Democratic vice presidential nominee and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz speaks at the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Convention in Los Angeles on Tuesday. (Jae C. Hong/The Associated Press)

Gov. Tim Walz rebutted his GOP rival’s criticism of his military career at a campaign stop in Los Angeles on Tuesday, saying no veteran’s service should be denigrated.

“To anyone brave enough to put on that uniform for our great country, including my opponent, I just have a few simple words: Thank you for your service and sacrifice,” Walz said to thousands gathered for the 2024 American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) convention.

Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, the GOP nominee for vice president alongside former President Donald Trump, said last week in Michigan that he was bothered by the end of Walz’s 24-year tenure in the U.S. Army National Guard. Vance pitted his own service against the second-term Minnesota governor whom Vice President Kamala Harris chose as her running mate last week.

“When the U.S. Marine Corps asked me to go to Iraq to serve my country, I did it,” Vance said last week. “When Tim Walz was asked by his country to go to Iraq, he dropped out of the Army and allowed his unit to go without him. I think that’s shameful.”

The governor has faced accusations from Republicans in past campaigns that he abandoned his troops. He’s said previously that he left the guard after 24 years to run for Congress in Minnesota’s First District as a DFLer against 12-year incumbent GOP Rep. Gil Gutknecht.

At the AFSCME convention, Walz explained again the timeline of his military tenure, saying he enlisted two days after his 17th birthday in 1981 with the support of his father, an Army veteran from the Korean War.

“I’m proud to have served my country, and I always will be,” Walz said to applause, saying he served because he loves this country.

“Then in 2005 I felt the call of duty again, this time giving service to my country in the halls of Congress,” Walz said. “My students inspired me to run for that office, and I was proud to make it to Washington. I was a member of the Veterans Affairs Committee and a champion of our men and women in uniform. I’m going to say it again as clearly as I can: I am damn proud of my service to this country.”

Walz was a social studies teacher at Mankato West High School when he challenged Gutknecht and won.

In March 2005, Walz’s congressional campaign issued a statement saying he still planned to run against the incumbent despite a possible mobilization of Minnesota National Guard soldiers to Iraq. He retired from the guard in May 2005. The first call-up notice came in July 2005, and his former unit deployed in March 2006.

For his part, Vance was on active duty in the Marines from 2003 to 2007 and deployed to Iraq in 2005 and 2006. He served as a public affairs correspondent and did not see combat.

Walz re-upped in the Guard multiple times, including signing on for another six-year stint in 2001.

In the years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Walz was a senior enlisted member and a master sergeant, according to military records. He lived in Mankato and served with the southern Minnesota-based First Battalion, 125th Field Artillery. The battalion was deployed to Italy in 2003 to protect against potential threats in Europe while active military forces were deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, according to Walz.

Walz did not see combat. At the time he resigned, he was serving as a command sergeant major. He retired as a master sergeant because he hadn’t completed all the extra training required for the higher rank.

The governor did criticize Vance on other matters.

Regarding Trump’s selection of the first-term senator, Walz said, “I don’t know if that was a value-add to this campaign or not.” Then he listed a litany of anti-union measures he said Trump and Vance would seek to pass, including eliminating all public employee unions, cutting overtime and making it harder to collectively bargain.