Dem governor’s tale of combat action torn to shreds by commanding Army officer: ‘Give me a break’

Maryland Democratic Gov. Wes Moore, widely believed to be considering a presidential run in 2028, is facing renewed scrutiny over his resume — this time from his former Army supervisor who is questioning the governor’s claim that he led soldiers in combat.

In an investigative deep dive into Moore’s military service, The Baltimore Sun spoke with a retired Army Lt. Col. James A. “Jamie” Gottschling, who served with Moore in Afghanistan in 2005 and 2006. What Gottschling described was Moore’s patriotic service and dutiful fulfillment of his role, but exaggerations — and in some cases falsehoods — about incidents that occurred overseas.

Moore’s team said that “partisan politics got in the way” and led to Gottschling’s latest assessment, where he told Fox News Digital: “I wouldn’t call him a soldier.”

Fox News Digital spoke with Gottschling on Monday.

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He said in the interview that while Moore would occasionally leave the base, the governor never saw combat. Gottschling said he would describe Moore and himself as “combat veterans” who are “not veterans of combat.”

“When you think of a veteran of combat, you think somebody that’s in a foxhole, getting shot at, IED blowing up the convoy, or even more dramatically, when you think about World War II movies, Easy Company, or any of those things where it’s like, those guys are getting shot,” Gottschling said. “That just wasn’t the environment that he was in.”

“He starts talking about, you know, in his TED Talk and really struggling with reintegration into the civilian world after the deployment, I’m like, ‘what is he talking about?’ You know, he spent six months over there, basically in, you know, a forward base that pretty much is as safe as anywhere. You’d probably be at more risk going to an ER in any of the cities in the United States than you would be in Afghanistan, in Salerno.”

Moore is widely considered a contender for the 2028 Democratic Party nominee for president.

“I just think it’s disingenuous to really associate with the struggle. I mean you can have some empathy for people that might struggle with the transition, but when you come over there pretty much dip into a combat zone situation, work on the staff for six months and then come out you know saying that, you know, all this trauma that you had … and it’s like, oh, give me a break,” Gottschling told Fox News Digital.

“So I think it’s just him emotionalizing and capitalizing on what soldiers do. And he’s not a soldier,” he continued.

“He was in the Army as a reservist in a staff position in Iraq, but I wouldn’t call him a soldier.”

The Baltimore Sun report describes Gottschling, who then held the rank of major, as the “Army officer who supervised Moore daily” in Afghanistan. Moore has framed himself as a paratrooper in the famed 82nd Airborne Division who led troops into battle during his deployment overseas.

Moore worked on information operations coordination while the pair were stationed together at Forward Operating Base Salerno in the Khost Province near Afghanistan’s border with Pakistan. According to The Baltimore Sun, Moore’s job was “analyzing reports from infantry battalions and provincial reconstruction teams, coordinating for civilian assistance and helping Afghan officials communicate with the public.”

Central to Moore’s personal narrative is that he led troops into combat in Afghanistan. He said that on multiple occasions on X while he was campaigning for Maryland’s governorship.

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“I’ve seen real patriotism when I led paratroopers in combat in Afghanistan and I’ve seen it in my own family,” he said in a Nov. 6, 2022 post, just two days before he was elected governor.

“Service has defined my life, starting when I joined the Army when I was 17, through leading soldiers in combat with the 82nd Airborne in Afghanistan, to today,” he said in a post earlier that year.

In his book, “The Work,” Moore describes being shot at.

“As a soldier, you never forget the first time you were shot at,” he wrote in the book. “A sudden, stunning commotion engulfs you—the sound of shells buzzing past your ears, a flurry of divots leaping out of the earth around your feet—but then your training kicks in,” the book says.

“Moments before those first shots came at me, I was convinced I was prepared for the experience,” the book continues.

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Moore, who is widely considered a contender for the Democratic nominee for president in 2028, reaffirmed that that passage from his book was true during a July interview with CNN, again claiming that he “led soldiers in combat.”

Gottschling also contests the extent to which Moore led other soldiers. In “The Work,” Moore described fellow soldiers as “my paratroopers” and rejects Moore’s framing that he was ever “leading” troops in combat.

In a statement to Fox News Digital, Moore’s senior press secretary described Gottschling’s motives as political.

“Five days after Marylanders re-elected Governor Moore in a historic landslide, Sinclair is back to swiftboating a veteran by recycling the exact same stories and interviews they already ran months ago,” Ammar Moussa said. “Twenty years ago, before partisan politics got in the way, Lt. Col. Jamie Gottschling signed an official Army evaluation declaring Wes Moore a ‘top 1% officer’ and ‘the best lieutenant I’ve encountered during Operation Enduring Freedom.'”

Gottschling addressed that evaluation with The Baltimore Sun.

“There’s a lot of embellishment with that, but that’s just how the system was,” he told the outlet. “You’re not trying to be deceitful about it, but you want to elevate what they did (your soldiers) … so they can get their next job or next promotion.”

“Now, a longtime Donald Trump donor who has openly stated his goal is to stop Governor Moore from being in contention for the presidency is working with Sinclair to contradict his own signed military records,” Moussa continued. “Governor Moore’s service in Afghanistan—including earning the Combat Action Badge and coming under rocket fire alongside fellow service members—has been independently verified by official Army records and The Baltimore Banner, which interviewed fellow service members, and no partisan swiftboat campaign will change the facts.” 

The Combat Action Badge is also addressed in The Baltimore Sun’s story. The story describes it as a “minor indirect rocket attack” where nobody was injured.

Moussa, citing a report in the Baltimore Banner, said a Marine named Anthony Del Signore who was attached to Moore’s unit said that their convoy “took some shots” at least once. 

A New York Times exposé found in 2024 that Moore for years claimed to be the recipient of a Bronze Star when he had not been awarded one at the time. He included the Bronze Star claim on his resumé when applying for a White House fellowship in 2006. In 2024, he received the award after then-Sen. Laphonza Butler, D-Calif., urged the Army to give him one.

In a story published in July on the topic of Moore’s military service, Gottschling said he doesn’t want Moore to be president. At that time, Moore was running for reelection as governor.

“I care about my faith and country. I do not really care whether Moore is elected governor of Maryland, but I do care if he is in contention for the presidency,” he said. “I could not live with myself if I was not vocal about the truth.”

Gottschling made it clear that he wasn’t putting down Moore’s service, which he called exemplary, but took issue with what Moore said about his service after he came home and elevated his political profile.

Gottschling called Moore a “valued staff officer” and said he “appreciated every minute” of the work he did.

“I think there’s nothing wrong with that, if it ended there, that would be it,” Gottschling said. “But it didn’t end there. The embellishment, the aggrandizing of his actions over there that didn’t take place is the problem that I have. I’m a pursuer of the truth, you know, and I want to tell the truth.”

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