The scrutiny—from a coalition of local news outlets called Spotlight on Maryland—once again stems from claims Moore made in the application he submitted to serve as a White House fellow in 2006, a position that served as the launchpad for his political career. Moore has already faced considerable scrutiny for falsely claiming in that document to have received a Bronze Star for his service in Afghanistan and for claiming his University of Oxford graduate thesis (a document he never submitted, as required, to the school’s Bodleian Library) made him widely recognized as a foremost expert of radical Islam. Spotlight’s investigation stemmed from a third claim Moore made in the application: that he became the youngest commissioned U.S. Army officer in 1998 at 19 years old. Spotlight reports that in fact, Moore delayed attending his basic officer training course by nearly seven years, making him an undeployable asset during the first several years of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
All the while, Moore harbored political aspirations from the start of his military career, telling the Baltimore Sun in 2006 that he had long dreamed of becoming governor of Maryland and that he was nicknamed "Mr. President" as a teenager.
Spotlight, which includes the Baltimore Sun as a member, gave Moore several months to answer its questions about the discrepancies it discovered in his military service record. Instead of responding to the questions, Moore and his press team embarked on a preemptive media campaign in early April, attacking the Baltimore Sun—which is owned by Maryland native David Smith of the conservative Sinclair Broadcast Group—as a "paper of the right wing."
It is true that Moore was commissioned as a second lieutenant in May 1998 when he was 19-years-old after attending Valley Forge Military Academy on a $25,626 Army-funded ROTC scholarship. But Moore is hardly the only 19-year-old to have ever received such a commission, with Spotlight reporting that Valley Forge and the three other military junior colleges across the country regularly commission 19-year-olds through the Early Commissioning Program every year, and that no available records establish that Moore was the youngest such officer in 1998. Moore did not return the outlets’ requests for comment.
More noteworthy, however, is that Moore’s commission was conditional, according to Spotlight. He had two requirements to fulfill as an officer in the Early Commissioning Program: complete his bachelor’s degree within 24 months of his appointment, and complete his initial officer training within 36 months.
Moore failed to meet both requirements.
He missed his bachelor’s degree requirement by 12 months, having completed his degree at Johns Hopkins in the spring of 2001, a full 36 months after his commission. Moore’s delay was never authorized by the Army, Spotlightreported.
Still, retired Army officers who spoke with Spotlight said Moore should have immediately reported to his officer basic training course upon his graduation from Johns Hopkins, with records confirming that Moore was registered to report to the course in June 2001. But Moore never reported to that officer training course, and no records in his file show he obtained a waiver allowing him to delay attendance to the training. Instead, Moore accepted a Rhodes Scholarship to attend Oxford in the United Kingdom, where he took four years to complete a Master of Letters degree which typically takes two years to earn. Moore didn’t report to his mandatory Army training until February 2005, nearly seven years after his officer's commission.
While it’s unlikely the military would stand in the way of an officer taking advantage of a prestigious Rhodes Scholarship for two years, Moore’s nearly seven-year delay to report to his officer training course, during which America was at war in Afghanistan and Iraq, is highly unusual. Military officers told Spotlight that Moore would have likely been considered a sunk cost for the Army during the time in which he remained untrained, noting that he would have been a non-deployable asset during the first several years of those wars.
Moore was deployed to Afghanistan in 2005 as a member of the 82nd Airborne Division and participated in the Afghan Reconciliation Program, an initiative to convince Taliban insurgents to lay down their arms and swear fealty to the government of Afghanistan. During his deployment, Moore reported to then Lt. Col. Michael Fenzel, his close personal friend who later served as a groomsman in his wedding. Fenzel took the blame in 2024 when the New York Times reported that Moore falsely claimed to have received a Bronze Star for his service in Afghanistan in his 2006 White House fellowship application, saying he advised Moore at the time that he had been approved for the medal.
Moore received his Bronze Star several months after the Times report. He has Fenzel to thank for resubmitting his award application during the final months of the Biden administration. "I'm so happy to be in a position to right a wrong," Fenzel said during Moore's private award ceremony in December 2024.
But the details behind Moore’s Bronze Star remain shrouded in secrecy. The Washington Free Beacon filed a public records request for the DA Form 638 award narrative that Fenzel submitted on Moore’s behalf in 2024, but the Army refused to provide the document, saying it is "personal in nature" and that its disclosure would "harm" Moore’s personal privacy.
Moore’s office did not return a request for comment.
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