Wes Moore and the Bronze Star He Claimed but Never Received

For years, the Maryland governor has faced questions about whether he had wrongfully said he had a Bronze Star. He insisted no. But an old document proves otherwise.

Reid J. Epstein

By Reid J. Epstein

Reid J. Epstein covered the 2022 Maryland governor’s race and now writes about Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign. He reported from Washington.

Aug. 29, 2024, 4:23 p.m. ET

When Wes Moore ran for governor of Maryland in 2022, questions about whether he had claimed to have been awarded a Bronze Star for his Army service in Afghanistan hovered over his campaign.

For reasons that remain unexplained, two television interviewers, Gwen Ifill and Stephen Colbert, had wrongly introduced him years earlier as a recipient of the award. Mr. Moore failed to correct them, even as he and his aides insisted he had never told anyone he had a Bronze Star.

But at least once, Mr. Moore, now the state’s Democratic governor, did say he had received the award.

He made the claim on an application for a prestigious White House fellowship in 2006, when he was 27 years old, according to a copy of the document that was obtained this week by The New York Times as part of a Freedom of Information Act request.

“For my work,” he wrote, “the 82nd Airborne Division have awarded me the Bronze Star Medal and the Combat Action Badge.”

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An image of one paragraph from Wes Moore’s 2006 application for a White House fellowship, in which he says he was awarded the Bronze Star Medal.

However, when Mr. Moore submitted the application in January 2006, he had not been awarded either the Bronze Star or the Combat Action Badge. He was awarded the badge in May 2006 for an episode the previous December, but there is no record showing that he ever received a Bronze Star, an Army spokeswoman said.

Mr. Moore’s old claim has come to light as his national profile has risen. Vice President Kamala Harris included him in the first round of candidates vetted to be her running mate — questions about the Bronze Star did not come up, Mr. Moore said, while the Harris campaign declined to comment. He also gave a prominent, well-received speech last week at his party’s convention.

And as Republicans accuse the man Ms. Harris ultimately chose as her running mate, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, of exaggerating his military record, the vice president’s campaign has dispatched Mr. Moore to defend him on cable television.

In an interview on Wednesday, Mr. Moore, now 45, said the Bronze Star description had been “an honest mistake” and expressed contrition. As long as the U.S. military has bestowed awards, it has been considered a serious breach of protocol to claim an honor that has not been given.

Mr. Moore also said for the first time that he regretted failing to correct the interviewers who had described him as a recipient of the award.

Mr. Moore said he had included the commendations in 2006 on the advice of a superior officer and mentor who helped craft his White House application.

“I made an honest mistake by including something because my commanding officer thought it was a good idea,” Mr. Moore said. “He thought that I earned it and he was already going through the paperwork to process it.”

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Read the 2006 application

Applying for a White House fellowship in 2006, Wes Moore, then a 27-year-old Army veteran, wrote that he had been awarded “the Bronze Star Medal.”

READ DOCUMENT

That officer, Michael R. Fenzel, now a lieutenant general who serves as the United States security coordinator for Israel and the Palestinian Authority, spoke to The Times on Wednesday from Israel in an interview arranged by Mr. Moore’s staff.

General Fenzel, who in 2006 was a lieutenant colonel in Afghanistan, said that Mr. Moore had at first objected to the idea of mentioning the Bronze Star.

The general said he had told Mr. Moore that he and others had approved the medal, that it was appropriate to include in his application and that it would be processed by the time his fellowship began.

“‘You’ve got to include it,’” General Fenzel recalled advising Mr. Moore. “‘If you are selected as a White House fellow, you’re going to be wearing it whenever you’re wearing your uniform.’”

That June, President George W. Bush’s White House announced that Mr. Moore was among the new fellows. His military awards went unmentioned.

General Fenzel, who was a groomsman in Mr. Moore’s wedding, said on Wednesday that he had not known until Mr. Moore told him this week that the governor never received the Bronze Star. General Fenzel said he would resubmit the paperwork so Mr. Moore could be awarded the medal. The Army spokeswoman, Heather Hagan, did not respond to further inquiries about the award.

WTF is wrong with these people? And how on earth do they become Governors?

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