A former National Guard colleague has accused Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz of going above him to secure his retirement on the brink of their unit’s deployment nearly 20 years ago, believing that he would have told the then-political hopeful, “Suck it up, we’re going.”
Doug Julin, who oversaw Walz as a more senior command sergeant in the 1st Battalion, 125th Field Artillery, of the Minnesota National Guard, recalled that the future governor approached him in 2005 with some career questions.
Walz, now 60, told Julin that he was prepared for the unit’s upcoming deployment to Iraq, but said he was also interested in running for Congress, Julin told the Washington Post.
Julin said it was “no big deal,” and noted that members of Congress had deployed in the past.