A Maine mother says her daughter, Nicole M. Dunham of Orrington, was called up to join the Minnesota National Guard as a convoy support medic in 2005—the same year Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz retired from the Minnesota National Guard in order to skip a deployment to Iraq.
“Nicole Marie Dunham went to war in place of the Governor of Minnesota,” said Mary Dunham in a Monday morning interview with WVOM’s George Hale and Ric Tyler Show.
“Maybe not his rank, but my daughter from Maine went to war, and he didn’t, he didn’t fulfill his commitment. Nicole’s commitment was over. She went. No, she didn’t replace him specifically, but everybody had to move forward to fill a slot that he left.”
“Her commitment was to the state of Maine, then to the United States. She’s the only person that was in that unit, the one, [in the] 125th Field Artillery Battalion that wasn’t from there, and [Walz] didn’t go,” she said.
Gov. Walz, selected last week to be Vice President Kamala Harris’s running-mate for what is likely to be the Democratic 2024 presidential ticket, continues to face withering criticism for false claims he has made for nearly two decades about his military service.
Although Walz did serve in the U.S. military for 25 years, he has subsequently embellished his rank and falsely claimed to have taken part in combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In 2005, Walz retired from the Minnesota National Guard weeks months before his unit was slated for deployment to Iraq — a deployment that saw the unit take multiple casualties.
Dunham enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1998, completed training as an emergency, and subsequently served in the U.S. Army Reserve from until 2005 in 309th Combat Support Hospital Division.
Dunham received the Army Achievement Medal, National Service Defense Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, Iraq Campaign Medal, the Overseas Service Ribbon and the Armed Forces Reserves Medal, according to her family.
Her obituary describes her call-up to join the Minnesota National Guard as follows:
In 2005, She proudly served her country as a Specialist in the Operation Iraqi Freedom Campaign with 34th Inventory Division known as the Red Bulls. Her Mission was providing Medic support on convoys traveling from Tallil Airbase to Bagdad Airport as well has humanitarian missions for the people of Iraq. She was Honorably discharged in 2007.
Dunham passed away on Sept. 13, 2018.
Although Dunham said her daughter was not killed in Operation Iraqi Freedom, she said Nicole was frequently in harm’s way and returned from her deployment a changed person.
“Nobody wants to go to war,” Mary Dunham said, of her daughter. “No one wants to go. She went.”
Even prior to the spotlight landing on Walz’s military record, Dunham’s presence in the unit was unusual because she was the only member of the unit who wasn’t from Minnesota.
But Mary Dunham didn’t immediately connect her daughter’s service in the Minnesota unit to Walz’s early retirement until soldiers she had served with — other members of the so-called “Red Bulls” — began reaching out to her on Facebook.
Gov. Tim Walz’s Stolen Valor
Several U.S. military veterans who knew Walz and served with Walz have confirmed that he has misrepresented, embellished, and distorted his military career during his subsequent career as a member of congress, governor, and now as a vice presidential candidate.
Since retiring and entering politics, Walz has consistently represented his rank as Command Sergeant Major; however, Walz never official received that rank due to his abrupt retirement.
Walz has often portrayed himself as a combat veteran by talking about carrying a firearm in theaters of war and by allowing people, such as former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), to refer to him as a combat veteran; however, his foreign service was limited to Italy.
Ret. Command Sgt. Maj. Thomas Behrends, the man who filled Walz’s suddenly vacated leadership position, has been outspoken about Walz embellishing his rank, telling Fox News’ Laura Ingraham that the truth behind the claim is “far darker than a lot of people think.”
“He’s used the rank that he never achieved in order to advance his political career,” Behrends said. “I mean, he still says he’s a retired command sergeant major to this day, and he’s not. He uses the rank of others to make it look like he’s a better person than he is.”
John Kolb, the now-retired Battalion Commander who ran Walz and Dunham’s former unit, also confirmed in a sharply worded Facebook post that Walz misrepresented his military service, specifically the timing and nature of his retirement.
“[W]hen the demands of service and leadership at the highest level got real, he chose another path,” Kolb said.
According to Kolb, Walz retired early from the MNG, did not complete Sergeants Major Academy, broke his enlistment contract, and did not successfully complete any assignment as a Sergeant Major.
Kolb, who also confirmed that Behrends was selected to go in Walz’s place, said Behrends “ran toward and not away from the guns.”
While Kolb said he had no opinion or criticism of Walz’s prior 25 years of military service, he did make clear that Walz has subsequently exaggerated his rank.
“He did not earn the rank or successfully complete any assignment as an E9,” Kolb said.
“It is an affront to the Noncommissioned Officer Corps that he continues to glom onto the title. I can sit in the cockpit of an airplane, it does not make me a pilot. Similarly, when the demands of service and leadership at the highest level got real, he chose another path,” he said.
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