Well, and least you admitted he lied. That's a start. If you read further you would see he never completed what was needed on his conditional promotion. He quit the Army to avoid deployment. His records were corrected to show he left as a master sergeant.
The backstory
Back in early 2005, a warning order went out to southern Minnesota’s First Battalion-125th Field Artillery to mobilize for a mission to Iraq, Behrends said. Walz served as the unit’s highest non-commissioned officer after he was conditionally promoted to command sergeant major on April 1, 2005, records show. On May 16, Walz retired from the guard, avoided the deployment, and ran for Congress.