A Minnesota military reservist who heeded the call to fight the war in Iraq said in 2006 that Tim Walz, now the Democrat candidate for vice president, had “disappointed” his peers by “misleading” people into believing he served in Iraq.
“Walz is leaving the impression that he served in the combat zones of the current conflict. The truth is that he served in Italy,” Tom Hagen wrote in a letter published in the Winona Daily News on November 1, 2006. “There is a significant difference between Walz’s garrison service in Italy and the extreme danger young men and women are facing in the combat zones of Iraq and Afghanistan.”
According to Hagen, it was “even more disturbing” that “Walz quickly retired after learning that his unit…would be sent to Iraq.”
“For Tim Walz to misleadingly give the impression that he served in a combat zone is bad enough,” Hagen…
