What you say is true, but vets feel a certain way about their shipmates who skeddadle before a deployment. I recall, too, that the 2006-2007 time frame was the period of stop-loss resulting in longer than usual deployments. Walz the commie sympathizer probably didn’t want to get caught up in that.
How many other 24-year veterans, well past retirement did exactly what he did instead of going on long deployments? I bet the number is high, both parties and across the services. I’m not faulting him for that. The veteran in-fighting, if you will, is unseemly. Only about 6% of Americans are veterans.