Vice presidential candidate JD Vance has criticized Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D), Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, accusing him of abandoning his National Guard troops as they were preparing to deploy to Iraq. Reports indicate that Walz “retired” from the Army National Guard four years into his six-year reenlistment, just as his battalion was preparing for deployment.
Vance, a former US Marine who served in Iraq, expressed his disapproval in an interview with the Daily Mail. “I mean, your job as a senior enlisted guy in a unit is to keep your people safe. That’s not a job you can switch out of on a moment’s notice,” Vance stated. “So if he abandoned his troops before they went to Iraq or wherever … absolutely shameful.”
Vance also questioned Walz’s claims about his military service. “There was a clip the Kamala campaign posted about him where he’s making a gun control argument. He said, ‘Look, you should not be able to carry the weapons that I carried in war.’ And I’m, I’m thinking to myself, well, when did you go to war? What weapon did you carry in the war, Tim, because apparently you skipped out on your unit before they went to Iraq,” Vance added.
In a campaign video, Walz claimed to have carried guns “in war” during his time in the Army National Guard. However, Walz has previously acknowledged that he never saw combat. “I spent 25 years in the Army and I hunt,” Walz said in the clip. “I’ve been voting for common sense legislation that protects the Second Amendment, but we can do background checks. We can do CDC research, we can make sure we don’t have reciprocal carry among states, and we can make sure that those weapons of war, that I carried in war, is the place where those weapons are at.”
Walz admitted to Minnesota Public Radio in October 2018 that he never saw combat during his 24 years in the Army National Guard. “I know that there are certainly folks that did far more than I did. I know that,” he said.
Walz’s overseas deployments included Italy in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and Norway for joint training exercises with NATO forces. Despite these assignments, questions about his military service have persisted.
In November 2018, Retired Command Sergeant Majors Thomas Behrends and Paul Herr published a letter in the West Central Tribune accusing Walz of embellishing his military career and abandoning his battalion. They claimed Walz reenlisted in the Minnesota Army National Guard for six years and was conditionally promoted to Command Sergeant Major on September 17, 2004. A warning order was issued in early 2005 for the 1-125th Field Artillery Battalion to prepare for deployment to Iraq. However, Walz quit on May 16, 2005, leaving his battalion without its senior Non-Commissioned Officer as they prepared for war.
The Sergeants Major asserted that Walz’s official Report of Separation and Record of Service shows he reenlisted for six years in 2001, contradicting his claim that he reenlisted for four years. They noted that even if Walz had reenlisted for four years, his retirement date would have been in September 2005, not May.
“And he makes it sound like he ‘retired’ a year before his battalion deployed to Iraq; when in reality he knew when he ‘retired’ that the battalion would be deployed to Iraq,” they wrote.
The controversy over Walz’s military service and his alleged abandonment of his troops has added to the scrutiny surrounding Harris’ choice for vice president. As the election approaches, these issues are likely to remain a focal point in the political discourse.
