{"id":2703494,"date":"2026-11-10T09:48:02","date_gmt":"2026-11-10T14:48:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wes-moore-lied-about-leading-soldiers-in-combat-his-commanding-officer-says\/"},"modified":"2026-11-10T09:56:12","modified_gmt":"2026-11-10T14:56:12","slug":"wes-moore-lied-about-leading-soldiers-in-combat-his-commanding-officer-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wes-moore-lied-about-leading-soldiers-in-combat-his-commanding-officer-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Wes Moore Lied About Leading Soldiers in Combat, His Commanding Officer Says"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fwes-moore-lied-about-leading-soldiers-in-combat-his-commanding-officer-says%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2703494&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Retired Lt. Col. James Gottschling disputes Gov.Wes Moore\u2019s claims that he led paratroopers in combat, saying Moore served in a noncombat facts\u2011operations role during a 2005-06 Afghanistan tour and wasn\u2019t involved in direct action. Moore received a Combat Action Badge after rockets hit his base, but gottschling says there\u2019s no evidence supporting Moore\u2019s off\u2011base firefight stories. The revelations add to scrutiny of other contested claims in moore\u2019s record. Moore has acknowledged sometimes embellishing his service but maintains the core of his accounts and has not directly answered these new allegations.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p><h2>\u2018That\u2019s not truthful,\u2019 retired Lt. Col. James A. Gottschling says of Moore\u2019s direct combat claims<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<figure><figcaption> \t\t\t\t \t\t\t\tWes Moore (Andrew Harnik\/Getty Images)\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D.) opened his 2015 book, <em>The Work<\/em>, with a dramatic telling of the first time he led soldiers in combat in Afghanistan. Moore described the feeling of shells buzzing past his ears, grappling with the thought that he might die that day, and the disciplined calm that came over him as he led his paratroopers into responding with overwhelming force. &#8220;The opportunity to lead soldiers in combat and serve my country in a time of war had been, in a strange way, one of the great joys of my life,&#8221; Moore wrote.<\/p>\n<p>That story and Moore\u2019s other grandiose tales of leading soldiers in combat are not true, according to his commanding officer, retired Lt. Col. James A. Gottschling, who oversaw Moore\u2019s daily activities during his brief deployment to Afghanistan in 2005 and 2006. Gottschling <a href=\"https:\/\/foxbaltimore.com\/news\/local\/moore-says-he-led-troops-in-combat-his-army-supervisor-tells-a-different-story\">told <em>Spotlight on Maryland<\/em><\/a>, a coalition of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/minnesota-theater-cancels-cinderella-production-citing-too-many-white-cast-members\/\" title=\"Minnesota Theater Cancels \u2018Cinderella... Production Citing Too Many White Cast Members\">local news outlets<\/a>, that Moore was never a paratrooper and was instead assigned to a desk job, working in non-combat information operations, which involved analyzing reports and working with Afghan officials to provide civilian assistance. Gottschling, who signed Moore\u2019s 2006 officer evaluation report, said Moore sometimes left Forward Operating Base Salerno to coordinate with Afghan officials, but those trips &#8220;never resulted in any hostile action.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When you\u2019re talking about direct combat, leading soldiers that are under hostile fire, and leading them and supporting them, that\u2019s not truthful,&#8221; Gottschling said. &#8220;It\u2019s disingenuous to say that you led paratroopers in combat or that you did what would be direct action activities in a combat zone.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Moore received a &#8220;Combat Action Badge&#8221; for an on-base incident of &#8220;indirect fire&#8221; in 2005, when three rockets struck the base when he was in the area. No one was injured in that event. There is no verification beyond Moore\u2019s own accounts of him coming under fire, with bullets coming close enough that he could hear them whizzing by his ears, while he was off-base.<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, Gottschling\u2019s account that Moore was never involved in &#8220;direct action&#8221; contradicts stories Moore has told about experiencing combat firsthand in Afghanistan, further tarnishing his gold-plated r\u00e9sum\u00e9, which includes incredible claims about his <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/democrats\/wes-moore-says-the-kkk-chased-his-great-grandfather-out-of-south-carolina-historical-records-tell-a-different-story\/\">family history<\/a>, his place of birth, and his <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/democrats\/wes-moore-won-a-key-white-house-post-claiming-he-was-touted-as-a-foremost-expert-on-radical-islam-and-was-studying-for-an-oxford-phd-but-his-thesis-is-missing-and-theres-no-evidence\/\">athletic, academic, and military<\/a> achievements, many of which have crumbled under scrutiny.<\/p>\n<p>These latest allegations from Moore\u2019s direct military supervisor that he lied about his role leading soldiers in combat comes as the governor, who easily won reelection last week, signals he\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/democrats\/democrat-wes-moore-under-fire-for-resume-fibs-strongly-indicates-hes-running-for-president-reversing-past-claim-that-im-not-running\/\">preparing<\/a> to run for president in 2028.<\/p>\n<p>Moore has not responded to <em>Spotlight on Maryland<\/em>\u2019s reporting, but he has previously <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/democrats\/wes-moore-attacks-local-newspaper-for-deigning-to-report-on-his-record\/\">denigrated<\/a> the coalition\u2019s most prominent media partner, the <em>Baltimore Sun<\/em>, as &#8220;the paper of the right wing&#8221; and has <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/democrats\/democrat-wes-moore-under-fire-for-resume-fibs-strongly-indicates-hes-running-for-president-reversing-past-claim-that-im-not-running\/\">called<\/a> its owner, David Smith, a &#8220;MAGA billionaire&#8221; who publishes &#8220;right-wing drivel.&#8221; Smith is the executive chair of Sinclair Broadcasting, a large local station group controlled by Smith\u2019s family, which is known for its conservative leanings.<\/p>\n<p>Moore has not been dialing down his claims of valor. In May of this year, he gave an address at Valley Forge Military Academy, where a cadet introduced him as having &#8220;led troops in combat.&#8221; Moore did not correct the cadet. The governor has used his stories of seeing combat in Afghanistan to bolster his public image and justify the decisions he\u2019s made as Maryland\u2019s governor since 2023. He <a href=\"https:\/\/digital-release.thehill.com\/homenews\/campaign\/5469334-moore-trump-baltimore-crime\/\">told CBS News<\/a> in 2025 that he &#8220;served my country in combat&#8221; to justify his opposition to what he called President Donald Trump\u2019s &#8220;disrespectful&#8221; proposal to deploy troops to help reduce violent crime in Baltimore. In 2022, he <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/iamwesmoore\/status\/1590180143896883200\">posted on X<\/a> that he &#8220;led soldiers into combat in Afghanistan.&#8221; In 2021, Moore told Baltimore Orioles owner David Rubenstein on a podcast that he &#8220;led a group of paratroopers&#8221; and participated in a firefight within days of his arrival in Afghanistan.        <\/p>\n<p>But no documentary Army evidence exists corroborating any of those incidents or of the dramatic account Moore wrote in <em>The Work<\/em>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baltimoresun.com\/2026\/05\/31\/analysis-the-combat-story-wes-moore-wont-back-up\/\"><em>Spotlight on Maryland<\/em> reported<\/a>. The only available evidence that Moore was ever in danger during his tour (of about seven months) in Afghanistan was the Combat Action Badge for the rockets landing on his base.<\/p>\n<p>Moore has admitted to sometimes embellishing his experience in Afghanistan, but he told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebanner.com\/politics-power\/state-government\/maryland-wes-moore-war-military-history-scrutiny-XVR6V4P5NRCZFJJSGK22JG5TFE\/\">the <em>Baltimore Banner<\/em><\/a>  in June that he stands by the crux of his accounts of the combat he says he experienced overseas.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There\u2019s maybe ways I could have articulated things differently, but it still doesn\u2019t take away from what we experienced and what we did, and what, frankly, I\u2019m still dealing with,&#8221; Moore said.<\/p>\n<p>Moore faced intense criticism when the <em>New York Times<\/em> reported in 2024 that he had falsely claimed for nearly two decades that he received a Bronze Star for meritorious service during his service in Afghanistan. He later received that award under <a href=\"https:\/\/wjla.com\/news\/local\/army-approved-gov-wes-moores-bronze-star-without-a-key-commanders-endorsement\">unusual circumstances<\/a> during the final weeks of the Biden administration, when a former officer above Moore in the chain of command, Lt. Col. Michael Fenzel, resubmitted the award on Moore\u2019s behalf. Fenzel, a close personal friend of Moore&#8217;s who later served as a groomsman at the governor\u2019s wedding, said he was &#8220;so happy to be in a position to right a wrong&#8221; during Moore\u2019s private Bronze Star award ceremony in December 2024.<\/p>\n<p>Moore\u2019s office did not return a request for comment.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Gottschling: Moore\u2019s combat claims untrue<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":108,"featured_media":2703495,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/vice-president-harris-and-senate-candidate-angela-alsobrooks-hold-camp-scaled-e1757441679281.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[548,544],"tags":[87668,13420,87667,87669,87666],"class_list":["post-2703494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-conservative-news-daily","category-the-free-beacon","tag-combat-claims","tag-fact-check","tag-leadership-controversy-2","tag-military-service-2","tag-wesmoore"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/vice-president-harris-and-senate-candidate-angela-alsobrooks-hold-camp-scaled-e1757441679281.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2703494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/108"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2703494"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2703494\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2703520,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2703494\/revisions\/2703520"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2703495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2703494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2703494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2703494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}