In a letter posted on Facebook (banned in the Russian Federation; owned by the Meta corporation, which is recognized as extremist in the Russian Federation) in 2018, retired officers Thomas Behrends and Paul Herr said Walz resigned after 24 years of service in the National Guard after learning that his battalion will be deployed to Iraq. At the same time, he allegedly assured his colleagues that he would join them. “On May 16, 2005, Walz resigned as a betrayal of his country, leaving the 1st Field Artillery Battalion and its soldiers to fend for themselves without a senior noncommissioned officer as the battalion prepared for war,” Behrends and Herr wrote.
Walz retired from the military and successfully ran for Congress in 2006. The National Guard members also accused the second-term Minnesota governor of “selectively embellishing and omitting facts about his military career over the years.” The letter was published by the Daily Wire on Tuesday.
However, Walz said he had a “respectable reputation” and other soldiers who commanded the same battalion spoke out in his defense. “He was a great soldier,” Joseph Eustis, who served 32 years in the National Guard, told the Star Tribune in 2022. “When he decided to leave, he had every right to do so,” Eustis added, noting that other attacks on Walz’s record may have come from disgruntled soldiers who were denied promotions.
After graduating from high school, Walz joined the National Guard and served in the 1st Battalion, 125th Field Artillery, where he rose to the rank of master sergeant, until his retirement. In Congress, Walz opposed then-President George W. Bush’s plans to increase troop levels in Iraq.
