Fact Check: Tim Walz’s September 11 Re-Enlistment Story Debunked

Among his many other lies about his military service, Minnesota Democratic Governor Tim Walz – Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate – also fabricated a story about re-enlisting in the National Guard right after September 11, 2001.

Walz and the Harris campaign have repeatedly claimed that Walz re-enlisted instead of retiring after 20 years when terrorists piloted planes into the World Trade Center on 9/11. In reality, Walz wasn’t up for retirement until the next year, and so his re-enlistment was not about the immediate attack on the U.S., the Federalist reported.

Walz initially enlisted in April 1981, which would have put his 20-year retirement in April 2001, months before the attacks. But Walz had had an inactive period of seven-and-a-half months that would have deferred his retirement by the same amount of time – putting his 20-year retirement in November 2001, a month after the September 11 attacks.

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The problem for Walz is he said during a 2009 interview that his retirement happened to occur the “week of September 11, 2001.”

“My 20 years was actually, ironically enough, up that week of September 11, 2001, because of the time I had off and made up, so I reenlisted like, I think, the vast majority people did with a real sense of uncertainty but … a real sense of wanting to do something,” Walz said at the time.

That itself is untrue since Walz wouldn’t have been eligible for retirement until a month after he said he was.

He also said when responding to a veteran questioning Walz’s decision to retire just two months after receiving notice that his battalion could deploy to Iraq: “After completing 20 years of service in 2001, I re-enlisted to serve our country for an additional four years following Sept. 11 and retired the year before my battalion was deployed to Iraq in order to run for Congress.”

Walz’s Report of Separation and Record of Service says that he was inactive between December 1, 1989, and July 12, 1990, amounting to 7 months and 12 days. His retirement would have been deferred for that same amount of time, meaning his retirement date would have been in November 2001.

But Army Col. Ryan Cochran, Minnesota National Guard’s Director of Manpower and Personnel, put out a statement on August 13, 2024, explaining Walz’s actual retirement date.

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“Governor Tim Walz received his notification of eligibility for retirement on August 3, 2002,” Cochran said in a statement. “He was promoted to sergeant major (E-9) on September 17, 2004, and immediately began serving as the command sergeant major for the 1st Battalion, 125th Field Artillery while his packet was submitted to the National Guard Bureau to appoint him to command sergeant major (E-9). Once approved by NGB, he was laterally appointed to command sergeant major (E-9) on April 1, 2005. He retired from the Minnesota National Guard on May 16, 2005. Our records do not indicate when he made his request to retire. Leadership reviews and approves all requests to retire. He was administratively reduced to master sergeant (E-8) on May 15, 2005, because he did not complete all required U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy coursework.”

This means that Walz actually wasn’t up for retirement until nearly a year after September 11, 2001, and thus couldn’t have been eligible to retire the same week as the devastating attacks.

Walz still could have decided to re-enlist because of those attacks, but it is disingenuous to say that he was up for retirement when the planes hit.