Over the past several days there’s been quite a bit of discussion and debate about the military service of Gov. Tim Walz, D-Minn. But let’s cut through the noise. 

As a veteran of two wars, I can tell you that there are three things old soldiers never forget: the name of their basic training drill sergeant, the rank at which they were discharged or retired, and their time deployed in a combat zone. 

Walz seems to have trouble with the latter two.  

Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate has made his military service an issue in this election because he has — in the words of some of his political allies — “misspoken” about his service in the National Guard. 

Please understand, I’m not questioning his service to our nation, which was by all accounts honorable. It’s his repeated “misrepresentation” of his deployment status and his military rank that have caused Walz and the Democrats political heartburn, and rightly so. 

Walz’s former unit deployed to a war zone; he did not. He retired in 2005, just a few months before his fellow soldiers were sent off to Iraq.

Thousands of service members have never deployed to a combat zone. That doesn’t lessen their service to our great nation. But on occasion over the years Walz has, at the very least, suggested that he did deploy to a combat zone. As a member of the Minnesota National Guard, Walz was indeed deployed in the War on Terror, but he was a long way from combat. Far removed from the unforgiving heat and terrain of Iraq and Afghanistan, Walz served a tour of duty in Italy. His other overseas military service included a stint in Norway.

In 2018, Walz campaigned for governor with a gun-control message that inflated his service. 

“We can make sure those weapons of war, that I carried in war, are only carried in war,” he said of proposals to ban assault rifles. 

After taking heat for his misleading assertion, the Harris-Walz campaign now says the governor “misspoke” at the time — in a video widely circulated by team Harris.  

Again, a soldier who has been deployed to a combat zone knows it. Those who haven’t should not claim otherwise. Doing so isn’t misspeaking; it’s lying. 

Walz has long stated he is a retired Command Sergeant Major (CSM) —  or an enlisted rank of E9. In fact, he never retired as an E9. He retired as a Master Sergeant (MSG) — or an enlisted rank of E8. 

Retiring from military service as an E8 is a sign of a solid military career. So why has the vice presidential candidate “misrepresented” his military rank and deployment status for the past 19 years? At what point is he no longer “misrepresenting” and instead lying? 

Just a few months after Walz left his Iraq War-bound unit to run for Congress, John Kolb took over as lieutenant colonel of Walz’s National Guard unit. He called the governor’s embellishment “an affront to the Noncommissioned Officer Corps that he continues to glom onto the title.” 

“He did not earn the rank or successfully complete any assignment as an E9,” Kolb wrote in a post, punctuated with #notmyCSM. “I can sit in the cockpit of an airplane, it does not make me a pilot.” 

It’s an insult to veterans when someone — even a fellow veteran — lies about their service. 

In the coming weeks, Walz’s allies in the Democratic Party will attempt to spin all this and portray Harris’ No. 2 as the victim. Please don’t fall for it.  Timothy Walz, MSG (USA Retired) could have easily stopped this years ago and set the record straight, but for his own personal gain he decided to continue his charade. 

This is not a simple embellishment of a war story to impress friends. This has been a false narrative for nearly 20 years perpetrated by Walz himself — and for that, he needs to be held accountable. 

Tony Kurtz is a Republican state representative in the Wisconsin Assembly and a veteran of the Persian Gulf War and the War in Iraq.