The military service of Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz is coming under new scrutiny after some veterans went public with accusations of stolen valor and that the Minnesota Gov. abandoned his National Guard unit before its deployment to Iraq in 2005 before he started his political career. But the facts present a more complicated story.
Walz, whose military career with the National Guard spanned 24 years, was accused earlier of this by two retired command sergeant majors in the Minnesota Guard in 2018 when he was first running for governor of that state.
Ret. Command Sgt. Maj. Thomas Behrends, who said he was a member of Walz's battalion and levied the charge six years ago in a Facebook open letter, accused him of misleading the public about his military career in an interview Wednesday on "The Ingraham Angle."
"He's used the rank that he never achieved in order to advance his political career," Behrends said. "I mean, he still says he's a retired command sergeant major to this day, and he's not. He uses the rank of others to make it look like he's a better person than he is."
Walz's biography on the governor’s website says he retired "command sergeant major," and he had previously referred to himself as a "retired sergeant major in the Army."
Records indicate Walz did serve as a command sergeant major, but it was a provisional rank and he did not complete the required coursework to achieve that promotion. And, upon his retirement in 2005, left the service at his previous rank of master sergeant.
"What he did, basically, was he quit," Behrends, who has frequently contributed to Republican opponents of Walz and accused him of being a "traitor," said. "He didn't complete that condition of doing two years after graduation, so he gets reduced to a master sergeant, and that's what he is right now, is a retired master sergeant."
In a statement to Fox News, Minnesota National Guard Director of Operations Army Lt. Col. Ryan Rossman said Walz was a Command Sargent Major when he deployed to Europe with his battalion, “but to RETIRE as a CSM you have to go through a final course which he had not completed so from a benefits perspective the Army retired him as a Master Sgt (lower enlisted rank.) But according to National Guard records he was a Command Sgt Major technically when deployed. The lower rank was as a result of benefit requirements and a technicality."
Joseph Eustice, a 32-year veteran of the National Guard who led the same battalion as Walz and served under him, defended the VP nominee's record as a service member and said the attacks by fellow comrades were unfounded in an interview Wednesday with the New York Times.
“He was as good a soldier as you’d find, and to have two former sergeant majors say that he wasn’t, it’s just not true,” Eustice told the Times, adding he disagreed with Walz’s politics and likely would not vote for him, despite considering the governer a friend.
A separate charge levied against Walz relates to the timing of his retirement from the service and if he decided to leave the service in order to avoid deployment to Iraq.
Eustice said that when Walz said he wanted to pursue politics and decided to retire, there was only speculation of a combat deployment.
The unit received an official alert order in July, two months after Walz had retired and five to seven months after he had put in his retirement papers, the Minnesota National Guard said.
Tom Schilling, who also said he was a member of Walz's battalion, called Walz's actions "dishonorable" during an interview on with Fox News.
"We all did what we were supposed to do, we did the right thing, and it's dishonorable what he did," Schilling said. "He left somebody else to take over his spot. He just ditched us."
In a statement, the Harris-Walz campaign defended his military record.
“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,” Ammar Moussa, a campaign spokesman, said in a statement, “and as vice president of the United States, he will continue to be a relentless champion for our veterans and military families.”
The 1st Battalion, 125th Field Artillery served in Europe during Operation Enduring Freedom and was deployed in 2003 to Italy, Turkey, Belgium and Britain in support of the war effort, the Washington Post noted. Walz deployed to Italy in a support position of active military forces in Iraq and Afghanistan but did not serve in a combat zone.
Walz was first elected to Minnesota's 1st congressional district in 2006 and served six terms before he was elected governor in 2018.
JD Vance, the Republican VP nominee and U.S. Marine Corps veteran, attacked Walz for a comment he made during his run for governor in 2018 when speaking about guns, said that “we can make sure those weapons of war that I carried in war” are not on America’s streets.
Vance, who served six months in a noncombat role in Iraq, said he would be "ashamed if I was him and I lied about my military service."
“He said we shouldn’t allow weapons that I used in war to be on America’s streets,” Vance said. “Well, I wonder. Tim Walz, when were you ever in war?"
The Harris-Walz campaign did not address why he claimed incorrectly to have carried a gun "in war" in responding to Vance's comments.
“The governor carried, fired and trained others to use weapons of war innumerable times,” Moussa said, via the Times. “Governor Walz would never insult or undermine any American’s service to this country — in fact, he thanks Senator Vance for putting his life on the line for our country. It’s the American way.”
Walz first enlisted as an infantryman with the Nebraska Army National Guard in 1981, a few days after he turned 17. His job changed to artillery after transferring to the Minnesota Guard in 1996.
The Governor was activated for a variety of missions during his time with the guard, including responses to forest fires, tornadoes and flooding.
Reach Julia LeDoux at Julia@connectingvets.com.
Ben Krimmel contributed to this story.