Minnesota Governor Tim Walz’s direct superior in the National Guard said this week that Walz went behind his back to get out of having to deploy to Iraq because Walz knew that he would have said no.

Doug Julin — who oversaw Walz in the Minnesota National Guard as a more senior command sergeant in the 1st Battalion, 125th Field Artillery — told CNN on Thursday that Walz went behind his back to retire after he learned that their unit was going to be deploying to Iraq.

Julin said that in the fall of 2004, he and his commander received a notification of sourcing alerting them that they would be deploying to Iraq within the next year and they proceeded to alert everyone under their command to prepare themselves.

At a meeting preparing for the deployment in February 2005 at Camp Ripley, Minnesota, Sergeant Major Walz approached Julin afterward and informed him that he was going to run for Congress. Walz told Julin that he had not been nominated yet, but he just wanted to give him a “warning order” about his plans.

In a meeting the following month, Julin says that Walz told him that he had not been nominated and therefore was “going forward with the battalion.”

Julin said that during a meeting in June, he learned from another National Guard member that Walz had quit, which surprised him because Walz would have had to go through his direct superior, which was Julin, in order to do so.

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Julin said that Walz went to someone two levels higher than him in the enlisted corps to get approval to quit.

“He knew the rules or the policies or the procedures and the manner of how to address issues going forward,” Julin said. “If this would have been an early entry, low-level ranking individual, different story. We would have understood that, okay, he didn’t understand the processes and the procedures. Tim Walz knew the processes and the procedures. He went around me and above and beyond me, and went to get somebody to back him, to get him out of there.”

“He did something wrong in service,” Julin said in explaining how Walz violated the chain of command. “He knew the policies and procedures and how we go to leadership and address issues or discuss issues and concerns out there. Again, backing up, he had told me, ‘No, I’m going forward, we’re going to go with the battalion, and go from there.’ So, I’m under the believing, he told me he was going forward. I’m underneath that believing that he’s going forward. He went around me, which he should have addressed it with me so he could help me with some things out there.”

Julin said that Walz went behind his back because Walz knew that Julin would have said, ‘No, it’s too late, you’re going forward, because we’d already received our notification of sourcing.'”

He added that claims that Walz had not been notified about deploying were categorically false. “Yes, he had been notified,” he said.

Julin later told the New York Post that Walz knew that Julin would have “challenged” his cowardly move to get out of having to deploy.

“He knew I would have told him, ‘Suck it up, we’re going,’” Julin said.

WATCH:

Tonight’s @thelauracoates interview with Walz’ direct enlisted superior [retired CSM] Doug Julin is pretty damning- Julin says sr leaders learned abt deployment in fall 2004 and Walz initially was going to stay and deploy before changing his mind. (1/2)pic.twitter.com/ayz7ESBAzA https://t.co/8a3K5eW7Dl

— Peter Meijer (@RepMeijer) August 10, 2024