(NewsNation) — A fellow soldier is defending Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz from accusations of “abandoning” his fellow soldiers before their deployment to Iraq, a charge leveled by JD Vance, Walz’s competitor for the vice presidency.
Retired Sgt. Major Joseph Eustice said Walz “fulfilled his duty. He was a great soldier. When he chose to leave, he had every right to leave.”
Eustice spoke to NewsNation about the timing of Walz’s retirement in 2005 after serving in the Guard for 24 years. Walz left a few months before the 1-125th Field Artillery Battalion was sent to Iraq.
“As far as I know, he did not know,” Eustice said of whether Walz knew about the upcoming deployment. “At that time, there were all kinds of rumors about us deploying. In May, when he decided to retire … we had no ‘Notice of Deployment.’ That didn’t come until July,” he added.
Eustice said Walz told him before he left that he “was going to become a congressman,” and had spoken about the possibility for months before making his decision.
“I didn’t think that was a great idea. I didn’t think he would be a very good politician,” Eustice said.
At a campaign event in Michigan on Wednesday, Vance, who served in Iraq with the Marines, said Walz’s retirement was tantamount to desertion.
“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,” Vance said.
In 2018, when Walz was first running for governor of Minnesota, two former colleagues wrote a paid letter to the editor of the West Central Tribune, a newspaper in Willmar, Minnesota.
“For Tim Walz to abandon his fellow soldiers and quit when they needed experienced leadership most is disheartening,” wrote retired Command Sgts. Major Thomas Behrends and Paul Herr.
Vance also accused Walz of “stolen valor” for claiming he was in combat when he was not, apparently referring to Walz comments on gun control heard in a video released by the Harris campaign.
“I spent 25 years in the Army, and I hunt. 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,” Walz said.
“What bothers me about Tim Walz is the stolen valor garbage. Do not pretend to be something that you’re not,” Vance said Wednesday.
While he didn’t go to Iraq, Walz was deployed to Italy in 2003 as part of Operation Enduring Freedom, but not in a combat zone.
“The governor carried, fired and trained others to use weapons of war innumerable times,” said Ammar Moussa, a campaign spokesperson.
“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.”
“Stolen valor” is the term generally used to describe those who claim to have served in the military but did not. The “Stolen Valor Act of 2013” makes it a federal crime to lie about one’s military service in order to profit from the lie.
Vance was on active duty with the Marine Corps from 2003 to 2007 during the Iraq war. Then known as James D. Hamel, Vance was deployed to Iraq with the Second Marine Aircraft Wing. His job was “combat correspondent,” which included basic communication roles such as writing articles about the events taking place in his unit. Vance was not a frontline combatant.
