mischaracterizing his military service. What was he saying and what did you initially do about it?
--:-- Thomas Behrens: It originally started even way before that. I mean, when we actually got deployed, he got elected to Congress. I mean, he was retired command sergeant major this and that. And I was out, I'm in the first district where he was our congressman and yearly could see this advertising out there. It'd be a flyer in the mail, you know, and I just throw it away. And I brought it up to my colonel. I said, you know, what are we going to do with this guy? I mean, he keeps lying about his rank. He says he's the highest ranking member in Congress. And he got pinned. He got acting command sergeant major. He acted in that position for a few months, but he was never a bona fide one. He didn't get it for retirement. He retired as a master sergeant. For him to say he's a retired command sergeant major is wrong.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So you initially reached out to him personally, got no response back. And then you started to feel when he ran for governor that maybe you had to take this up a notch in terms of public awareness. And the media, you say, just ignored your claims.
--:-- Thomas Behrens: They not only ignored it, I mean, the Star Tribune reporter, I sent this to him. He got a hold of me. He's like, these are very serious accusations. And I said, well, here's the people you need to contact to verify this. And I said, vet it. Vet the story. If it's true, publish it. If it's not, then sue me for slander. Because I said, he's a sitting congressman. These are pretty serious allegations.
--:-- Georgia Howe: You've characterized this as him abandoning his men. What was the impact of him leaving? How did that impact these particular men? There's a lot of them, hundreds of them under his command, correct?
--:-- Thomas Behrens: Men and women, I mean soldiers across the board. I think it's like a deflating balloon when something like that happens. It's like your dad died unexpectedly from a heart attack or from a car wreck or something. The wind is taken out of the sails. Everything is like, okay, we're full steam ahead. We're getting ready. We got our leadership in place. We're going to get ready. We're preparing for war. And all of a sudden the sails are, straight up and down with no wind in that. I mean, that's it. You're just done.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Who does that? Who leaves their kids hanging on something like this?
--:-- Thomas Behrens: I don't know. I mean, I don't know a hell of a lot of them that would, they had to have said yes in a heartbeat. And they went home and told their wife, I got asked to go to war. And that's what they would have done. And their wife would have probably told them what I've heard some of them say like there's no way you're not going on that deployment.
--:-- Georgia Howe: You served for it was about a two-year deployment in Iraq, correct?
--:-- Thomas Behrens: Well, it was 22 and a half months total. I mean, we trained six months at Camp Shelby, and then we went to Iraq, and we got extended in the surge, and we ended up over there for 17 months, whatever it was, damn near a year and a half.
--:-- Georgia Howe: How do you believe Tim Walz's representation of his military service has influenced his political career? Has it helped his political career?
--:-- Thomas Behrens: Immensely. His lying and saying he was a command sergeant major is a big thing. I mean, it's a big thing for the military. And I think the general public that watches movies and when they hear command Sergeant Major, they think of, you know, a supreme leader person. Basically, it's a very prestigious rank.
--:-- Georgia Howe: You've reached out to him personally in the past trying to get a response from him. What would you like him to answer right now?
--:-- Thomas Behrens: I think I would like him to come to Brewster, to our Veterans Memorial, and sit down on one of the benches in front of Kyle Miller, who was 19 years old, and went on a mission that he had a dream that he was going to die. And he would not allow somebody else to take that position because he told the chaplain at that point if somebody else gets injured or dies and I and they took my place I wouldn't be able to live up myself.
--:-- Georgia Howe: What are you hoping comes of this? What do you hope that the American people take away from this politically, but also in terms of the importance of service?
--:-- Thomas Behrens: That's what I think needs to get brought out of this whole thing is that, you know, this is just not right to embellish your career, to try to make yourself look better than you are militarily. If you do this, you're going to get hammered.
--:-- Georgia Howe: You've mentioned Tim Walz serving as a governor. What do you think about his record as a governor?
--:-- Thomas Behrens: Well, it follows in what he's always done, where he's maybe not the highest ranking member of the chameleon party, but he is very far up there where he, you know, he'll land on your arm and he'll be the color of your shirt and land on mine and it'll be this and he'll go do whatever.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Is there anything that you feel is not being emphasized enough by the media about this story or you feel like it's just not gotten enough attention in general?
--:-- Thomas Behrens: I think it's one of these things that's building. And, you know, it's like a prairie fire. I mean, it starts out with just a spark. And it's getting bigger and bigger as the wind blows behind it. And you guys out there in the media keep investigating all this stuff that's in his past. Like, I listened to this morning. The guy was like, this is tip of the iceberg of the whole situation.
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--:-- John Bickley: Thank you, Tom, for sharing your story with us today.
--:-- Thomas Behrens: Thank you.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And thank you for your service.
--:-- Thomas Behrens: Thank you.
--:-- John Bickley: That was retired Command Sergeant Major Thomas Behrens, and this has been a Saturday edition of Morning Wire.
