Tim Walz military service: Where did he serve and for how long?
Tim Walz, like his opponent JD Vance, served in the US Military. However, his record in the armed services has come under attack by his opponents.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and US Senator JD Vance from Ohio will meet on a debate stage on Tuesday, October 1, at the CBS studios in New York. The running mates of Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, respectively, will try to bolster the platform of their candidate’s campaign while pointing out the differences.
One thing that both of the VP candidates have in common though is that they both served in the US Military. But in the case of Walz, his service has been a point of attack from his Republican opponent and supporters of the GOP ticket.
Tim Walz military service: Where did he serve and for how long?
Like Vance, Walz enlisted in the US Military when he was a teenager. The Democratic candidate was just 17 when he enlisted in the Army National Guard in 1981.
Similarly, they both used GI Bill benefits to attend college. Walz graduated from Chadron State College in Nebraska with a bachelor of science degree in social science education in 1989. He went on to become a teacher and coach which he juggled with his service obiligations to the National Guard.
In 2001, he had reached the moment when he could have retired from the National Guard, but he chose to reenlist instead when 9/11 happened. Over his 24 years of service, he rose to the rank of command sergeant major before retiring honorably in 2005.
The debate about Walz’ military service
One of the major attacks on the Democratic candidate’s military record is that, while he retired honorably, his rank was knocked down to master sergeant upon retirement. The lowering of his rank was because he hadn’t fulfilled the required conditions and time in the post to remain a command sergeant major in retirement.
He has been criticized by Republicans, and his opponent Senator Vance, of misrepresenting his military record and for not correcting others when stating his rank as command sergeant major instead of master sergeant. This has been occurring for years since his retirement according to ABC, including most recently in his bio on the Harris-Walz campaign website. The wording in his bio has now been changed from “retired” to “served as a” followed by “Command Sergeant Major in the Army National Guard.”
Another misrepresentation of his service, that he has received criticism for, is failing to make corrections about his deployment overseas. During his time in the US military, like Vance he never saw combat but both were deployed overseas. Vance was deployed to Iraq for six months in a non-combat role working as a military journalist and Walz to Italy in 2003 for a year as part of Operation Enduring Freedom in support of the war in Afghanistan.
However, during a bipartisan discussion on CSPAN in 2016, the host introduced Walz saying that he “served with his battalion in Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan.” He nodded in agreement to the statement without correcting the host.
These episodes have led his opponent Senator Vance to accuse him of the serious federal crime of “stolen valor.” However, ABC reports that upon in-depth investigation there is no evidence that he has committed any such crime but that it has resulted in an inaccurate picture of his military service.
Vance has also criticized Walz’ decision to retire when he did. Walz retired from the National Guard to focus on his run for congress. His unit received orders to deploy to Iraq two months after he retired in May 2005.