National Guard refutes Republican claims Tim Walz abandoned army before Iraq War

Minnesota National Guard says vice presidential hopeful retired two months before his battalion received alert order to mobilise

Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz speaks at a campaign event in Detroit, Michigan. Getty Images / AFP

JD Vance, Donald Trump's running mate in the US presidential election, accused his Democratic opponent, Tim Walz, of abandoning his battalion before they were sent to Iraq in 2005.

Vice President Kamala Harris chose Mr Walz as her running mate in the election, which will take place in November.

“When the United State Marine Corps, when the United States of America, asked me to go to Iraq to serve my country, I did it,” Mr Vance told a rally in the battleground state of Pennsylvania on Wednesday evening.

"I did what they asked me to do, and I did it honourably and I’m very proud of that service. When Tim Walz was asked by his country to go to Iraq, you know what he did? He dropped out of the army and allowed his unit to go without him."

But the Minnesota National Guard told The National that Mr Walz retired after 24 years of service on May 16, 2005 – about two months before his 125th Field Artillery battalion received an alert order to go to Iraq.

Criticism against Mr Walz's military record first surfaced in a 2018 letter posted to Facebook by retired command sergeants major Thomas Behrends and Paul Herr. They accused the Minnesota Governor of “betraying his country” and “leaving the 1-125th Field Artillery Battalion and its soldiers hanging”.

Records seen by The National show Mr Walz is a decorated veteran. He has extensive experience in field artillery, including as firing battery chief and operations sergeant, said Minnesota National Guard spokeswoman Lt Col Kristen Auge.

But there are elements of Mr Walz's military record that he appears to have inflated in past political speeches.

During a campaign event in 2018 for the governor's position, he implied that he had carried firearms “in war”.

“We can research the impacts of gun violence," Mr Walz said. "We can make sure those weapons of war, that I carried in war, are only carried in war."

According to records provided by the Minnesota National Guard, he was never sent to a combat zone.

In August 2003, Mr Walz was sent to Vicenza, Italy, in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.

The Harris campaign told The Washington Post that Mr Walz used “weapons of war innumerable 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,” the statement said.

VoteVets, a Democratic-aligned veterans' organisation, said that as “a career field artilleryman, Tim’s service didn’t come without risk".

"He suffered significant hearing loss from his time around the big guns, requiring surgery and inner-ear implants after his retirement," the organisation said.

Previous comments made by Mr Walz about the specific rank with which he retired have also sparked debate. Mr Walz and Democratic allies have said that he is a “retired sergeant major” – a claim that is not exact, according to his record.

Although he achieved a provisional rank of command sergeant major, his title reverted back and he “retired as a master sergeant in 2005 for benefit purposes, because he did not complete additional coursework”, Lt Col Auge said.

“Tim Walz gave most of his early life to serve his state and our nation in uniform. Compare that to Donald Trump evading military service multiple times,” Mike Lavigne, a retired sergeant major in the US Army who now works with VoteVets, told The National in a statement.

“The Trump record is anti-troop, anti-military family, anti-Gold Star family, and anti-veteran. They can try but they’ll never, ever be able to run away from that."

Iraq War and Congress

In the months leading up to his retirement, Mr Walz began a political campaign – on an anti-Iraq War platform – that led to his election to the House of Representatives in 2006.

While in Congress, he was critical of America's “endless wars” in Iraq and Afghanistan, although his voting record on the issue is complicated.

He spoke out in 2007 against the plan by George W Bush, Us president at the time, to send more troops to Iraq. “Some have said that this debate sends a message to our enemies, and I would agree," Mr Walz told the House at the time.

"The message our enemies are hearing this week is that democracy in America is alive and well."

But shortly after moving to block more troops being sent to Iraq, Mr Walz voted to continue funding the war, putting him at odds with many members of his party.

“In my district, I wasn't hearing [during the campaign] an overall cry that the troops have to be out by midnight tomorrow," he told NBC News at the time. "My fear is if the pullback of troops was either delayed or sped up based on politics, that's dangerous.”

Mr Walz told NPR at the time that he had supported the legislation to continue funding the war because because he believed training and other resources for National Guard soldiers would be affected.

"I've received numerous emails of frustrations, many people who believe that ... I have lost my core of what they voted on," he said "And that challenges me, but they also sent me there to make the hard decisions and to provide that leadership. So, that's what I did."