In 2004, Tim Walz organized a protest outside a rally for President George W. Bush, holding a sign that read “Operation Enduring Freedom Veterans for Kelly,” a reference to the fight against terrorists in Afghanistan.
The problem is, Walz served in the Minnesota National Guard for 24 years and never deployed to a combat zone in Afghanistan or Iraq — the closest he came was thousands of miles away in Italy — but he used the title many times, and it was included in his official biography two years later when he ran for Congress in 2006.
The photo shows that Waltz, Ms. Kamala Harris’ running mate, has repeatedly exaggerated and embellished his military record. Her running mate, J.D. Vance, a Marine veteran who served in Iraq, accused the two-term Minnesota governor of “a hoax of stolen heroism.”
At least one former member of Walz’s National Guard unit that served in Iraq expressed disapproval of the vice presidential nominee’s haphazard discussion of his military service.
“This is stolen bravery,” said the former guard, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
“He used very specific phrases on his website that were intended to lead civilians to believe he had been to Afghanistan. He held up a sign at a George W. Bush rally protesting that he had served in Operation Enduring Freedom, giving the impression that he had been in combat in Afghanistan when in fact he had not.”
The Harris-Waltz campaign appeared to acknowledge the criticism on Thursday by removing another controversial claim about Waltz’s military career from his official biography on its website, that he retired as a master sergeant.
(In fact, according to the military, Waltz was discharged at the rank of sergeant because he had not completed required additional coursework.)
It’s another claim he has made repeatedly. A newly discovered 2009 video shows then-Congressman Walz delivering a televised farewell message to troops deployed to Iraq, in which he refers to himself as a “retired master sergeant.”
This is far from the worst omission, but it shows that the questions posed are forcing the campaign into editorial damage control.
Here’s an update on vice presidential candidate Tim Walz’s time in the military.
The most egregious case occurred during Walz’s 2018 gubernatorial campaign, which was determined to be “completely false” by CNN Fact Check.
“We can study the effects of gun violence. The weapons of war that I carried in war can only be carried in war,” Walz said in front of a small audience at a campaign event, trying to portray himself as a gun control supporter.
When pressed, Waltz admitted later that year that he “did not bear weapons of war” on the battlefield.
Peter Meyer, an Iraq War veteran and former Republican congressman from Michigan, also criticized Walz’s choice of words, but did not entirely agree with Vance’s assessment that Walz was guilty of “stolen service,” or lying about his military service and achievements to get ahead as a civilian.
“I believe Walz has downplayed his military record in order to stay afloat as his district has shifted to the right,” Meyer wrote in an X thread discussing the accusations against Walz.
“He got the audience to paint a false picture. It was dodgy, but it wasn’t stolen courage.”
Alex Prinzas, a decorated Iraq War veteran and fellow at the Atlantic Council, called the claim that Waltz was an Operation Enduring Freedom veteran “true but misleading,” saying it was taken out of context to lead people to believe Waltz fought in Afghanistan.
“Why is this misleading? When you ask a fellow veteran where they were deployed or the first answer is ‘Iraq,’ ‘Afghanistan,’ ‘Syria,’ etc. No one says ‘Operation Enduring Freedom Veteran.’ That’s something to put on a hat you wear when you go to see a doctor at the VA. I didn’t make the rules,” he wrote to X.
In 2009, David Toole, a National Guard veteran and Walz constituent, brought protest photos to the campaign office and confronted staff about Operation Enduring Freedom’s claims.
“Have you ever wondered what enduring freedom is?” the veteran asked. Video of the encounter goes viral.
“No,” the staff member said.
“So most people, including you, don’t associate ‘enduring freedom’ with Afghanistan?” he asked.
“Well, I think his audience understands that it encompasses a lot of things,” the staffer said.
The veteran later wrote, “My only concern beyond this photo is that the congressman’s website, his official biography, states that he [was a veteran] “In support of Operation Enduring Freedom. In the absence of other details, wouldn’t it be reasonable for people to assume he served in Afghanistan?”
The staff member reluctantly replied, “Maybe so.”
The veterans said the photo “could probably get members of Congress jailed for violating the Constitution.” [2005] The law makes it a federal misdemeanor for “falsely representing oneself as the recipient of a United States military medal or decoration.”
Indeed, Waltz has also been criticized for applying for retirement from the Minnesota National Guard before his unit first deployed to Iraq in 2005. Two members of his unit, Staff Sergeant Kyle Miller, 19, and Staff Sergeant David Berry, 37, were killed by IEDs.
While the Harris campaign and its allies have downplayed the discrepancies as minor, Meyer said she believes Walz’s high ranking in the National Guard means “it’s only natural that we hold him to a higher standard as a senior enlisted officer.”
“[It’s] “Any rank equivalent to lieutenant colonel is a position of great responsibility. It’s a senior position and there are higher expectations of how someone in that position will behave within the military,” he said.
The Harris campaign declined to comment.
