John Kolb, who became lieutenant colonel of Walz’s battalion a few months after Walz’s retirement, posted on Facebook adding to those criticisms, according DailyMail.com. Kolb appeared to be reacting to Walz’s use of the rank of command sergeant major.
“He did not earn the rank or successfully complete any assignment as an E9,” Kolb reportedly wrote. “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.”
Earlier this month, the Harris campaign quietly updated its online biography of Walz to remove a description of him as a “retired command sergeant major” to say instead that he simply served at that rank. While he did serve as a command sergeant major, he left the military at the rank of master sergeant because he didn’t complete coursework required for the higher rank.