A former National Guard colleague has accused Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz of going above him to secure his retirement on the brink of their unit’s deployment nearly 20 years ago, believing that he would have told the then-political hopeful, “Suck it up, we’re going.”
Doug Julin, who oversaw Walz as a more senior command sergeant in the 1st Battalion, 125th Field Artillery, of the Minnesota National Guard, recalled that the future governor approached him in 2005 with some career questions.
Walz, now 60, told Julin that he was prepared for the unit’s upcoming deployment to Iraq, but said he was also interested in running for Congress, Julin told the Washington Post.
Julin said it was “no big deal,” and noted that members of Congress had deployed in the past.
A few months later, Julin found out from another Guard member that Walz had retired after all — which he secured by going through two officers who outranked Julin.
“I would have analyzed it and challenged him. It would have been a different discussion, but he went to the higher ranks. He knew I would have told him, ‘Suck it up, we’re going,’” Julin claimed.
Other former colleagues have criticized him for leaving the National Guard for Congress despite being fully aware that he could have requested permission from the Pentagon to run for office while on active duty.
“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,” retired Command Sergeants Major Thomas Behrends and Paul Herr wrote in a letter posted to Facebook in 2018.
The duo claimed Walz further dodged the necessary paperwork to ensure a smooth transition out of military service and “instead … slithered out the door,” with his retirement filing showing “soldier not available for signature.”
Walz has previously defended his retirement, saying, “We all do what we can. I’m proud I did 24 years [of service].”
Walz went on to win a House seat in 2006. He was elected governor of Minnesota in 2018, and was named this week as Kamala Harris’ running mate.
As a congressman, Walz served on the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee and supported the 2008 Post-9/11 GI Bill, which provided greater educational support for veterans.
Another former colleague, Al Bonnifield, told the Washington Post that Walz did not take his decision to retire lightly.
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“He was trying to decide where he could do better for soldiers, for veterans, for the country. He weighed that for a long time,” Bonnifield recalled.
He insisted that Walz did not seem concerned about the potential dangers of the combat zone.
“He was not that kind of man. Absolutely not,” Bonnifield said.
The criticisms against Walz’s military service have also come up on the 2024 campaign trail.
Former President Donald Trump’s VP pick, Marine Corps veteran JD Vance, has accused Walz of “stolen valor” for some of his past comments that incorrectly implied he saw direct combat.
“What bothers me about Tim Walz is the stolen valor garbage. Do not pretend to be something that you’re not,” Vance said at a campaign stop in Michigan on Wednesday.
