Read the bold part. He's speaking of his time in the National Guard but he only visited Iraq much later during his time in the House of Representatives.
Worse yet, "Bagram Air Base in Iraq" is (was) in Afghanistan.
These are official public remarks of an official event published on the State of Minnesota website.
The embellishment is purposeful with a pattern.
To be fair, they didn't vet Kamala very well either.
https://www.lrl.mn.gov/docs/2023/mandated/231447.pdfGovernor Tim Walz
Remarks at the Minnesota 9/11 20th Anniversary Commemoration
September 11, 2021 (in their entirety)
Minnesota State Capitol
To our distinguished guests, to the Senators and Congresswoman McCollum,
thank you for being the servant leaders, for serving the people, standing up
and for making sure that Minnesota's values are taken to Washington. General
Votel, you're a treasure. You are a son of Saint Paul. We are proud, and your time
and service and your words today echo to our better angels. To Commissioner
Herke and to the entire team, and our legislators, I want to thank you for this
endeavor to make sure that we remember, we learn, we spend the time necessary to understand what September 11th meant, both in the moment, individually and collectively, and what it means going forward.
Today is the beginning of a year-long exploration of that. The vision and
foresight and creating this space for us to gather as a community is critically
important for understanding what happened. And to those families who lost
loved ones on 9/11 and to our Gold Star Families, it's a fundamental truth of
this nation that no one holds a more honored place in our society. Whenever
you are present, everyone else is present.
To our first responders: Each and every day there are people who go to work
in jobs that put them in harm's way, simply so that we can enjoy peace and
the freedom that billions of people around the world can never even dream
of having. And they do it without expectations of parades. They do it without
expectations of anything. They do it out of the sense of being the best of who
we are. So for each and every one of you, thank you.
Like most of us, I spent this last week thinking about what has happened in these
past 20 years. And while it's natural to think about your own personal journey,
it's also something broader. We are not an island. We are among others. We're
among our fellow Minnesotans and our fellow Americans.
And I think of all those emotions I went through when our country was attacked:
fear, anger, confusion, hope, pride, a desire for revenge, guilt. As for me, I was
sitting in room 114 at Mankato West High School right before school started.
And in a typical high school, there was the noise in the halls, and it was a new
school year. But then kids started coming in and sitting in classrooms and the
TV was on, and those events started to unfold, and that room got fuller and
quieter and there were tears and fear and confusion.
In the years after that classroom, I had the privilege of serving in this state's
national guard. I stood one night in the dark of night on the tarmac at Bagram
Air Base in Iraq and watched a military ramp ceremony–a soldier’s body being
loaded onto a plane to be returned home. And if you've seen it, you don't leave
the same. It makes you wonder, what are we doing? What are we trying to get
to? And then watching as all of you have been, the confusing last few weeks
with the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.
As we’ve been reminded today, it was this state that volunteered first when the
nation was most in peril. From Gettysburg to Kabul, Minnesotans have been
there and they've done what was asked of them. Ahead of this day of remembrance, I spoke with former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff George
Casey, who served during this time. He and I reflected on the horrors of what
happened. I think General Votel was right: It was more than the beginning or
the end, it was the middle. It was the middle that mattered. It was the sacrifices that mattered.
I'm going to encourage all of you to understand this, lest we even for one
minute believe that these sacrifices were in vain. These service members, those
40,000 Minnesotans, changed the world for the better. Some in small ways,
some in profound ways. And they learned from the generation before them,
especially our Vietnam Veterans who said, ‘Never again.’ It was because of that
commitment that America learned to separate the war from the warrior. You
don't have to agree with the political decisions that were made, but you better
understand that those folks who raised their hand will do what's asked of them.
In Lincoln's second inaugural address, he made it clear we have a sacred responsibility for care for those who had ‘borne the battle’ and the families they
had left behind. Because of that, they transformed care for Veterans. And right
here in Minnesota, there is the flagship of the VA Healthcare System, one of
four polytrauma centers. Not only is it the best VA system in the country, it is
one of the best hospital systems in the world. That is because Veterans deserve
nothing less, and this generation made it happen.
But what I would leave you with today is that whatever brought you here to
this remembrance ceremony, you came to do it in community. And many of us
remember all the horror and the tragedy and the confusion that happened in
the days after September 11th, but we also remember seeing neighbors who
never put a flag out, put their flags out. We were united. I'm not saying we all
thought the same. I'm not saying we all agreed on everything, but we understood that the things that united us were far greater than those that divided us.
And today, you've chosen to come down here and maybe get that feeling back.
To honor the sacrifices that have been made from Gettysburg and beyond by
Minnesotans, it's our responsibility to live our lives with dignity, with empathy,
with passion, with commitment, not just in our own personal journey, but to
our neighbors. As we reflect over this year, we can focus on the positives, on
the many things that have made us stronger and better. Let's continue to work
towards that one unified place. To our Gold Star Families, no words will ease
your pain, but you have the gratitude of all Minnesotans. To each of you who
came, thank you. So may God bless each of you, the great state of Minnesota,
and the great United States.
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Walz "misspoke for 19 years it seems...
https://x.com/breeadail/status/1822622613580997051