Retired Lt. Col. James A. "Jamie" Gottschling, who was Moore's immediate supervisor at Forward Operating Base Salerno, told Spotlight on Maryland that Moore's accounts of leading soldiers in combat are false. "It's disingenuous to say that you led paratroopers in combat or that you did what would be direct action activities in a combat zone," Gottschling said. Asked directly whether he considered Moore a liar, Gottschling replied, "I do."

Gottschling's account adds a firsthand perspective to earlier reporting that examined Moore's military record. According to Gottschling, Moore worked exclusively on information operations coordination, helping Afghan officials communicate with the public and analyzing reports from infantry battalions and provincial reconstruction teams. He was never involved in the employment of any weapons system, Gottschling said.

"He did a really good job trying to train the Afghans how to kind of sell their own story," Gottschling said, crediting Moore's work. But he emphasized that Moore had no troops assigned to him. "You don't really lead staff officers. You coordinate with staff officers," he said.

Moore's military records show he received an Army Reserve commission in 1998 but did not complete his initial officer qualification until June 2005, when he graduated from the Military Police Officer Basic Course at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. He arrived in Afghanistan on Aug. 15, 2005, nearly five months after the 1st Brigade of the 82nd Airborne Division had deployed. His placement came through a by-name deployment request arranged by then-Lt. Col. Michael Fenzel, a longtime friend and mentor, according to earlier reporting.

Gottschling confirmed that Moore, though airborne qualified, did not train with the brigade before deployment, did not conduct training jumps, and was not in a parachutist's position. "He's not a paratrooper," Gottschling said.

Moore has described himself in various accounts, including his 2015 book "The Work," as having led soldiers into combat and witnessed firefights. In a May 2022 social media post, he wrote that he had "led soldiers into combat in Afghanistan." But Gottschling said Moore never saw combat. "I like to say that we're combat veterans, but we're not veterans of combat," he said of their brigade headquarters service. Moore received a Combat Action Badge for a minor indirect rocket attack at FOB Salerno on Dec. 9, 2005, that resulted in no injuries, but no records substantiate the firefights he later described.

Gottschling also said he was not consulted in the 2024 process that awarded Moore a retroactive Bronze Star and that he would not have concurred with the decision. The governor's office did not respond to an offer to sit down with Moore and dispute his former supervisor's statements.

Gottschling's criticism is not of Moore's performance in Afghanistan, which he described as fully satisfactory. "He did everything that he was called to do. There were never any issues with his performance over there," he said. Instead, he takes issue with what he called the embellishment of Moore's record after his return. "It's the embellishment of the actions that really just contribute to his narrative, to his story, to his accolades, and it's self-promotion, it's self-aggrandizement," Gottschling said.

The discrepancy matters for Maryland voters, who have twice elected Moore on a biography that heavily emphasized his military service. Gottschling said Moore can be proud of his actual work in Afghanistan. "It's just really the embellishment of the story after that that's the issue," he said.