Tim Walz’s own 2005 congressional campaign touted that the then-candidate would go to Iraq if deployed — before he now-famously ditched the National Guard to allegedly avoid being sent, The Post has learned.
The March 2005 press release did not mention Walz’s impending retirement from service at the time and was published well before local media reported the possibility of him deploying.
Instead, his congressional campaign said the then-National Guardsman would go to Iraq if called but added that he was determined to stay in the race at the same time.
“Although his tour of duty in Iraq might coincide with his campaign for Minnesota’s 1st Congressional seat, Walz is determined to stay in the race,” the campaign said in the release.
While Democrats have said Walz in 2004 told the National Guard he intended to retire, the press release made no mention of those plans — and instead seemed to try to gain support off the possibility of him being shipped onto the battlefield.
The campaign’s release quoted Walz as saying: “As Command Sergeant Major I have a responsibility not only to ready my battalion for Iraq, but also to serve if called on. I am dedicated to serving my country to the best of my ability, whether that is in Washington DC or in Iraq.”
The press release shows Walz was playing it both ways: trying to gain traction from his service while never intending to serve long enough to see Iraq, critics say.
He ended up stunning members of his battalion with his decision to retire from the service right before deployment — a troubling situation now at the crux of controversy since the Minnesota governor became Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris’ veep running mate.
Walz retired from the National Guard just two months after the press release was issued, in May 2005, before his unit was reportedly given mobilization and “stop loss” orders in July 2005 that prevented soldiers from being excused from service for anything other than illness.
His Minnesota National Guard’s 1st Battalion, 125th Field Artillery unit mobilized in October of that year and deployed to Iraq in late March 2006, according to reports.
Walz’s former unit spent 17 months in Iraq and suffered three casualties.
In his 24 years of military service – with the Nebraska National Guard from 1981 to 1996 and the Minnesota National Guard from 1996 to 2005 – Walz never saw combat, having only been deployed to Italy in support of Operation Enduring Freedom involving the war in Afghanistan and to Norway in support of NATO.
Retired Minnesota National Guard Command Sergeant Major Thomas Behrends, who was tasked with preparing the 500 soldiers in the 1-125th Battalion for combat after Walz’s departure, told The Post that Walz “went behind everyone’s back” in a “shady” way when he put in his retirement paperwork, going above his commander and making the request to more senior leaders.
The revelation of Walz’s hasty retirement when faced with serving in the Iraq war, which his opposition to was a central theme of his congressional campaign, is just one of a number of controversies surrounding the way Kamala Harris’ VP pick has represented his military career.
Walz has been criticized in recent weeks for saying he was a command sergeant major in the National Guard.
The rank, which was recently scrubbed from his biography on the Harris-Walz campaign website, was ultimately taken away upon his retirement because he did not complete the necessary coursework to obtain the promotion. Walz’s rank was reduced to master sergeant upon his retirement.
The Minnesota governor has also faced accusations of “stolen valor” from combat veterans and Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance for how he described his time in the National Guard.
“What bothers me about Tim Walz is this stolen valor garbage. Do not pretend to be something that you’re not,” Vance, a Marine veteran, said earlier this month. “I’d be ashamed if I was him and I lied about my military service like he did.”
Last week, the Harris campaign admitted that Walz “misspoke” about his past military service when he suggested in 2018 that he fought on a battlefield.
“We can make sure that those weapons of war, that I carried in war, is the only place where those weapons are at,” Walz said as he clamored for increased gun control.
On Tuesday, Walz appeared to address recent attacks about his exaggerated service record, telling a crowd at Tulane University in Louisiana that he “firmly believe[s] you should never denigrate another person’s service records.
