Before we begin, a quick word of warning — the story I'm about to share will either have you raging mad, your eyes welling up, or both. I've been at this job for more than 20 years, and this one had me in the "or both" category.
If you missed Hugh Hewitt's show today — and as much as I enjoy Hugh, you really ought to be reading VodkaPundit instead (I kid) — he played audio from the address Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D-Spicable) gave on the 20th anniversary of the 9/11/2001 terror attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C.
"I stood one night in the dark of night on the tarmac at Bagram [Afghanistan] and watched a military ramp ceremony — a soldier's body being loaded onto a plane to be returned home," Walz told attendees on 9/11/2021, "And if you have seen it, which these folks, many have unfortunately, you don't leave the same, and it makes you wonder what are we doing, what are we trying to get to."
It also might never have happened.
In January of 2008, Walz spent one night in Bagram as part of a congressional delegation "investigating military health care." According to his official itinerary, Walz was briefed "on current military, political, and economic situation in Afghanistan," had lunch with soldiers from Minnesota, and participated in a Fallen Comrade ceremony, also known as a "missing man table," at dinner.
There is no indication that Walz watched a military ramp ceremony. I could find nothing in the news about one being held on the night of Jan. 8, 2008.
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Thanks to veteran RealGreggD on X, I can share with you what a military ramp ceremony looks like from the perspective of one of its participants.
"I’m trying to put into words how angry this makes me," Gregg posted about Walz's claim about having been at a ramp ceremony. "During the Surge March 07 - May 08 while I was on FOB Rusty in south Baghdad, my sniper section was asked to [perform] the ramp ceremony."
I was assigned to the back left part of the stretcher. Many experiences in Iraq had profound effects on my life but these ceremonies will never leave me.
I was emotionally unprepared the first time we did it. We met outside the building where they had prepared the body.
We would come into the room, the body was placed in the black body bag, with a flag over the top, and was waiting for us. In that moment I was completely changed. I questioned why this task was laid on our section. I was not honorable enough for such a task.
We gathered ourselves, grabbed the handles, and set our minds to this task. It was more than 150 yards to the Blackhawk.
The street was lined with soldiers from the whole FOB. In the darkness of the night, the trumpet sounding off, we marched in silence to the bird.
After handing off the body of our fallen brother, we walk back to our rooms in silence. Thinking about the journey this body would take back to his loved ones on the other side of the world.
We did this over and over for the next 14 months . There were times when there was[n't] much left of a body, and those times still haunt me.
I was ask to do a honorable task, the burden of that task is still with me. Men and woman who sacrificed it all for a country they loved, I carried them to fly back home. Their loss forever with me.
Walz stealing those sacred moments, to drape himself in THIER [sic] honorable sacrifice is one of the most disgusting things I’ve ever heard. His lying fill me with a rage and anger that I hope fall upon him one day.
He dishonors his own service with these lies. He dishonors our nation’s heroes by stealing their courage and glory. 24 yrs of service thrown away because he knew he quit on his men, quit on himself, and is filled with the shame for who he sees in the mirror.
Let us never forget those who gave it all. Let us never allow their glory, courage, and selfless sacrifice be stolen by anyone. We live our lives today to honor who they were as men and woman, TRULY THE GREATEST AMERICANS.
That is what a military ramp ceremony is like, and nobody mistakes a tour of medical facilities or a visit with wounded soldiers for one.
I try not to hate. But I'm very close to hating Tim Walz right now.
