Daniels: Harris’ running mate showed cowardice
Frank Daniels is a retired colonel with the U.S. Army Reserve and a Dover resident.
Kamala Harris bowed to the extreme far left of the Democratic Party when she chose a coward to be her vice presidential running mate.
I consider Tim Walz, a former battalion command sergeant major (actually a conditional promotion) who chose not to deploy with his artillery battalion to a warzone, a coward. He retired to run for Congress versus going to war with his soldiers. What’s even worse, by choosing not to deploy and retire, he was demoted from command sergeant major to master sergeant because he failed to complete the coursework at the U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy. I’ve known CSMs for over 30 years and can’t remember a one who failed to complete the necessary coursework and then chose to leave his unit when it came time to “man up.”
The noncommissioned officer corps is the backbone of the U.S. Army. One measures the strength, ability and effectiveness of an Army unit on its NCOs. I would love to think that Command Sgt. Maj. Walz led and trained his soldiers for what every unit knows is a possibility — deployment to a warzone. Instead, when it came time for him to show his leadership capabilities and do everything in his power to ensure that all his soldiers came home, he abandoned them and chose to further his career. The real question I have in my mind is, “How did he get to the rank of conditional CSM?”
I have commanded units at multiple levels, and my successes were due to the strength, ability, knowledge and leadership of my noncommissioned officers. Without their devotion to duty, I would not have been successful at commanding at those multiple levels, which became the catalyst for my promotion to full colonel.
If abandoning his soldiers wasn’t bad enough, Mr. Walz watched and glorified in the absolute destruction of Minneapolis-St. Paul in summer 2020 because our nation wasn’t into the concept of diversity, equity and inclusion. He refused to send in the Minnesota National Guard, as he portrayed its members as “19-year-old cooks.” A review of the Minnesota National Guard shows that it is heavy with infantry, armor, artillery and aviation units. Mixed in with those units are military police units. It amazes me to think that Mr. Walz would characterize an Army military police officer as a “19-year-old cook.”
If you are a Democrat and a veteran who was a noncommissioned officer and has served in some ugly places, how can you, in good conscience, vote for the Harris-Walz ticket? When it was time for Walz, a CSM of all grades, to show his soldiers just how important and supportive he could be to and for them, he bailed.
Those of us who wore the uniform of the greatest army in the world know that our sole mission in life, regardless of the type of unit you were in, was to successfully execute our units’ missions when deployed in times of war. Walz could have shown his soldiers just how important he was to them and how important they were to him, but he didn’t. He walked when it was time to “man up.”
For those of you “who know” how much of a failure conditional Command Sgt. Maj. Walz was to his soldiers, think long and hard about how you cast your vote (and please vote) in the upcoming presidential election.
Reader reactions, pro or con, are welcomed at civiltalk@iniusa.org.
