Democrat vice presidential candidate Tim Walz "ran down the road in the wrong direction" rather than staying in the Minnesota National Guard when it was deployed to Iraq, retired U.S. Army Command Sgt. Maj. Thomas Behrends, who replaced him in leading the unit's soldiers, said on Newsmax Saturday.
"He knew we were going and he decided that 'I'm not going to I'm not going on that mission,'" Behrends told Newsmax's "America Right Now." "'I'm not getting in that Humvee to go to Baghdad today. I'm walking the other way and I'm not — I'm not doing it.'"
Walz, after 24 years in the Minnesota National Guard, retired in May 2005 before his battalion deployed to Iraq.
He said at the time he was retiring to run for Congress. He ended up defeating incumbent Republican Gil Gutknecht while making his opposition to the war in Iraq the center of his campaign.
"Three weeks later or a month, whatever it was, I got the call," Behrends said about the time difference between when Walz retired and when the unit was called up for deployment.
"They asked me to go, and I had to ask my family and my brother who I farm with and make the decision because I had to volunteer to do it," he added.
Behrends explained that in early 2005, he was in a separate division and had been selected for a sergeant major position.
"We had a warfighter exercise going on with the First Brigade," which was Walz's division, said Behrends. "It was March of '05 when the general public, you know, the First Brigade found out they had a warning order come out that said, 'Going to Iraq.'"
Walz, meanwhile, had announced his candidacy for Congress on Feb. 10, 2005, and after the order came out, his campaign put out a statement about his retirement, said Behrends.
But Walz has claimed repeatedly that "he just happened to get out just at the right time before the unit was notified that they were going to Iraq," said Behrends.
The now-Minnesota governor has also been saying that he was a retired command sergeant major, "probably millions of times, as much as he talks," Behrends said.
However, when the news came out that he did not retire at that rank, Walz backed away from that claim, he said.
Walz's retirement from the military also meant he left a position of leadership as his unit was heading overseas.
There were "500 soldiers" who needed a leader, and their parents and families depended on the command sergeant major, said Behrends.
"You're the right-hand man to the colonel to lead these people, to be their dad, to protect them and make sure they come home after this war that we're going into," he added.
The Minnesota National Guard has confirmed that Walz retired as a master sergeant after failing to complaint training and requirements for the command sergeant major rank.
Meanwhile, Walz has also suggested that he served in Iraq and during Operation Iraqi Freedom, and Behrends said that was "absolutely not" true
"When we went to Europe, our order basically says that we were in support of Operation Enduring Freedom, which is a broad brush to cover Afghanistan," said Behrends. "But he selectively omitted, you know, the, the part of it that.
"They tried to make it sound like we were like a supply company for people that were in Afghanistan," he continued. "We were doing base security in Europe ... now they came out and they said that he misspoke, which to me is just an educated way to say, 'Well, he lied.'"
And that, said Behrends, is not what is needed on a national level.
"It's a bald-faced lie," he said. "He was never in war."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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