Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, who faced scrutiny for claiming a Bronze Star that he hadn’t received, was awarded the honor belatedly in a private ceremony Friday, his office confirmed.

Moore, a veteran of the Army Reserves, served a deployment to Afghanistan in 2005 and 2006, and his supervisor nominated him for the Bronze Star.

It was revealed this year by the New York Times that Moore listed the Bronze Star on an application for a White House fellowship but the medal never came through.

The Democratic governor said at the time that the situation amounted to “an honest mistake” and criticized the “attacks” on his military record.

Since then, Lt. Gen. Michael Fenzel, a mentor to Moore who was his deputy brigade commander in Afghanistan, restarted the Bronze Star process.

Fenzel pinned the Bronze Star on Moore’s chest during a private ceremony at the governor’s mansion Friday, The Washington Post reported.

“I’m so happy to be in a position to right a wrong,” Fenzel said, according to the Post.

A Moore spokesman confirmed the account in the Post but did not offer further details or make the governor available for comment.

The U.S. Army Human Resources Command, which maintains military service records, could not immediately be reached Saturday.

The White House fellowship application is the only known time that Moore claimed the Bronze Star, though there have been times when Moore did not correct interviewers who said he earned the medal.

In August, Moore said he had long forgotten about the application and acknowledged his error.

“I understand that a superior office told me to put it in there, but it wasn’t his application. It was my application,” Moore told The Baltimore Banner in August.

“It was an honest mistake. And, not only have I owned up to it, I take responsibility for it,” Moore said then. “You know, in retrospect, should I have potentially gone back? Absolutely.”

The military has been an important force that shaped Moore throughout his life. His motto of “Leave No One Behind” is borrowed from the military, and he frequently talks about how he never asked his soldiers about their political party.

When Moore misbehaved and struggled in school as a child, his mother sent him to Valley Forge Military Academy, a private military boarding school in Pennsylvania. At Valley Forge, Moore graduated from high school, earned an associate degree and was commissioned into the U.S. Army Reserve.

Later, while working as an investment banker in London, Moore served an active-duty deployment to Afghanistan from August 2005 through March 2006.

Moore has said that, in Afghanistan, he was “director of information operations” for the 82nd Airborne Division’s 1st Brigade. That meant he “managed the flow of information either coming in or going out, you worked with the PSYOP team, the Psychological Operations Civil Affairs,” Moore said in a C-SPAN interview in 2006.

Moore said he focused on Program Takhim-E Solh, which he described on C-SPAN as a reconciliation program, convincing people in the country to turn over their weapons “and pledge allegiance to this new Afghan government.”

Moore held the rank of captain when he ended his military service in 2014.

The other commendations he received, according to the military: National Defense Medal, Afghanistan Campaign Medal, Armed Forces Reserve Medal with “M” Device, Army Service Ribbon and Parachutist Badge.

The Bronze Star is awarded for “heroic or meritorious achievement or service,” according to a U.S. Army description.

The Bronze Star was a common recognition during the Global War on Terror, according to military experts, with the medal often awarded to soldiers with responsibilities similar to Moore’s at the end of deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan.

Those who demonstrate valor are awarded a Bronze Star with a “V” device, denoting valor.