Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s military record has come under scrutiny since he was named as Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate on the Democratic presidential ticket, with Republicans questioning both Walz’s characterization of his time in uniform and his departure from service.
Here’s a look at Walz’s record and how it’s become a campaign issue:
Army National Guard service
Walz served a total of 24 years in various units and jobs in the Army National Guard before retiring in 2005. It’s that retirement that Republicans have criticized in the presidential campaign.
According to the Nebraska Army National Guard, Walz enlisted in April 1981 — just two days after his 17th birthday — and entered service as an infantryman, completing a 12-week Army infantry basic training course before graduating from high school.
While attending the University of Houston in 1985, he was reclassified as a field artillery cannoneer as a member of the Texas Army National Guard, later serving as an instructor with the Arkansas Army National Guard.
In 1987, Walz returned to Nebraska’s Guard detachment, continuing field artillery assignments while he completed a college degree. By 1996, he transferred to the Minnesota Army National Guard.
As he ramped up for a congressional bid in 2005, Walz’s campaign in March issued a statement saying he still planned to run despite a possible mobilization of Minnesota National Guard soldiers to Iraq. According to the Guard, Walz retired from service in May of that year.
In August 2005, the Department of the Army issued a mobilization order for Walz’s unit. The unit mobilized in October of that year before it deployed to Iraq in March 2006.
Despite his having retired several months before the deployment order was issued, it’s the fact that Walz left the service ahead of his unit’s departure that Republicans have pointed to in attempts to argue that he was aiming to avoid being sent to a combat zone.
By the time Walz left the military entirely, he had achieved the rank of command sergeant major, one of the top ranks for an enlisted soldier. But personnel files show that he was reduced in rank months after retiring, leaving him as a master sergeant for benefits purposes. Minnesota National Guard officials have said that Walz retired before completing coursework at the U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy, along with other requirements associated with his promotion.
Republican criticism
Ohio Sen. JD Vance, Donald Trump’s running mate and himself a Marine Corps veteran, is among those who have called Walz’s service into question.
As he campaigned in Michigan on Wednesday, Vance questioned whether Walz’s departure from service months ahead of his unit’s deployment to Iraq, calling it “stolen valor garbage.”
“Do not pretend to be something that you’re not,” Vance said during an event at the Shelby Township Police Department. “I’d be ashamed if I was saying that I lied about my military service like you did.”
Democratic response
In a statement provided to The Associated Press, the Harris campaign pushed back on the GOP characterization of Walz’s service, also pointing out his advocacy for veterans while in the U.S. House.
“After 24 years of military service, Governor Walz retired in 2005 and ran for Congress, where he chaired Veterans Affairs and was a tireless advocate for our men and women in uniform — and as Vice President of the United States he will continue to be a relentless champion for our veterans and military families,” the campaign said.
In a post on X, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg — who as a Naval intelligence officer deployed to Afghanistan in 2014 — said Thursday that Republicans’ criticism of Walz was “strategic,” arguing that the Trump campaign “needs us tied up in debates over pre-retirement conditional rank promotions because they are desperate NOT to discuss their (unpopular) policies, like tax cuts for the rich and banning access to abortion.”
(AP)
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9 Responses
The only accusation is that he said he was a Sergeant-Major when he fact he was only a Master-Sergeant who was an acting Sergeant-Major, but then retired before the “acting” became permanent. He never claimed to have been in combat, not to have received a medal for bravery.
Note that Donald Trump never served in the military (both he and Biden were draft dodgers, legally, since only poor and educated were usually drafted and they were neither), nor did Kamala Harris, and J.D. Vance served only one term as a Marine jobnik and ended up as a corporal.
The Republicans should focus on the Democrats’ policies, which many Americans find objectionable, and skip the irrelevant personal attacks which are likely to alienate the many “swing” voters.
In the good old days the claims that he stole valor would’ve came from the mainstream media. Today they are all left wing extremists hack so it has to come from the other side….
Leave it to YWN to bring the fake AP article, which skips entirely how many times he lied about this!
He also claimed to have carried an AR-15 in war, which was a double lie.
First, the AR-15 is not a military weapon; nobody carries it in war.
Second, he was never in war, so he never carried any weapon in one.
He also claimed to have served in Operation Enduring Freedom, which is false.
For years he claimed to have retired as a Command Sergeant Major, and Harris repeated that claim when introducing him for the first time; it was a lie. He only got that rank provisionally on condition that he complete the coursework. Instead he quit, so he lost the rank. There also doesn’t seem to be any record of his paying back the bonus he received with the promotion, again on condition of his completing the coursework that he didn’t complete.
JD Vance was never in combat, and has never claimed to have been, but he was in the combat theater, and could have faced combat at any moment. He obeyed his orders and went where he was told to go. Walz bailed out and left his unit in the lurch.
The gop has only one playbook, lie, and if that doesn’t work-lie again!
I heard from an actual veteran how all these accusations are untrue and explained how the military works.
One thing we know for certain, a trump has never served.
If this is the type of criticism the Republicans have of Walz, then Trump is going down badly on Nov 5th. Walz decided he wanted to run for Congress, filed his retirement request well before the unit was notified of mobilization for deployment having already deployed once to Europe in support of another military operation in the Middle East. Its especially bizarre given that Trump himself was a classical draft evader during the Vietnam War (his ingrown toenail or whatever got him a medical deferral from the draft). None of his kids ever even considered joining the military.
Vance served in a combat zone but never was actually in combat.
Perhaps these Republican jerks doing the daily Trump messaging will wake up and focus on substantive issues rather than wasting their time and Americans’ time on this nareshkeit.
rt: Neither Biden, Harris, Clinton (both) nor Obama ever served in the military (since along with Trump, they tended to avoid doing “deplorable” things). If you want presidents who served in the military try Bush (junior, in the National Guard), Gore or Kerry (and if the 1990s aren’t ancient history, Bush (senior) and Dole.
Biden fought alongside Richard Blumenthal on the killing fields of Vietnam and Cambodia for 7 long hard years. Joe was wont to jump out of Bell UH-1 Iroquois helicopters into oncoming enemy fire. Joe is one tough fearless fighter. I agree with rt & giglehaborah. While Biden was fighting for this country, Trump was sipping cocktails by the poolside.
Akuperma, Walz did claim to have been on the battlefield, and he allowed others to claim it without correcting them. He lied.
Vance was in a combat zone. He was never in a firefight, but at any moment he could have been. His country called and he answered, while Walz ducked out of his duty and abandoned his men, just days after promising them that he wouldn’t. And he did it so fast that he wasn’t even around to sign the paperwork.
GHD, the claim that he retired before he knew the unit was being sent to Iraq is absolutely false. There is incontrovertible evidence that he knew very well that the order was coming. The whole unit knew. His own campaign press release from March 2005 said so! And his commanding officer, Command Sergeant Major Doug Julin, confirms that Walz personally knew about the deployment by November 2004, six months before he suddenly put in for retirement! So the Democrats are just lying their faces off, as usual.