Following controversy, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore receives Bronze Star for Army service 18 years ago

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Maryland Gov. Wes Moore received a Bronze Star for his deployment to Afghanistan 18 years ago, several months after a controversy arose when a newspaper reported he had claimed to have received it on a 2006 White House fellowship application when the paperwork had not been fully processed.

The private ceremony at the governor’s residence in Annapolis, Maryland, on Friday was confirmed by the governor’s office.

Lt. Gen. Michael Fenzel, the governor’s close friend and former commander who had recommended Moore for the medal, pinned the Bronze Star for “meritorious service” onto the governor’s chest at the ceremony, The Washington Post reported.

“I’m so happy to be in a position to right a wrong,” Fenzel said during the ceremony, the newspaper reported.

Moore, a Democrat, had been recommended for the medal while he was deployed by his superiors, including Fenzel, and Fenzel encouraged Moore to include it in the application because it had received the necessary approvals, both men said.

Moore, then 27, questioned it but said Fenzel assured him it would be awarded by the time fellows were selected. Yet the award paperwork never went through. Around the time Moore ended his 11-month deployment, he won the White House fellowship.

The New York Times reported in August that Moore had prematurely claimed the Bronze Star on the fellowship application.

Fenzel said Friday that the controversy was the first time he learned that Moore, a former Army captain, had never received the Bronze Star. On learning about it, Fenzel said he immediately called the chief of staff to U.S. Secretary of the Army Christine Wormouth to notify her that he planned to recommend Moore for the award again and create the paperwork anew, including collecting approval from Moore’s old chain of command.

The citation was signed on Nov. 19. But Moore learned he received the medal on Dec. 14, when Wormouth personally told him at the Army-Navy football game, according to the governor’s staff.