(NewsNation) — Two veterans with multiple deployments agree that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz served a long, honorable career in the Army National Guard. But they’d like Walz to address the discrepancies about the timing of his retirement and what they say is an implication that he saw combat.
“I knew guys that lost eyes and limbs and fought to go back on combat deployments to be alongside their brothers and sisters in arms,” said former U.S. Navy SEAL Mike Sarraille, speaking about Walz’s 2005 retirement shortly before his National Guard artillery unit was deployed to Iraq.
“There’s no evidence that he timed his withdrawal because he didn’t want to deploy into the combat zone. He had served 24 years. He was eligible to retire,” said retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. Daniel Davis, who was a veteran of four combat deployments.
Appearing on NewsNation’s “Dan Abrams Live,” however, both men said they’re concerned about Walz appearing to imply that he was in combat.
In a video released by the Harris campaign this week, Walz told a small gathering “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’s unit was deployed to Italy in 2003 in support of the U.S. operation in Afghanistan after 9/11, but it did not see combat.
“I don’t hear enough of him now coming out and explaining any of the discrepancies here,” Davis said. “I don’t think it would be that hard to do. Just clear up these issues that people are having instead of being silent.”
“Be careful when you step into the public or political arena not to exaggerate your claims like going to war,” Sarraille said. “Combat veterans … they’re going to drag you across the mat on that one.”
But does Sarraille think that statement by Walz is bad enough that some veterans won’t vote for the Harris-Walz ticket?
“I do,” he said.