That's a key distinction, one that seems lost on Tim Walz. Any claims he makes about being a combat veteran are not only dishonest; they are dishonorable, and they do a grave disservice to those who have served in combat and who have the scars, disfigurements, and memories to show for it. He should be ashamed of himself - but shame does not appear to be something that comes easily to Governor Walz.

This kind of "stolen valor" is, frankly, insulting. I'm insulted by it and I'm not a combat veteran myself, although I may have been called upon to be one if things had gone badly wrong in 1991 - and mind you, we were all very aware of that possibility - at least, until the Iraqi Army was buried in 100 days.

Stolen valor is what it is. It's insulting to the memory of my Dad's older brother, who jumped with the 101st Airborne in Operation Market Garden, fought at Bastogne, and took a fragment of an 88 shell in early 1945 that left him with a metal plate in his head, a glass eye, and brain damage.

It's insulting to the memory of my Mom's oldest brother, a Marine who made the infamous airfield crossing on Peleliu and took a Japanese bayonet through the shoulder on Iwo Jima, almost dying of sepsis afterward.

It's insulting to my Mom's younger brother, a gunner/radio operator in a B-26, who came under flak fire in Italy and France while his flight was dropping bridges and blowing up ammo dumps; he came through the war, luckily, unscathed.

It's insulting to my wife's grandfather, who was shot by a German sniper in late 1944 in France and lost the use of his legs.

It's insulting to the memory of my brother-in-law Bill, a Marine who was one of Chesty Puller's "Frozen Chosen" and took a bullet in the leg on the retreat from Chosin Reservoir.

Those men were all combat veterans. They didn't talk about it much; in fact, most didn't talk about their experiences at all. There are exceptions: When I was a young man I rented an apartment from a retired bird Colonel, Army-type, who served in the Korean War and two tours in Vietnam, and talked with what seemed like great amusement about battle, including an account of killing three Chinese troops with a bayonet and taking rocket fragments through the chest in Vietnam, which nearly killed him; I was skeptical of his yarns at first, until he showed me photographs and scars.

But Walz's stolen valor isn't just insulting to combat veterans.

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Tim Walz Goes Full Metal Stolen Valor in Anti-Gun Rant 

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It's insulting to the memory of my father, a WW2 veteran who never went overseas; he went through the air cadet program, was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant, and went on to navigation school, where he finished in the top two of his class and was kept as an instructor. Dad made his way out of that only to be assigned to radar navigation school, then to Victorville, California to check out in B-29s, but the war ended before he deployed to the Pacific. Dad always felt some kind of survivor's guilt, as his older brother was so horribly hurt while he was never under fire, but as I used to remind him, we aren't given many choices in our service; we go where the Army says and do what the Army tells us.

It's insulting to the memory of my grandfather, who joined the Army in 1917 and served as a cook, stateside. 

Tim Walz, in a word, has managed, while having served himself, to insult almost every military veteran in the country. I don't care if he retired as a Master Sergeant or as Overlord Almighty of Galactic Space Command, this man must never be allowed near any decision-making process that could result in our troops going into harm's way. He lacks the judgment, he lacks the personal commitment to the mission, he lacks the courage, and worst of all, he lacks the honor.

When I read the accounts of Walz, his weaseling out of deployment, his claiming of a rank he didn't earn, and his pious pronouncements of having "carried weapons of war in combat," I feel as though all of the men I described above are looking over my shoulder - and they aren't happy about it. I could have gone back further, to my great-great-grandfather Thomas Jefferson Baty, who served in a Wisconsin volunteer infantry regiment, was wounded and died at 46 due to complications of those wounds - but then, how many among us can count family members who served, and who paid the price for that service?

When you go to vote this November, vote as though those men are watching you. Tim Walz must never be allowed near the national levers of power. 

He is without honor. He is unfit to serve, and therefore he is unfit to lead.