David Thul

Military career

Thul joined the Minnesota Army National Guard on June 2, 1992. He was assigned to Charlie Company, 2nd Battalion 135th Infantry stationed in Owatonna and Faribault. He served weekend drills and annual training until 2001, when he was called out for state active duty for flooding in Montevideo, the state worker strike, and training for Operation Ice Eagle, the mission to support airport security after the September 11 attacks in 2001.

In fall 2003, he was mobilized for deployment to Kosovo for the UN peacekeeping mission in the former Yugoslavia. He served as a RTO (Radio Telephone Operator) and later as TOC NCO (Tactical Operations Center Sergeant) in the company headquarters. He was awarded the Army Achievement Medal for his service. The unit returned in fall 2004.

In April 2005, he was promoted to Sergeant, E-5, and in fall 2005, Thul was mobilized for deployment to Iraq along with the 1st Brigade Combat Team of the 34th Infantry Division (Red Bulls) where he served as an infantry team leader. He was stationed at Al Asad Air Base in the Al Anbar province, and was assigned to combat convoy duty. He was awarded the Combat Infantryman Badge for direct contact with the enemy on July 31, 2006 during an IED attack. In March 2007, he was promoted to Staff Sergeant, E-6, and selected to serve as an infantry squad leader. Also in March 2007, he was awarded an Army Commendation for leadership in combat.

During a unit reorganization in 2009, Thul was transferred to Bravo Company, 2/135, where he is assigned as an infantry squad leader.

Appeal for Courage

In January, 2007, Thul began working with a Navy Lieutenant serving in Baghdad on the Appeal for Courage, a petition of servicemembers to Congress to complete the US mission in Iraq. They collected over 3000 signatures of active duty military members, most of who had served in Iraq. The petition was presented to Congress on May 9, 2007 by Bob Wallace, then executive director of the national VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars) and accepted by Congressman John Boehner and Senator Lindsey Graham.

Media appearances

Thul was the center of a book drive for soldiers in Iraq that began on the Powerline blog in May 2006. Hundreds of blogs, newspapers, and radio stations around the country spread the word of a need for books for soldiers. Over the course of the next 6 months, over 800 packages were sent, and so many books arrived that Thul began distributing books and magazines to other bases during convoy missions. The story of the book drive is chronicled in a series of postings on the Powerline blog. Thul was also interviewed on AM 1280 the Patriot by the Northern Alliance Radio Network about the book drive and the Appeal for Courage. In March 2007, he wrote an editorial for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune that appeared on the front page of the Sunday commentary section. He was also profiled in a 2009 article in MinnPost by Michael Bonafield.

Political career

Thul became active in politics in January, 2009 when he joined the Republican Party of Minnesota. In May 2009, he was elected co-chair of the Steele County Republican Party after organizing the first annual Owatonna Tax Day Tea Party. In the fall of 2009, he ran unsuccessfully for an At Large City Council seat in a six way race. In May 2010, Thul announced he was running for the party endorsement for Minnesota House District 26A after the previously endorsed candidate withdrew for personal reasons. He ran against Nathan Dotson, a city councilman and small business owner from Owatonna and won the Republican Party endorsement on May 24, and filed for office with the Minnesota Secretary of State the next day.