The veterans have accused Tim Walz, Governor of Minnesota to “embellish” his military career and leave his National Guard battalion, noting that the now-Democrat vice president never served in combat and retired from the service before his unit deployed to Iraq in 2005.
In a letter posted on Facebook in 2018 when he first ran for governor, retired Master Sergeants Thomas Behrends and Paul Herr said Walz retired from his 24-year tenure in the National Guard after learning that his battalion would deploy to Iraq, despite allegedly assuring his fellow troops that he would join them.
“On May 16, 2005, [Walz] to abandon, to betray his country, leaving the 1-125th Field Artillery Battalion and its Soldiers hanging; without his senior NCO as the battalion prepared for war,” wrote Behrends and Herr.
Walz, 60, he ended his military career just in time for him to begin his political career the following year, successfully running for Congress in 2006.
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Behrends and Herr criticized him for leaving the National Guard for Congress despite being fully aware that he could have sought permission from the Pentagon to seek a position while on active duty.
Walz dodged even more the necessary paperwork to ensure a smooth transition out of military service and “instead … slipped out the door,” the couple added, with his retirement filing showing “the soldier unavailable for signature”.
National Guard members also accused the now two-term Minnesota governor of “selectively embellishing and omitting facts from his years-long military career.”
The letter was first spotted by the Daily Wire.
Still, Walz has said he has “an honorable record” and other service members who led the same battalion have defended him.
“He was a great soldier,” said Joseph Eustice, who served 32 years in the National Guard. he told the Star Tribune in 2022.
“When he chose to leave, he had every right to leave,” added Eustice, who indicated that other attacks on Walz's record may have been made by disgruntled soldiers who were turned down for promotions.
Another member of the National Guard who served under Walz said the future US lawmaker was considering a run for Congress before 2005.
“Would the soldier despise him because he did not go with us? The common soldier would say, “Hey, he didn't go with us, is he trying to skip a deployment?” And it wasn't,” Al Bonnifield recalled on Minnesota Public Radio of Walz concerns about the withdrawal before the deployment to Iraq.
“He talked to us for quite a while about this. He weighed heavily in this decision to run for Congress [sic]Bonnifeld added. “He loved the military, he loved the Guard, he loved the soldiers he worked with.”
“We all do what we can. I'm proud to have turned 24,” Walz said of his service.
Walz joined the National Guard after high school and had served with the 1st Battalion, 125th Field Artillery before his retirement, where he attained the rank of command sergeant major.
During his subsequent term in Congress, Walz came out in opposition against then-President George W. Bush's plans to increase troop levels in Iraq.
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