Sep 17, 2024 2 min read

Recently it was written that the most important decision a presidential candidate must make is in choosing a running mate. I would like to focus on the military records of those who were chosen.

JD Vance was a Marine and was on call all day every day for all the years that he served. He was deployed to Iraq but he wasn’t in combat. Tim Walz served 24 years in the National Guard. A National Guardsman is obligated to one weekend a month and another two-week period sometime during the year. That is 40 days a year unless deployed. Walz was deployed once in Norway and once in Italy. Neither was in a war zone.

Walz was also not truthful when he said he retired as a command sergeant major and did not serve in combat or carry weapons in war as he also claimed. But even more disturbing is the fact that he retired after learning his unit would be sent to Iraq.This was reported by Thomas Behrends and Paul Herr, two retired command sergeant majors of the Minnesota National Guard. They said Walz failed his state and his country. Walz is dishonest, untrustworthy and doesn’t have the integrity to serve as vice president.

It was also written to this paper that people don’t generally vote for a ticket based on who the running mate is, but the choice does tell a lot about the candidate. If this is true, what does it tell us about the candidate who chose Walz?

Robert BonAnno

Washington