For the first time in 20 years, both Republicans and Democrats have a military veteran on their presidential ticket. The last time this occurred was when President George W. Bush faced Senator John Kerry in 2004.
While Democratic vice presidential hopeful Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Republican vice presidential nominee Ohio Senator JD Vance have different political views, both share a history of military service.
Walz served 24 years as a member of the Army National Guard after voluntarily enlisting at age 17. According to the Minnesota National Guard, Walz served in Nebraska as a senior sergeant and an administrative specialist before transferring to Minnesota as a cannon crewmember and a field artillery senior sergeant.
For eight months in 2003-04, Walz deployed to Italy in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan to assist with security missions at various locations in Europe. He did not fight in combat.
Walz culminated his career serving as the command sergeant major for the battalion but “retired as a master sergeant in 2005 for benefit purposes because he did not complete additional coursework at the U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy,” Army Lieutenant Colonel Kristen Augé, the Minnesota National Guard’s state public affairs officer, told VOA.
Vance, then named James David Hamel, served four years as a member of the U.S. Marine Corps after he voluntarily enlisted when he was 19. According to the Marine Corps, he was deployed to Iraq for six months in 2005-06 as a military journalist during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Like Walz, he did not see combat and has said he was “lucky to escape any real fighting.”
“Veterans bring a unique level of leadership and experience to government,” Carl Bedell, chair of the Virginia Board of Veterans Services, told VOA. “That the next vice president will bring military experience to the administration is a good thing for our country.”
‘Stolen valor’ controversy
Vance on Wednesday criticized Walz for “stolen valor garbage” and claimed the Democratic vice presidential candidate had “abandoned” his unit “right before they went into Iraq.”
Walz chose to leave the Guard in 2005 to run for Congress. Federal Election Commission records show that Walz filed to run for Congress in February 2005, and National Guard records show he officially retired in May, about two months before his unit received an alert for deployment to Iraq and about a year before the unit deployed to the country in March 2006.
“Minnesota National Guard’s 1st Battalion, 125th Field Artillery received an alert order for mobilization to Iraq on July 14, 2005. The official Department of the Army mobilization order was received on August 14, 2005, and the unit mobilized [for pre-deployment training] on October 12, 2005,” Army Lieutenant Colonel Ryan Rossman, the Minnesota National Guard director of operations, said.
Walz went on to flip a U.S. House seat in a 2006 election, igniting his political career and leading him to be elected governor of Minnesota in 2018 and now the Democratic nominee for vice president.
Walz’s Guard colleagues have publicly criticized his decision to leave their unit that year because, while no official orders had been given, some soldiers had started to suspect that they would be deployed to a war zone soon.
Doug Julin, a retired National Guard soldier who worked with Walz, said in an interview with The Washington Post that “the big frustration was that he let his troops down.”
Another veteran who served with Walz, Tom Schilling, told Fox News that Walz “ditched” his team.
Minnesota National Guard veteran Al Bonnifield, however, told NewsNation that at the time, Walz talked to him for more than half an hour about how to move forward, weighing whether he could be a better person for his soldiers and his country by staying in the Guard or running for Congress.
“I know that wasn’t a cowardly move. I know that wasn’t, from the bottom of my heart,” Bonnifield said.
Retired Command Sergeant Major Joe Eustice, who served with Walz for several years, told CNN Friday that while he disagreed with many of his colleagues’ political views, accusations that Walz ran out on his battalion were “baseless” and an “unfair assessment of what took place.”
Unofficial alerts given prior to an alert order for mobilization, known today as the Army’s “Notification of Sourcing,” did not begin until 2009, according to the National Guard.
“Any communication prior to the official order in 2005 would be considered an unofficial notice, for a possible deployment, and would be subject to change until an official mobilization order was received,” the Guard added.
Some veterans have now called out Vance for criticizing Walz’s record. Retired Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman compared Vance’s four years of service in public affairs to Walz’s 24 years and eight promotions.
“I do not think you want to compare records,” he wrote on X.
Bedell of the Virginia Board of Veterans Services said that citizens “deserve leaders that are who they say and who did what they say they did, especially in regard to their military service.” He warned, however, that any scrutiny should be an “honest assessment — politics tend to skew that.”
Not ‘in war’
Vance also called Walz “dishonest” for a claim that he made in 2018 while speaking to a group about gun control during his first campaign for governor.
In the video, Walz was discussing his transition away from the National Rifle Association and said, “We can make sure that those weapons of war that I carried in war is the only place where those weapons are at.”
Eustice, who disagrees with Vance’s attack on Walz’s retirement, told CNN that Walz “didn’t carry a weapon in war. That statement is untrue.”
In a 2009 interview, Walz explained that his fellow soldiers had expected to “shoot artillery in Afghanistan” as they had trained to do, but that didn’t happen.
“I think in the beginning, many of my troops were disappointed,” Walz said in the interview. “I think they felt a little guilty, many of them, that they weren’t in the fight up front as this was happening.”
After Vance’s comments, the Harris campaign said in a statement that Walz had “fired and trained others to use weapons of war innumerable times” in his 24 years of service.
