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‘Stolen Valor’ Accusations Arise Over Walz’s Disputed Military Career

Veterans have accused the Democratic VP candidate of retiring to avoid deployment despite Walz’s claims he ‘carried…weapons of war’

Published: August 7, 2024
  |   By Chris Karr
‘Stolen Valor’ Accusations Arise Over Walz’s Disputed Military Career

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is being accused of embellishing his military service after joining Kamala Harris in her bid for the White House this November.


Though the Democratic vice-presidential contender was accused of betrayal in 2018, those allegations have resurfaced as Walz’s record has come under renewed scrutiny after joining the ticket with Harris.

A viral video posted on Tuesday by the X account Kamala HQ, the official account of Harris’ campaign, appears to have played a role in reigniting the allegations.

The video, which was recorded on Aug. 24, 2023, features Walz discussing his stance on gun control.

“I spent 25 years in the Army and I hunt,” he said at the time. “I’ve been voting for common sense legislation that protects the Second Amendment, but we can do background checks. We can research the impacts of gun violence. We can make sure those weapons of war, that I carried in war, are only carried in war.”


Critics on X lambasted his assertion of carrying weapons of war as “Stolen Valor,” a reference to the Stolen Valor Act of 2005, which criminalizes the act of falsely claiming to have received military honors or decorations for personal gain.

Walz, who spent 24 years serving in the National Guard, has been accused of retiring to run for a seat in U.S. Congress rather than deploying to Iraq in 2005.

“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,” two veterans, retired Command Sergeants Major Thomas Behrends and Paul Herr, wrote in a 2018 letter posted to Facebook.

“On Sept. 10th, 2005 conditionally promoted Command Sergeant Major Walz was reduced to Master Sergeant,” the letter, which recently reappeared in a report from The Daily Wire, continues. “It took a while for the system to catch up to him as it was uncharted territory, literally no one quits in the position he was in, or drops out of the academy. Except him.”

“The National Guard members also accused the now-two-term Minnesota governor of having ‘embellished and selectively omitted facts of his military career for years,’” The New York Post reports.

“He was a great soldier. … When he chose to leave, he had every right to leave,” the outlet quotes 32-year National Guard veteran Joseph Eustice, who spoke with the Star Tribune.

Walz was criticized by former President Donald Trump’s vice-presidential candidate J.D. Vance this week.

"When the United States Marine Corps, when the United States of America, asked me to go to Iraq to serve my country, I did it," Vance said. "I did what they asked me to do and I did it honorably and I'm very proud of that service."

"When Tim Walz was asked by his country to go to Iraq, you know what he did? He dropped out of the Army and allowed his unit to go without him – a fact that he's been criticized for aggressively by a lot of the people that he served with," said Vance, who served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 2003 to 2007.


An X account which claims to be “18 Series Army,” which refers to a specific group of military occupational specialties within the Special Forces branch, took issue with photos of Walz’s apparel.

“Hey Tim Walz, this you?” the account asked. “Do you often wear our crest even though you were only National Guard with zero deployments, never went through SFAS or the Q course, and by all accounts never even worked with Special Forces?”


Writer Jordan Schachtel unearthed a 2006 profile of Walz in The Atlantic by Joshua Green that claims the VP candidate left his hometown in Minnesota “to serve overseas in Operation Enduring Freedom” in 2004.

“It’s unclear if this is Green, a veteran reporter, omitting major facts, or if Walz, the interviewee, is selling Green on a particular narrative,” Schachtel writes. “Nonetheless, the assertion is incredibly misleading, as it leaves the reader under the impression that Walz served as boots on the ground in the Global War on Terror, when in reality, he merely deployed to Italy in 2003 for a six month stint.”

"For many years, countless veterans of Minnesota’s 125th Field Artillery Regiment have been taking Walz to task about his ongoing mistatements [sic] and embellishment of his service record,” Schachtel added.

The report then cites a quote from Behrends, who said in 2022, "As soon as the shots were fired in Iraq, he turned and ran the other way and hung his hat up and quit.”

A Tuesday report from Green, who now writes for Bloomberg, initially referenced Walz’s return “from serving in Iraq as part of Operation Enduring Freedom.” That claim, now amended by an editor’s note, clarifies that he served in Italy, not Iraq.


Marine and Daily Caller editor-in-chief commented on the revision, contending that Operation Enduring Freedom took place in Afghanistan, not Iraq.

Green has since claimed the error was his.

Walz did not respond to a question about “stolen valor” posed by a member of the press on Wednesday.

Christopher Bertman contributed to this report

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