Gov. Tim Walz ought to straighten out his military record.

He should hold a press conference and answer questions.

Otherwise, the issue will haunt him for the rest of the presidential campaign. It might anyway.

The progressive Minnesota governor, now Democrat Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, may not be the battle-hardened veteran that he and Harris have implied that he was, but he did serve in the Minnesota National Guard for 24 years. Which is no small thing, considering that his unit in 2005 was deployed to fight in Iraq.

Only it went to war without him since he retired from the unit just before the arrival of marching orders so he could run for Congress. He served in Congress and in 2018 was elected governor.

At the time of the gubernatorial campaign, two senior Minnesota National Guard members, who were deployed, wrote an open letter criticizing Walz for quitting the Guard just before the deployment.

Thomas Behrends, one of the signers, said last week that Waltz “had the opportunity to serve his country, but said, ’Screw you’ to the United States. That’s not who I would pick to run for vice president.”

Tom Schilling, another veteran of the Minnesota National Guard battalion, said Walz “ditched” them when they were deployed to Iraq in 2005.

In a “Jesse Watters Prime Time” interview last week, Schilling said, “We all did what we were supposed to do, we did the right thing. It’s dishonorable what he did. He left somebody else up to take over his spot. He ditched us.”

Walz did not go to Iraq with his battalion. Still, while there is no sign that Walz claimed to be a combat veteran in Iraq or elsewhere, he led some to believe that he was with statements he has made, particularly over gun control.

Speaking about assault weapons, Walz said, “We can make sure that these weapons of war, that I carried in war, are only carried in war.”

Only he never carried any weapon of war in any war.

Late Saturday, the Harris campaign released a statement claiming Walz “misspoke.”

Still, when Harris introduced Walz to a rally in Philadelphia last week she referred to him as “battle tested.”

Perhaps she had in mind the 2020 war in of Minneapolis when rioters and looters burned the city down following the death of George Floyd,

That was when the “battle tested” governor failed to deploy the National Guard to assist the over matched cops to restore law and order to the ravaged city until there was nothing left steal or burn, including the vacated police headquarters.

JD Vance, Walz’s Republican counterpart and a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, was quick to pick up on Walz’s military record.

Vance said, “When the United States of America asked me to go to Iraq to serve my country, I did.”

He said, “When Tim Walz was asked by his country to go to Iraq, you know what he did? He dropped out of the Army and allowed his unit to go without him, a fact that he’s been criticized aggressively by a lot of people he served with. I think it’s shameful.”

While Vance did serve duty in combat areas of Iraq as a public affairs Marine and in his words “was lucky to escape any real fighting,” he has not billed himself as a combat veteran. But at least he volunteered for the Marines and did go to Iraq.

While the squabble over Walz’s military record may seem like small potatoes to some people, and not worthy of Stolen Valor accusations, it is not small to the hundreds of thousands of veterans who did serve their country when called. If Walz did not “steal” valor, he at least appears to have borrowed it.

No matter where they served, or what military branch they served in, or for how long, what veterans did in the service of their country is imbedded in them and tends to stay with them for the rest of their lives. That’s why they remember what Walz did.

So, when someone shirks their duty, as Walz appears to have done, they want you to know about it.

Tim Walz should come clean.

Peter Lucas is a veteran political reporter. Email him at: peter.lucas@bostonherald.com

Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)