For someone who talks about how “proud” he is of his military service, Tim Walz doesn’t seem particularly inclined to be proud of, or celebrate anyone else’s service.

As we have covered, Tim Walz has problems when it comes to his lies and embellishments about his 24 years in the Minnesota National Guard. It’s pretty clear that this is not just simple “misspeaking,” as the campaign lackeys would like you to believe. Walz has portrayed himself as an “Operation Enduring Freedom veteran” (which is stretching the truth beyond all recognition when your deployment was to Italy, not Afghanistan), he has allowed other people to describe him as a combat veteran of either Iraq or Afghanistan, depending on the day, and he made the claim that he carried weapons “in war.” And when pressed, his explanation was “bad grammar” – which is not particularly comforting from someone who was an ENGLISH teacher.

Tim Walz was an English teacher. He literally taught English grammar to students in China. https://t.co/V8JZzwHcGP

— Izengabe (@Izengabe_) August 30, 2024

However, Walz did serve in the Minnesota National Guard, and he has talked very carefully around “not denigrating” anyone’s service. Well, the governor is not “denigrating” the service of other members of the Minnesota National Guard, but he sure isn’t celebrating it, either.

About a year ago, it was announced that multiple Army and Marine Corps units would be receiving a Presidential Unit Citation for their actions during the evacuation and withdrawl from Afghanistan in 2021.

The awards will go to the units that made up the ad hoc task force hastily assembled at Hamid Karzai International Airport in August 2021 as thousands of desperate Afghans surrounded the airfield hoping to find a flight out of the country. Those US units included National Guardsmen from Minnesota, Massachusetts, and Washington as well as active duty units from the 82nd Airborne Division and 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit.

Together those units kept the airport open to round-the-clock evacuation flights during Operation Allies Refuge, the largest non-combatant evacuation operation in American history.

The Presidential Unit Citation is the highest distinction that a unit can receive and is nearly always awarded for combat.

“The unit must display such gallantry, determination, and esprit de corps in accomplishing its mission under extremely difficult and hazardous conditions as to set it apart from and above other units participating in the same campaign,” the Army’s regulation on military awards says. “The degree of valor required is the same as that which would warrant award of a DSC [Distinguished Service Cross] to an individual.”

Receiving a Presidential Unit Citation is a big deal. For those who are familiar with “Band of Brothers,” that same citation was given to the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment after Normandy (they would earn a second one after Bastogne) and was a minor plot point in Episode 4 of the miniseries. No one can deny that the military units who served during the catastrophic withdrawl in Afghanistan did their jobs in chaotic and dangerous conditions to the best of their abilities. And one of those units was 1st Battalion, 194th Armored Regiment, Minnesota National Guard. Walz was governor of Minnesota at that time, and so was the National Guard’s commander-in-chief.

The ceremony honoring the battalion was held this last Friday.

On Friday, a ceremony was held for the 1st Combined Arms Battalion, 194th Armor Regiment, based in Brainerd, for lives saved during the evacuation of Afghan citizens and Allied personnel.

It was a moment in time three years ago that most Americans and Afghan people will never forget.

The images from Kabul, Afghanistan and the thousands who tried to leave the country when American troops pulled out and the Taliban took over.

Minnesotans assigned to the 1st Combined Arms Battalion worked alongside Air Force and Marines to get vulnerable Afghans and American citizens out of harm’s way.

“It was an incredibly volatile and rapidly evolving situation,” said Major Michael Popp.

Popp was part of the fighting force that rescued more than 124,000 American citizens, U.S. government employees and Afghanistan refugees in under 15 days.
“It was a surreal moment we got off the plane there were refugees who had their homes destroyed there were refugees who were trying to get out of the country, ” Popp said.

The unit will received(sic) three awards. The Meritorious Unit Commendation award, the Superior Unit award, and the Presidential Unit Citation award, which is awarded to units for extraordinary heroism in action against an enemy.

“It is the equivalent of receiving a distinguished service cross, which is an individual award. It is the highest honor that a unit can receive,” Popp said.

With such an honor being bestowed on a Minnesota National Guard unit, one would think that the governor of the state, the unit’s current commander-in-chief, and a veteran of the Minnesota National Guard himself, would SHOW UP TO THE CEREMONY. Governor Tim Walz was apparently too busy to make it. Dustin Grage, a columnist for Townhall who has been involved in Minnesota politics, noted on his X account that Walz didn’t show up, and marked the reaction.
https://twitter.com/GrageDustin/status/1832947008333619638
https://twitter.com/GrageDustin/status/1832947488858284260
Walz has no excuse for not making the time in his schedule to show up for this ceremony. He had a year’s notice that it was going to happen. He is still the governor of Minnesota, which means that he’s still got a job to do within the state. It would have burnished his credentials as both governor and a military veteran to show up for the same National Guard that he served in. So, why didn’t he do it? This would have been an easy “win” for Walz!

My best guess? He’s chicken. He likes to talk a big game about serving in the National Guard, but he couldn’t bear to actually show up and possibly be confronted by local media, or soldiers who served in nightmarish conditions during those last days in Afghanistan. Walz has developed the habit of bravely running away from the media when they ask questions. Was it better for him to not show up at all?

However, this does prove, yet again, that Afghanistan is a positively toxic topic for the Biden-Harris administration, and by extention, Tim Walz. The Harris campaign has tried spinning Afghanistan into Donald Trump’s fault, and that accusation simply is not going to stick. They’ve ignored the Gold Star Families who lost loved ones in Afghanistan at Abbey Gate. On Sunday evening, part of the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s report on the disaster that was the withdrawl from Afghanistan was released, with the full report due out today. While the report is written by the Republicans, there is no denying that Joe Biden made that final decision to leave, and that Kamala Harris has claimed that she was “the last person in the room” when he made that decision. There is no way that they can dodge responsibility for what ended up happening in Afghanistan, and that means Tim Walz is a no-show at a ceremony that marks extraordinary conduct by a Minnesota National Guard unit that was there.

There was a time that Tim Walz depended on his service in the Minnesota National Guard to help build up his political career. Now, he can’t take the risk of being seen anywhere near them. Weird, isn’t it?

Featured image: original Victory Girls art by Darleen Click