AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance has accused Governor Tim Walz of embellishing his military record. Vance even used the words stolen valor, a serious accusation in military circles. Both men are veterans, neither served in combat. And NPR veterans correspondent Quil Lawrence is here to help us sort out what is going on. Hey, Quil.
QUIL LAWRENCE, BYLINE: Hey, Ailsa.
CHANG: OK, so we have two military veterans running for vice president. What are their military records exactly?
LAWRENCE: Yeah, JD Vance joined the Marines. He served about six months in Iraq in 2005. He was a journalist - military journalist. He saw no combat, but he was in a war zone in a particularly bad year in Iraq. He rose to the rank of corporal. Governor Walz did 24 years in the Minnesota National Guard, and he reached the rank of command sergeant major, which is a leadership position. He did some disaster relief. He deployed to the Arctic Circle. And then in 2003, he deployed with his unit to Italy in a supporting role of troops in Iraq. But like Vance, he never saw combat. So neither one of them has really ever claimed otherwise, though.
CHANG: OK. Well, let's get back to what Vance accused Walz of today, stolen valor. What exactly does that phrase mean? And what is Vance trying to suggest there?
LAWRENCE: Yeah, it's a very serious charge in the military space. It means that you're wearing a medal you didn't earn or claiming that you went to Vietnam when you didn't. But Vance was picking up on something that Governor Walz said in a video posted by the Harris campaign talking about gun control. Let's listen.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
TIM WALZ: I've been voting for common sense legislation that protects the Second Amendment. But we can do background checks. We can do CDC research. We can make sure we don't have reciprocal carry among states, and we can make sure that those weapons of war that I carried in war is the only place where those weapons are at.
(APPLAUSE)
LAWRENCE: And so you can hear that Walz said he carried a weapon of war in war. And today, Vance seized on that word.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
JD VANCE: Well, I wonder, Tim Walz, when were you ever in war? What was this weapon that you carried into war, given that you abandoned your unit right before they went to Iraq and he has not spent a day in a combat zone? What bothers me about Tim Walz is the stolen valor garbage.
CHANG: Wait, Quil, it sounds like Vance there went even further. Like, he's implying that Walz somehow skipped out on going to Iraq, right?
LAWRENCE: Yeah, this is a charge that's been around for a while. It was made by two senior Minnesota guardsmen repeatedly back when Walz was running for other office. And I've spoken to the Minnesota National Guard and others who served at the same time as Walz, and they say it was a really hard decision for Walz. He came back from a deployment to Italy in 2004. He decided that after 24 years, including a reenlistment after 9/11, that he wanted to run for Congress. And that was when he had the opportunity, so he resigned. And it's not that unusual.
CHANG: Well, how is all of this back-and-forth landing on veterans and the military?
LAWRENCE: Well, I mean, vets are just like other people. Some are Republicans, some are Democrats. And there are a very special few who get on social media, and they call each other very bad words we can't say on the radio. Just last week, there were people hitting Vance for his military record, which did not include combat. From the other side today, there are many, many who are attacking Walz. Others have been pointing out the fact that former President Trump avoided service in Vietnam.
But most, I think, would simply respect anyone who served for any amount of time as long as they don't go bragging about things they didn't do. And Walz maybe came close to that with his word choice, but it's not like he's been misrepresenting his record or wearing medals he didn't earn, which we have seen among some members of Congress. I mean, Vance can legitimately say he went to Iraq and was disillusioned by what he saw there. Walz was critical of Iraq, the Iraq war, as a congressman. And he was a leading member on the very bipartisan Veterans' Affairs Committee while in Congress. Many vets I spoke to just wish that the politics wouldn't sink to politicizing military service.
CHANG: But here we are. That is NPR's Quil Lawrence. Thank you so much, Quil.
LAWRENCE: Thanks. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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