The chairwoman of the Sussex County Republican Party asked Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-Montclair) in a letter to her campaign team to reconsider her defense of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz’s military service.

Joe Labarbera, a former Marine and chairman of the Sussex Republican Committee, wrote in a letter that he believed Walz retired after 24 years in the National Guard to avoid combat duty.

Walz never served in combat and has been accused by prominent Republicans, including vice presidential candidate JD Vance, of misrepresenting his military career. Sherrill, who defended Walz against Republican attacks earlier this month, is a former Navy helicopter pilot who called criticism of Walz’s career offensive.

But Labarbera, who said he spent 54 months in combat, said he and other war veterans believe a Guardsman’s peacetime service should not be equated with the sacrifices of fighting veterans.

“As combat veterans, we feel excluded and disrespected when a peacetime Guardsman who could have participated in our successive deployments and efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan is placed in the same category as us,” he wrote in the letter. “Those who have served in this longest war in American history have served for the majority of their young lives.”

In her defense of Walz, Sherrill acknowledged that Walz was not in combat, but emphasized that there are many different forms of military service, something she said veterans themselves are aware of.

“To take him to task and say he did not serve honorably or that he left his troops without leadership despite all records to the contrary – that is just ridiculous,” Sherrill said.

Labarbera also criticized the moments when Walz may have led people to believe he had served in combat: “Walz’s conclusions that he had actually fought are very offensive to those of us who participated.”

The Sussex Republican Party chairman asked Sherrill a series of questions about President Joe Biden’s troop withdrawal from Afghanistan during a town hall meeting last Thursday and thanked her for her answers, but now he hopes she will distance herself from Walz after he defended the governor.

“He should not be a role model for our young soldiers.”