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By Tom Norton
Fact Check Reporter
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Since Minnesota Governor Tim Walz was announced as Kamala Harris' running mate, conservative critics have scrutinized his military record and allege that he has made misleading statements about his service with the National Guard.
Donald Trump's running mate, Ohio Senator JD Vance, was criticized last week after accusing Walz of "stolen valor" for allegedly claiming he had served in a war and for "abandoning" his unit.
This week, critics allege that Walz falsely claimed that he was deployed to Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan as part of the National Guard.
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Walz, who served with the Minnesota National Guard from 1981 to 2005, was sent overseas only once and not in a direct combat role. He avoided deployment to Iraq in 2005 after he decided to leave the Guard to pursue his political career.
In a Monday post on X (formerly Twitter), commentator Ben Braddock said Walz had written a speech "where he claimed to have 'stood one night in the dark of night at Bagram Air Base in Iraq' and watched an American soldier's body get loaded onto a plane.
"Bagram is in Afghanistan, not Iraq. Walz didn't deploy to either," Braddock added.
The post, which has been viewed 3.5 million times, includes a copy of prepared remarks by Walz for a 9/11 commemoration at the Minnesota State Capitol, republished by the Minnesota Military and Veterans Museum for the profile anthology Minnesota in the Global War on Terrorism.
The 2021 remarks were shared widely on X as proof that Walz had falsely claimed to have been deployed to the Bagram air base when describing his time in the National Guard after the 9/11 attacks.
According to the anthology's prepared remarks, Walz said: "In the years after that classroom, I had the privilege of serving in this state's national guard.
"I stood one night in the dark of night on the tarmac at Bagram Air Base in Iraq and watched a military ramp ceremony—a soldier's body being loaded onto a plane to be returned home. And if you've seen it, you don't leave the same.
"It makes you wonder, what are we doing? What are we trying to get to? And then watching as all of you have been, the confusing last few weeks with the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan."
Newsweek has contacted media representatives for Walz via email for comment.
If isolated, this passage might suggest that Walz was at Bagram with the Guard. The Minnesota governor did visit Bagram but as part of a congressional delegation in 2008, according to a press release from his office. "The new Congress has a mandate to change and improve the way our government works," he said.
He continued in the release: "I went to the Middle East last week to find out how we can continue to improve the health care soldiers receive, from the time they're injured on the battlefield until they conclude their recovery at a major military medical facility.
"It is clear to me that we have great medical professionals and incredibly brave soldiers, but what we don't have is a streamlined medical records system. I am committed to changing this," he said.
However, in the speech that Walz gave at the Minnesota State Capitol, his comments were clearer. They separate his recollection of serving as a guardsman from his experience watching a military ramp ceremony at Bagram.
In that speech, available on YouTube, Walz began by recalling that he learned of the attack on New York City's Twin Towers while teaching high school.
"And then the years that happened after that classroom, I had the privilege of serving in this state's National Guard and when I left I had a 2-year-old. When I came home I had a 3-year-old," he said.
Walz was sent overseas to Vicenza, Italy, in 2003, as part of European security forces during the war on terror but was not in open combat.
"I came home and my daughter went on, and when you're 2 and 3 she knew no difference," Walz said. "That's not true for some, they can't do that, and over the preceding years of watching us, and as our nation changed, and as our political systems became more difficult for all of us to understand."
Walz then paused and recalled, "I stood one night in the dark of night on the tarmac at Bagram and watched a military ramp ceremony. And if you've seen it—which these folks, many have, unfortunately—you don't leave the same."
Walz did not mention that his visit to Bagram was in his capacity as a congressman. But the Capitol speech made a distinction between his memory of serving as a National Guardsman and his visit to the Afghanistan air base.
As noted in the posts on Twitter, Bagram is in Afghanistan, not Iraq. The last U.S. troops left Bagram Airfield in 2021. It was a central hub of U.S. and allied operations in the country for nearly two decades, since shortly after their 2001 invasion.
The pullout was part of what the Pentagon called a "safe and orderly exit" of the U.S. and coalition partners from the country.
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