"The announcement from the National Guard PAO specified that all or a portion of Walz's battalion could be mobilized to serve in Iraq within the next two years."
The possible mob of part of his unit prompted this:
""I do not yet know if my artillery unit will be part of this mobilization and I am unable to comment further on specifics of the deployment.""
"I am dedicated to serving my country to the best of my ability, whether that is in Washington DC or in Iraq."
Walz had filed his FEC paperwork to run for Congress on Feb. 10, 2005, a month before the partial mobilisation notification.
He chose to contest the election to serve the State and won, beating the 12 year Republican incumbent by flipping the seat that had only been held by one other Democrat in 100 years.
The 1-125th unit didn't actually deploy to Iraq until March 2006, 10 months after Walz's retirement by which time his replacement was well embedded. They were not left short of a senior NCO.
Opinions as to his motivation will, of course, vary.
As an aside, Walz was concerned that if he ran for Congress and stayed in the National Guard, he could run afoul of the Hatch Act "which limits political speech by federal employees, including members of the National Guard."
Gee, he could have asked Trump for advice on how to deal with the Hatch Act.
As to his rank, the NG confirmed that he retired as an E-9 and was later reduced to his last permanent E-8 role for retirement benefit purposes.
“This is what we refer to as an administrative reduction and not punitive in nature.”
And, as another co-incidence, a number of Twitter posts about Walz's retirement have come the 'Swift Boat Veterans for Truth' which is run by Chris LaCivita, who is now a co-manager of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign."
