Tim Walz left National Guard battalion ‘hanging,’ ‘slithered out the door’ before Iraq deployment: vets

Veterans have accused Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz of “embellishing” his military career and abandoning his National Guard battalion, highlighting that the now-vice presidential pick for the Democrats never served in combat and retired from service ahead of his unit’s 2005 deployment to Iraq.

In a letter posted to Facebook in 2018 as he first ran for governor, retired Command Sergeants Major Thomas Behrends and Paul Herr said Walz retired from his 24-year tenure in the National Guard after learning that his battalion would be deployed to Iraq, despite allegedly assuring his fellow troops he would join them.

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“On May 16th, 2005, [Walz] quit, betraying his country, leaving the 1-125th Field Artillery Battalion and its Soldiers hanging; without its senior Non-Commissioned Officer, as the battalion prepared for war,” Behrends and Herr wrote.

Walz, 60, wrapped his military career just in time for him to launch 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 requested permission from the Pentagon to seek office while on active duty.

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Walz further dodged the necessary paperwork to ensure a smooth transition out of military service and “instead … slithered out the door,” the pair added, with his retirement filing showing “soldier not available for signature.”

The National Guard members also accused the now-two-term Minnesota governor of having “embellished and selectively omitted facts of his military career for years.”

The letter was first unearthed 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,” Joseph Eustice, who served 32 years in the National Guard, 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 passed up for promotions.

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Another National Guard member who served under Walz said that the future US lawmaker was eyeing a run for Congress earlier than 2005.

“Would the soldier look down on him because he didn’t go with us? Would the common soldier say, ‘Hey, he didn’t go with us, he’s trying to skip out on a deployment?’ And he wasn’t,” Al Bonnifield recalled to Minnesota Public Radio of Walz’s concerns about dipping out before the deployment to Iraq.

“He talked with us for quite a while on that subject. He weighed that decision to run for Congress very heavy [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 I did 24 years,” Walz has said about his service.

Walz joined the National Guard after high school and had served in the 1st Battalion, 125th Field Artillery before his retirement, where he obtained the rank of command sergeant major.

During his subsequent tenure in Congress, Walz came out in opposition against then-President George W. Bush’s plans to increase troop levels in Iraq.