Maryland Governor Wes Moore gets Bronze Star 18 years after lying about having one
Maryland Governor, Wes Moore, found himself in hot water when he implied that he received a Bronze Star Medal because of his combat deployment. Moore, while applying for a White house fellowship in 2006, claimed to have received the Bronze Star from his Afghanistan deployment. When it turned out that he did not have it, Moore explained it away by claiming that the paperwork for the award was submitted and approved. It was not until the tail end of the Biden administration that Moore received the Bronze Star Medal for meritorious service.
From The Western Journal:
The outlet noted that when Moore ran for governor in 2022, the issue came up of his falsely claiming to receive the Bronze Star for his Army service in Afghanistan in his White House fellowship application.
“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,” according to The New York Times.
Moore told the outlet last summer that it was “an honest mistake,” saying that his superior officer informed him the paperwork for the award had been submitted and those up the chain of command had approved it.
But Moore never received the medal, which often happens with a medal pinning ceremony. At the very least, soldiers are given the certificate and the ribbon.
Additionally, Moore would have received a DD214 form upon leaving the military in 2014, listing all the medals he had received.
“Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, who was the commander of U.S. troops in Afghanistan after Mr. Moore’s deployment and did not meet him until years later, said it was not uncommon for military award nominations to get lost in processing,” The New York Times said.
“I don’t know how many times since I’ve retired that I’ve [had] people come to me trying to get an award that they told me that they had been recommended for that they never got,” McChrystal told the outlet.
Nonetheless, McChrystal acknowledged Moore should not have written in the White House application that he had received the Bronze Star. He said it clearly “would have been more elegant” to write that he was recommended for the awards.
Additional Reading:
DeSoto, R. (2025, August 29). Biden tossed Bronze Star at Dem presidential hopeful 18 years after he started stolen valor lie – Shockingly the NYT and AP exposed it all. The Western Journal. Link.
Category: Army, Military issues, Stolen Valor, Veterans in the news
It’s an honor to just be nominated.
Hack Stone departed Okinawa in June 2000 after completing a 3 year 5 month tour. Told that he would be receiving a Navy Commendation Medal as an end of tour award. There was an issue of a subordinate doing some unethical shit, Hack Stone brought it to the attention of Command. Huge blow up in the Battalion, and she was sent back stateside within days. Hack never got his award. 25 years and change later, looks like the only way that Hack will get if he becomes Governor of Maryland. At least he can take comfort in his Precious Medals Recovery Expert Badge.
“3 year 5 month tour”
In Okinawa?
Viet of the Nam was only 12 months for an ACOM
Hack deserves some devices for that extended tour.
Hack Stone had a standard 3 year tour tour, but one day he came home out of the field to find that his lovely bride Rosetta had her niece living with them, which metamorphosed into the The Fresh Princess of Kubaski, resulting in Hack Stone extending 5 months so that this “child” could (barely) graduate High School.
Hack Stone’s advice is to marry an orphan, then you don’t have to deal with the excess baggage fees.
Here’s one. Deployment way back in the ancient times of the mid 1980’s.
Our entire deployment was stood up at quarters and had Navy Expeditionary Medals pinned on.
Maybe a year later, during a routine service record review at PSD, I noted that according to my page 4, I hadn’t actually been awarded a Navy Expeditionary, it was an Armed Forces Expeditionary. They gave us the wrong citations and medals.
I’d been “out of uniform” for a year.
Sh1t happens sometimes…especially back when paperwork was actually done on paper.
BTW, I did double check. They gave us the wrong medals…the page 4 was correct based on the circumstances and what we qualified for.
Korea, maybe’ 1997 possibly 1998. 1st Sergeant promotes PFC Lopez to Lance Corporal. 1st Sergeant promoted the wrong PFC Lopez. No shot, she promoted the wrong Marine.
So, it’s that easy? All the awards I was told I should have received can just be retroactively awarded so long as I know the right people? Let’s see, there’s that ARCOM for Valor from Baghdad–“Rakkasan” by John Laurence documented our first few weeks in Iraq in the August 2003 edition of Esquire (he also wrote The Cat from Hue based on his experiences as a Vietnam War correspondent). Two AAMs, one for helping run the Machine Gun Leaders’ Course as a junior SGT in 2005 and one for planning and coordinating a training event for PEO Soldier a few years back. While we’re at it, just about all of the E-6 and higher battle staff at FOB Shank got BSMs, while a CPT and I serving at RC-East HQ got ARCOMs, so why not an upgrade? 😁
According to the article, Moore finally had the award pinned on him in an “emotional private ceremony”. Am I missing something, or am I just that apathetic when it comes to awards? What’s so emotional about getting an End-of-Tour (EOT) award for merit, over 18 years after the fact? The more important question is, why would a Soldier, especially an officer or NCO, just assume they got an award despite no official recognition? The last time I had a formal award ceremony was probably for my EOT ARCOM for Iraq in early 2004. After that, I just went to S1 or my training room whenever possible and got the certificate and approved DA638. I had an MSM pinned on in MDW and the aforementioned AAM in PEO Soldier. Just because you had an award pinned on or were told by a GO/FO you can wear it, doesn’t mean it’s authorized. I never received orders for the AAM, so I don’t wear it. Ask Michael Boorda how his “V” devices worked out…
I can understand if you’re receiving the MoH, a Service Cross, or other valor award decades later. But getting all worked up over an “atta boy” is just asinine.
Read a couple of articles which both said his then-commander advised him to put both awards on his White House application because both were approved at the local level and he would have them in hand before he reached the White House. Doesn’t explain the next 18 years, though.
According to what I could find about his military service, Moore spent only two years on active duty, with a one-year tour in A-stan with an 82nd Airborne Division unit. Since he was an MI 1LT, he was likely in the Division MI detachment. As a former active duty, battalion S-2 in infantry and Special Forces battalions, I can surmise he likely spent most of his combat tour in a FOB looking at intel reports. I would love to see the action report for the enemy contact that resulted in his award of a CAB. I wonder if it was as fantastic as the action in the Viet of the Nam where my battalion’s CSM claimed his CIB. It was awarded for an RPG round that supposed came in one open doorway of a Huey and out the other with no impact or damage. So far as was known at the time, he and our flaky Bn commander were the only ones who claimed to have seen it.
In my opinion, the CAB came about so that people not eligible for the CIB or CMB could get an award. I don’t mean those who see ground combat and/or serve alongside Infantry. If you were an FO, trucker, or MP outside the wire getting engaged by, and engaging, the enemy, you deserve recognition, and the CAB is a fitting award to show that you’ve been in battle.
The criteria for the CAB are much less restrictive than those for the CIB or CMB, though. Most importantly, general officers are eligible. Equally as important, direct action isn’t required. Something as simple as a single mortar round impacting a FOB can result in a CAB being awarded, and it’s up to the approving authority exactly how far from point-of-impact the recipient can be. What sucks is when commanders award the CIB using the CAB criteria. I was a fobbit on FOB Shank and then Bagram. Most of my peers in S3 received the CAB or CIB, despite working behind t-walls and never hearing a small arms round fired in anger. The S2 folks met the criteria, as I’m sure Moore did, but the 11-series sure as hell didn’t.
There’s a lot of difference between getting scared by a rocket hitting 100 meters away and being in an intense firefight, though. But the senior leaders who oversaw the creation of the CAB knew what they were doing. By 2010, a lot of Army Senior Leaders sported the CAB, despite all being brigade commanders or higher when the wars started.
I was mortared twice. Once on a firebase we were deactivating and once in the Que Son mountains south of Da Nang. Plus, my Huey was shot up as we flew over an NVA unit at about 200 feet AGL, and I watched the AK rounds come through the floor around my feet. So, I guess I earned my CIB. Although, originally it was awarded to everyone in my rifle company after the lead platoon was in a brief shoot-out with a couple of trail watchers.
Approval authority?
Next.
Does this mean I can add a cluster to my MSM, seeing a previous unit put me in for the MSM, and the Commander signed off on it without downgrading it. A few months later 9/11 happened and don’t know what happened to it (Lost in the shuffle), and I never pursued it.
Then seven years later I got Med-Ret and got a MSM. That would have been two MSMs as an E-6. That’s not to mentioned the Bronze Star for Meritorious Service that changed to a cookie cutter AF Commendation Medal that didn’t mentioned anything I did.
Hmmm…..!
Naw, I’m not like that I’ll keep what I’ve got and be proud of what I earned.
Mike
USAF Retired
I guess if anyone is going to brag about medals, it’s gonna be an Fn politician!!
Awarded or not, but going to chase it down!
FFS!
I never understood the point in pursuing awards. Some NCOs would write up their own award recommendations in a heartbeat and do everything in their power to get even trivial recognition. I did write one award for myself, though. After over four years in The Old Guard without a single award, it was time to PCS, so I wrote my own ARCOM. It was as much to get COL Buche’s signature on the certificate, since LTC Buche had approved an AAM when I was a Rakkasan under him.
We had an E-5 in recruiting who hated the job. He nearly lost his marriage due to partying every chance he got, staying in Baton Rouge after company training (he recruited in a city about 45 minutes away) to hang out with other 11Bs (not my antisocial self, however) instead of taking advantage of those rare days where we were released in the early afternoon. He asked me a few times if I was having my career threatened (I wasn’t, as I validated my efforts on the USAREC Portal), before getting a temporary compassionate reassignment to patch up his marriage.
When the Recruiter Incentive Awards Program (gold stars, Gold Badge, sapphires, ring, and the Glen E. Morrell award) was retired in 2010, though, the good SGT started tracking and submitting all his own stuff to ensure he got a Gold Badge before the deadline. I was satisfied with my two gold stars–the first dated February 2010 and the second dated January 2009. Our S1 obviously couldn’t even track the stuff, so I imagine it was a full-time job for that SGT. If only he’d have spent half as much effort doing the actual job or faking the funk like I did.
When TF Sword was wrapping up in Dec 01, we were told give a list of our accomplishments, for our end of tour awards.
My three coworkers had nothing to submit as the only thing they did was their job if that.
They took my bullets, divided it amongst the 4 of us and wrote AF Comms for all four of us.
They originally wrote me up for a Joint Service Acheivement Medal. But since it wasn’t technically a joint billet, it was a no go.
Mike
USAF Retired
I was on the Army side of the house in the Joint Task Force-National Capital Region / US Army Military District of Washington (JTF-NCR/USAMDW, former JFHQ-NCR), and as a career NCO, I was a stickler for knowing the regulations (while that should be a trait NCOs embrace, it’s a rarity these days). When the COVID scare started dying down, a bunch of us were put in for Joint awards for it and the civil disturbance ops. The reg says pretty clearly that you have to be in a Joint billet, but MG (now LTG-Ret.) Jones approved them, so I got a JSAM. I was the orders screener/editor for the Inauguration OPORD and FRAGORDs, and though I teleworked a lot, I’ll admit I was a bit disappointed that my coworker and I received nothing for it. Our civilian supervisors got awards, as did our CPT and the new MSG. An E-6 from J1 who’d overseen the inprocessing of Inaugural staff even put himself in for, and got, a DMSM.
The command did get two Joint Meritorious Unit Awards for COVID and the Inauguration. As much as I’d like to claim them, and many of my MDW counterparts did start wearing them, I know I’m technically not authorized the awards. The JSAM, though, was approved by the CG after being cleared by the J1, so I was more than happy to put that on the ribbon rack.
It’s odd how the awards system works. I received two impact awards as a Rakkasan in ’02 and ’04, both AAMs. From ’05-’19 I received only PCS and EOT awards. Then in the twilight of my career I received an ARCOM for coordinating the best Warrior Competition 2019, signed by the Director of Army Staff, LTG Charles Flynn, the JSAM in 2020, and both an AAM and ARCOM in 2022, though I never received orders and don’t claim the latter AAM.
They’d look pretty if I cared enough to build a shadowbox, but all of my Army stuff lies neglected and all but forgotten…
The JSAM they attempted to write for me, was for assisting DEVGU with survival vests and training on the components. Never understood the last part, I mean being a SEAL one would assume they know how to use it all.
Did get coined by the one that hit me for the support. He came over to Team 6 from 3 just before 9/11 so he gave me his 3 coin, as he didn’t have one for 6 yet. Which is cool no matter how you slice it.
Mike
USAF Retired
As for me, I busted my balls doing my job right during my tour in A-stan, and being an EM, got my ARCOM for it, so imagine my anger when I saw plenty of upper-echelon (E7 and above) getting BSMs for what they did, including the 2LT who brought the Brigade CO his coffee and never left the wire. As for Less (OOPS, Wes) Moore who LIED about even getting a Rear Echelon Mouse fart BSM actually finally getting it, I hope that pissant chihuahua-fucked bucket of runny rabbit shit CHOKES on it!
When I left 1st Cav.Div. in ’69 I learned that E5 and up got BS medals and the enlisted swine got ARCOMS as SOP . It is my practice to discount all decorations by at least one level for EM, and two levels for officers.
Anytime I see someone braying about their BSM without a “V” Device, I see said award as an “attaboy” for being a good office mouse behind the wire. Where I live, we once had a Congresscritter who brayed about his Vietnam BSM sans a “V” Device that he got there as a Lieutenant.
Now where did I put that Good Conduct Medal?
Nope nope nope. Been retired 8 years. My buddy was an IPAC PersO so he updated my DD214 to include my retirement award. You try to come at me EIGHTEEN YEAR LATER and give me a medal? Not just no but FUCK no. I got my shit mounted one last time when I retired. Bury me with them but other than that….nah.
I thought the same- if it’s not entered on the DD214, it didn’t happen. I know damn well that had i ran for office or applied for a high profile position after retirement, the record has to be squeaky clean. One of the first lesson, my senior CWOs made me memorize .
I’m a Maryland resident and can’t stand the fucker’s smirk much less the bullshit lies he tells. Local FOX news reporters often come at him and he avoids them like the plague when he can and just gives them runaround answers. He was the guest speaker at my daughter’s college graduation back in 2012 and he was up there spewing some combat stories back then if I recall correctly. I had no reason back then to not believe him but after hearing that jerk spew his politician bullshit these past few years, I don’t believe anything he says.
For that one time I was out in the shit? Yeah, that one I deserved, but never got. No shit, some dependapotomus was working the desk, and she swore she signed the orders, but the General misplaced them when he went golfing.
Yeah, should have scored that career booster, and I would have stayed in the Army another 20 years too, but I knocked out a Drill Sergeant who wanted his 20 push-ups, and they recommended I leave the service without my medal.
Just unbelievable.
Wes Moore gets called out by ABC News for his Bronze Star fib. Yeah, not a typo. Go to 6:20 mark.
Deploying the National Guard to ‘every major American city’ ‘not sustainable’: Moore
Yeah, he is so full of shit. So we are to believe that this fucker never looked over his DD214 to see that the BS was there? If some officer told me I was up for the BS but never actually received it, I’d be following up to see if the paperwork came in. BUT, if it didn’t and my DD214 didn’t list it, you can be damn sure I wouldn’t (especially if I was a high-level politician knowing that what I say and claim will be fact-checked at some point) ever claim to have it. He is just a smooth-talking, used car salesman, bullshitting politician. What sickens me is that these liberal talk show host or commentators are too stupid to ask relevant questions that could easily pin that lying asshole to the ground.