Democrat vice presidential candidate Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) has claimed he was eligible to retire from the military the same week as the 9/11 terrorist attacks and implied he chose to re-enlist out of a sense of patriotic duty. However, according to the Minnesota National Guard, he was not eligible to retire and receive retirement benefits until 2002.
In a 2009 interview for the Library of Congress’s Veteran History Project Collection, Walz claimed he reached 20 years in the National Guard — the benchmark for retirement from the military — the same week as the terrorist attacks, but that he chose to re-enlist.
Walz said:
It was — the notice as I said came in early 2003, I think many of us after September 11 — my 20 years was actually, ironically enough, up that week of September 11, 2001, of the time that I had off and made up, so I re-enlisted, like I think the vast majority of people did. A real sense of uncertainty of what was going to — but a real sense of wanting to do something. I think many of us in those early days — that sense of Afghanistan and the Taliban and where that, you know, that attack came from. [Emphasis added].
Walz also wrote in a November 3, 2006, op-ed as a U.S. congressional candidate:
After completing 20 years of service in 2001, I re-enlisted to serve our country for another four years following Sept. 11…
However, Minnesota National Guard’s Director of Manpower & Personnel Army Col. Ryan Cochran recent confirmed in a statement sent to reporters on August 13, 2024, that Walz was not eligible to retire until August 2002. He said in the statement, sent to Breitbart News and other outlets:
tim walz is a proven liar many times over.
Not really in his defense, but the Army pulls all sorts of retirement tricks, like advancing a rank for retirement.
He lies as good as Obiden and Kamala.