For most Americans, the notion of bad-mouthing the troops that comprise our all-voluntary armed forces is usually frowned upon.
Talking smack over the ‘week-end warriors’ who comprise our Reserve and National Guard troops is also considered out of bounds.
But what of a politician who has a history of claiming that he was a Command Sergeant Major of an artillery battalion assigned to the Minnesota Army National Guard, what happens when that same politician disparages those same soldiers as basically nothing more than a bunch of pimply-faced cooks?
That’s what happened during a 2020 video clip of his response to Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey requested of then-governor Tim Walz to deploy the Minnesota National Guard while the city was being burned to the ground by the Communist-inspired thugs of Antifa and BLM.
Mayor Jacob Frey wanted the Governor to send in the National Guard to restore the peace in Minneapolis.
Tim Walz mocked his fellow Guardsmen as “19 year-old cooks.” Which is ridiculous.
My cousin deployed with the National Guard in Minneapolis and he was an Army Ranger. pic.twitter.com/E3D44W9TMx
— Dustin Grage (@GrageDustin) August 8, 2024
However, a quick check to the official website of the Minnesota Army and Air National Guard show something quite a bit more than just a bunch of 19-year-old cooks.
Please keep in mind that I’ve purposefully left out the thousands and thousands of troops assigned to the many non-combatant units that comprise the Minnesota Army and Air National Guard;
1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 34th Infantry Division
- Headquarters and Headquarters Company
- 334th Brigade Engineer Battalion
- 134th Brigade Support Battalion
- 1st Combined Arms Battalion, 194th Armor Regiment
- 1st Squadron, 94th Cavalry Regiment
- 1st Battalion, 125th Field Artillery Regiment
- 2nd Combined Arms Battalion, 136th Infantry Regiment
- 2nd Battalion, 135th Infantry Regiment
84th Troop Command
- Headquarters and Headquarters Company
- 1st Battalion, 151st Field Artillery Regiment
- 34th Military Police Company
- 55th Civil Support Team
- 257th Military Police Company
- 434th Chemical Company
- 682nd Engineer Battalion
Furthermore, there is a specific website for the MANG (Minnesota Air National Guard) 133rd Security Forces Squadron (essentially, the riflemen of the Air Force);
Unit Information
The 133rd Security Forces Squadron is responsible for the protection of aerospace resources both at home station and deployed locations. This unit also works with air base defense, law enforcement, security, combat arms training and maintenance and the Phoenix Ravens.
They may be National Guardsmen, but the above cited troops I’ve noted of are the specific units of the MNG (Minnesota National Guard) who’ve specifically been trained in the following;
- Urban combat
- Crowd control
- Law enforcement
When it comes to the support troops of the MNG, I’m fairly sure they didn’t receive their Basic Training armed with only wrenches, typewriters, musical instruments… or just spatulas.
Mechanics, clerks, bandsmen, and cooks have been trained, and continue to be trained, in weapons handling and elemental infantry training.
Just me, but whenever I was assigned to a support unit during my career in the Marine Corps, we still went to the weapons ranges; we still received combat training; we still went on force marches. I’d like to think the Army and the National Guard do the same.
In the meantime, I’m of the opinion that Tim Walz isn’t fit to even carry the jockstrap of a National Guard private serving as a Field Cook.