Questions remain over Walz military service after Harris campaign says he 'misspoke'

U.S. House Republicans and military veterans are demanding answers from the Pentagon and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz on his military record after several claims have resurfaced.

Walz was picked as Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate; the two are the presumed Democratic nominees for president and vice president.

Criticisms of Walz’s military record have existed since 2006 when he first ran for Congress. Republican members of Congress and veterans are again raising concerns, including vice presidential candidate U.S. Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, a Marine Corps veteran who served in Iraq; U.S. House Reps. Jim Banks, R-Ind., Cory Mills, R-FL, Navy and Army veterans, respectively, whose deployments include Afghanistan and Iraq.

Walz, who served in the Army National Guard for 24 years, claimed in 2018 that his goal was to ban Americans from purchasing “weapons of war that I carried in war,” claiming that he fought in combat. He also claims that in 2005, before his unit deployed to Iraq, he retired from the Guard to run for Congress and his rank was command sergeant major.

Questions have been raised for years about his deployments. Walz, who served in the 1st Battalion, 125th Field Artillery, was deployed in 2003 to Vicenza, Italy, to support Operation Enduring Freedom, the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. He did not see combat in Afghanistan.

Vance has taken issue with Walz’s military service characterization, saying at a recent Michigan campaign event, "I wonder Tim Walz, when were you ever in war? What was this weapon you carried into war? What bothers me about Tim Walz is this stolen valor garbage. Do not pretend to be something that you’re not. I’d be ashamed if I was him and I lied about my military service like he did."

Similar claims have been made before. In 2018, when Walz was running for governor, retired National Guard leaders posted an open letter on Facebook, saying he “embellished and selectively omitted facts of his military career for years.”

In 2009, a veteran reportedly confronted Walz’s former congressional staff claiming he violated the Stolen Valor Act of 2006 because of claims he made about Afghanistan when he was never deployed there, according to a video released by the Calvin Coolidge Project.

In July 2006, veterans sent letters to local news outlets, the Mankato Free Press, archived by Bluestem Prairie News, and the Winona Daily News, claiming Walz was misleading voters about his military service in Afghanistan. Walz published a response in the Winona Daily News stating he never misled anyone and he was proud of his military service.

Others have pointed to a CSPAN interview with then U.S. Rep. Walz who didn’t appear to clarify that he never actually fought in Afghanistan.

Since similar concerns have resurfaced, Banks on Thursday sent a letter to Department of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin requesting official information about Walz’s service record.

"The American people deserve transparency into the military records of service-members who serve in public office and especially when they represent such service as credentials for public office," he wrote. "Misrepresentation and deceit intended to mislead the public about their service erode the integrity of our military and impact all Americans who choose to serve."

Banks, who chairs the U.S. House Armed Services Military Personnel Subcommittee, requested dates of service including when Walz put in for retirement and documentation to support any claim that he was “deployed overseas to Iraq or Afghanistan to serve in combat” or had a military security clearance.

He also asked for clarification if Walz “falsely claiming to have carried a combat weapon in war constitutes stolen valor.” The 2006 law, amended in 2013, makes it a federal crime for individuals that make fraudulently claims about their military service.

Mills argues Walz can provide further clarification about his record.

“Walz should have at least come back and said, ‘I was promoted to Command Sergeant. I never went to the academy, and I was actually demoted back to Master Sergeant," Mills said in a statement on social media. “But he's not doing that. This guy's trying to continue the lie in an effort to try to gain military favor from veterans when the real combat veteran and future Vice President is JD Vance.”

The Harris campaign on Friday partially addressed the criticism. "Governor Walz would never insult or undermine any American’s service to this country – in fact, he thanks Senator Vance for putting his life on the line for our country. It’s the American way," a Harris campaign spokesperson told NBC News. "In making the case for why weapons of war should never be on our streets or in our classrooms, the Governor misspoke. He did handle weapons of war and believes strongly that only military members trained to carry those deadly weapons should have access to them.”

The former chaplain of Walz’s field artillery regiment also weighed in, saying, “In our world, to drop out after a WARNORD [warning order] is issued is cowardly, especially for a senior enlisted guy,” retired Capt. Corey Bjertness, now a pastor in North Dakota, told The New York Post. “Running for Congress is not an excuse. I stopped everything and went to war. I left my wife with three teenagers and a 6-year-old and I was gone for 19 months.”