{"id":76732,"date":"2024-08-06T17:13:37","date_gmt":"2024-08-06T17:13:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2024\/08\/06\/kamala-harris-taps-tim-walz-national-guard-veteran-as-running-mate\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T16:26:32","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T16:26:32","slug":"kamala-harris-taps-tim-walz-national-guard-veteran-as-running-mate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/your-navy\/2024\/08\/06\/kamala-harris-taps-tim-walz-national-guard-veteran-as-running-mate\/","title":{"rendered":"Kamala Harris taps Tim Walz, National Guard veteran, as running mate"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Editor\u2019s note: This story was updated with a clarification of the rank Gov. Tim Walz held when he retired from the Minnesota National Guard in 2005. He is a former command sergeant major but reverted back to a master sergeant at the end of his career.<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tim Walz, named Tuesday as the running mate of Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, is the current governor of Minnesota, a former high school teacher, a six-term congressman and a long-tenured veteran of the Army National Guard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Walz, 60, enlisted in the National Guard on April 8, 1981 at the age of 17. While serving, he held multiple positions within field artillery, including firing battery chief, operations sergeant and first sergeant, and he culminated his career serving as the command sergeant major for the battalion, said Lt. Col. Kristen Aug\u00e9, the Minnesota National Guard\u2019s state public affairs officer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Walz retired in 2005 as a master sergeant because \u201che did not complete additional coursework at the U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy,\u201d Aug\u00e9 said. Command sergeants major who don\u2019t complete the Sergeants Major Course revert back to their prior rank, she explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2006, Walz became the highest ranking enlisted soldier to serve in Congress. He used the office to champion veterans issues, and a decade later rose to become the Democratic minority leader on the House Veterans\u2019 Affairs Committee. Chaired by former Rep. Phil Roe, R-Tenn., the committee was praised widely<\/a> during President Donald Trump\u2019s administration as a rare example of bipartisanship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Members of veterans organizations who worked with Walz during that time reacted positively Tuesday to Harris\u2019 choice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGov. Walz is a great choice,\u201d John Rowan, the former president of Vietnam Veterans of America, wrote on Facebook. \u201cHe helped Vietnam veterans get the benefits they deserved to take care of their illnesses related to Agent Orange exposure during his tenure.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Tim Walz, the presumptive Democratic nominee for vice president, is shown visiting constituents at Kandahar Airfield in 2011. (Spc. Amanda Hils\/Army).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, or IAVA, released a statement Tuesday applauding Harris for choosing a veteran to add to the Democratic ticket.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group earlier praised the nomination of Walz\u2019 opponent, Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, who served in the Marine Corps from 2003 to 2007 and deployed to Iraq as a combat correspondent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Trump chose Vance as his vice president candidate at the Republican National Convention in July, he became the first post-9\/11 veteran to be nominated as part of a major-party ticket.<\/p>\n\n\n\t