In between knocking on voters' doors in Rochester this afternoon, Congressman Walz talked about the moving experience yesterday at the American Legion in Austin, where he (a retired command sergeant major) led the promotion of James Hecimovich
from master sergeant to command sergeant major, then awarded the
Bronze Star for Hecimovich's service in Iraq and Kuwait.
Walz spoke of the deeply emotional moment, and then spoke of the anger a vet displayed in the public meeting. Understanding the spectrum of of emotions ranging from pride to frustration was part of the job, Walz observed. We mentioned how vets we knew had schooled us about issues they face.
Today's Austin Daily Herald gives a fuller view of yesterday's meeting in Hecimovich awarded Bronze Star; Walz fields questions at vets' forum:
By LEE BONORDEN
Soldiers
will die before Congressman Tim Walz, Command Sergeant Majors Norman
and James Hecimovich and everyone who attended Friday’s medal and
promotion ceremony and veterans forum at American Legion Post No. 91 in
Austin.
There have been 4,000 war casualties in Iraq and
Afghanistan in the last six years of fighting; 72 of them with strong
ties to Minnesota.
Who doesn’t know someone serving in harm’s way around the world right now?
The families of the Hecimoviches have prayed their loved ones would not die before they woke in multiple wars.
James Hecimovich was twice deployed to active military duty in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on America Sept. 11, 2001.
His father, Norman, an Austin 3rd Ward City Council member, served in three wars: Korean, Vietnam and Operation Desert Storm.
Just
like today’s wars/conflicts go on, so does life and last Friday it was
cause for celebration; not consolation in the lives of two soldiers.
Walz, a 1st District Democrat, did it by-the-book Friday at Post No. 91.
“Attention
to orders?” Walz barked at the dining hall filled with veterans and
others. The room came to attention and the congressman announced James
Hecimovich’s promotion from master sergeant to command sergeant major.
Then, Walz presented the newly-promoted soldier with the Bronze Star
for meritorious service, during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Hecimovich served in Kuwait and Iraq.
He
thanked his family and Kingsland Public Schools, where he is an
elementary and middle school principal, for their support during two
deployments. The Kingsland superintendent, David Stroebel and Mitch
Lentz, president of the school board, were present for the ceremonies.
Watching
was his father, Norman Hecimovich, a decorated veteran and past
commander of the Legion Post as well as Austin Veterans of Foreign Wars
Post No. 1216 and the Disabled American Veterans Chapter No. 27. The
retired educator also serves as an ombudsman for veterans and their
civilian employers.
“He’s the reason I am here today,” James
said of his father’s influence in joining the military. “I followed his
path in education and I’ve been excited about the military, knowing
he’s been in the military. He’s been a good mentor all these years.”
Norm said, “It is a real honor to see my son receive the promotion and the Bronze Star.”
“Knowing how hard I worked at it and how hard he has worked at it, too, we both have achieved the same goals.”
“He always said he was going to do better than his dad and it looks like he’s going to,” Norm said. . . .
Vets forum
Walz,
who was elected to Congress in 2006, is the highest-ranking enlisted
servicemen to ever serve in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Like the Hecimoviches, Walz also holds the rank of command sergeant major in the Minnesota National Guard.
During the two-week Easter break, Walz has been holding medal ceremonies and veterans forums throughout the 1st District.
Of
his three House committee assignments, agriculture, transportation and
infrastructure and veterans affairs, the latter has seen his passion
for patriots surface repeatedly.
With the global backdrop of
more unpopular wars on people’s minds and the weekend’s debut of a
state holiday to observe sacrifices made in another unpopular war —
Vietnam —- Walz admonished the audience, “Don’t ever make the mistake
of confusing the war with the warrior.”
In other opening
remarks, he said the nation has both a moral responsibility and an
obligation to its security to take care of its soldiers.
He said the Department of Veterans Affairs is getting better at doing that, but, he added, “There’s still a long ways to go.”
To
him, it’s a given. “If you spend billions to put soldiers in harm’s
way, you spend billions to get them out and then you have to take care
of them, too,” he said.
In a free-wheeling comment and
question-and-answer period, Walz became a target at one point for
criticism, when an unidentified veteran blamed him for not helping the
veteran receive benefits.
Walz took the obscenity-laced criticism unflinchingly.
The
questions ranged from the unfairness of disability ratings to the lack
of mandatory full funding for the VA budget to arbitrarily taking
benefits from Level VIII veterans.
A veteran complained of being
denied benefits, “because the VA said my hearing loss was due to
cutting the grass with a loud lawn mower instead of loading artillery
shells.”
Another veteran urged the congressman to continue to
push for enforcement of the Veterans Preference law to guarantee
veterans their jobs upon returning home from active duty.
A Cold
War-era sailor said he was denied benefits even though “I was exposed
to two atomic bomb blasts when I was on a ship at sea.”
A
Vietnam-era veteran said he was 100 percent disabled after being
exposed to Agent Orange chemicals. He went to the Mayo Clinic instead
of the VA Hospital in Minneapolis and “now I spend my veteran benefits
checks on my medical bills, which are huge.”
While the
congressman’s aides took notes to follow-up on veterans’ requests, Walz
fielded more questions and heard more complaints.
That was what he apparently wanted to happen.
“The message has been wherever we have gone, ‘Take care of the soldier,’” he said. . . .
Earlier this afternoon, when Walz stepped into the phone banking room, a volunteer handed him a phone almost immediately; she had just called a man who said he had two sons deployed in Iraq and she thought the congressman might want to thank him for his family's service to the country. Once he was off the line, Tim shared more about the family. One of the sons was home on leave because a very young child had died; the soldier only received ten days leave. Walz, the father of two young children, said he would have his congressional staff contact the Pentagon to see if the leave could be extended, then continued phone banking.
Since listening to only half of a phone conversation isn't too exciting, we stepped over to the auditorium where the Olmsted County DFL had convened. Inside, John Pierce, an Army Reservist who served in Iraq and Kuwait, had just begun a passionate speech on Walz's behalf. He spoke first of getting involved in politics because of his disagreement with "national security policy when it came to Iraq."
Pierce had attended Republican events to find out where the three candidates for the GOP noimnation stood. As a veteran he was appalled:
I listened to Randy Demmer at a county convention say, " The number one responsibility of the federal government is national security. When he was done speaking I was left asking myself, "That's it?" He talked about national security but never mentioned the words "Iraq, Afghanistan or Osama bin Laden...
Brian Davis, on the other hand, states his Iraq policy as "we need to stay the course, we need to keep doing what we're doing and we'll have to keep our fingers crossed." We'll have to keep our fingers crossed. That's Davis's plan. Is that what I'm supposed to tell my mother when I have to break her heart again, when I get deployed for a third time? Well Mom, we have no cohesive Iraq strategy but Brian Davis and the GOP have their fingers crossed for me. . .
. . .But Brian Davis also has another saying, "Democrats can't even say the phrase 'Radical Islam' and if they can't say it, how can they fight it?" Well, I can physically say the phrase 'Radical Islam' but choose not to demagogue an entire culture based on a handful of lunatics. As Democrats, we are a party of diversity and we are better that this. Just because I choose not to say the phrase, by no means makes me incapable of fighting terrorism. And now that I think about it, I don't remember seeing Brian Davis or Randy Demmer on any of my 8000 plus miles of Iraq convoys. In fact, the only congressional candidate the [MN-01] Republicans had with military service, they excommunicated....
We talked briefly with Pierce after his speech and were able to get a copy of his words. He had written the text out before the GOP endorsement was known. Powerful stuff, indeed.
Photo: Portrait of Tim Walz as a young National Guardsman.
