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Tim Walz 'betrayed his country' when he left unit before Iraq deployment: Why Kamala's VP pick suddenly retired from the military that gave him hearing problems
A retired command sergeant major accused Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz of having 'quit' his Minnesota National Guard unit after it was informed to prepare for a deployment to Iraq.
Walz, who is Vice President Kamala Harris' selection as her running mate, served for more than two decades in the Army National Guard, and his selection helps bolster the nominee on defense issues.
The timing of his separation from the military surfaced during his 2008 campaign for governor.
Retired Command Sergeant Major Thomas Behrends of the Minnesota National Guard accused Walz of having 'embellished' his record and of having abandoned his unit when he left the Guard to run for Congress.
'Tim Walz has embellished and selectively omitted facts and circumstances of his military career for years,' Behrends wrote in 2018.
'In early 2005, a warning order was issued to the 1-125th Field Artillery Battalion, which included the position he was serving in, to prepare to be mobilized for active duty for a deployment to Iraq,' Behrends and Paul Herr in a letter they posted on Facebook.
Vice President Kamaal Harris has selected Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate. He spent two decades in the Army National Guard. A retired command sergeant major accused him of having retired to avoid a deployment to Iraq
'On May 16th, 2005, he 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.'
'His excuse to other leaders was that he needed to retire in order to run for Congress,' they wrote, calling the claim 'false.' They say the decision left his unit without a critical leader as it prepared for the deployment.
Walz disputed the characterization, telling the Winona Daily News he did not quit due to the deployment orders, in a spat reported by the Daily Wire amid the fierce battle to define Harris' running mate.
'After completing 20 years of service in 2001, I re-enlisted to serve our country for an additional four years following Sept. 11 and retired the year before my battalion was deployed to Iraq in order to run for Congress,' he wrote.
Walz, 60, enlisted in the Guard at the age of 17. He became the highest-ranking enlisted soldier to serve in Congress.
He said he considered the letter a 'partisan political attack.'
'I'm certainly proud of my military service, but it's one piece of me. It doesn't define me,' Walz told Minnesota Public Radio in 2018. After going through basic training in Georgia, he was deployed to Arkansas, Texas, and the Artic Circle on disaster response and other missions. 'You go where you're told to go,' he said.
Al Bonnifield, who served under Walz, told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune Walz had already started thinking about retiring after deploying to Italy during operation Enduring Freedom after Sept. 11th.
'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,' he told the paper. 'He talked with us for quite a while on that subject. He weighed that decision to run for Congress very heavy. He loved the military, he loved the guard, he loved the soldiers he worked with.'
Veteran Joseph Eustice, who led the same battalion as Walz, called him a 'great soldier,' adding, 'When he chose to leave, he had every right to leave.’
DailyMail.com has reached out to the Harris-Walz campaign for further comment.
Walz' duties in a field artillery unit including firing howitzer cannons, a task that according to Walz led to hearing damage that required surgery.
The blasts, he wrote in an application for benefits, 'would knock us down and after firing I had ringing in my ears.'
Walz served for 21 years in the Army National Guard
The Harris camp believes Walz will be able to reach out to rural voters in the Midwest
His lawyer said hearing loss played a role in his DUI arrest back in 1995
He underwent a surgical procedure in 2005 called a stapedectomy, where doctors replaced damaged earbones with a synthetic ones.
Walz invoked hearing loss during a low point that emerged after Harris selected him over Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and other contenders.
Back in 1995, he was pulled over doing 96 mph in a 55 mile per hour zone. He failed a field sobriety test and was arrested for driving under the influence. He later pleaded down the charges to reckless driving.
His lawyer, Kerry Greeley told the Rochester, Minnesota Post Bulletin that hearing loss played a role.
'He couldn't understand what the officer was saying to him,' attorney Kerry Greeley told the paper.