The convoy story he repeated during dinner was nearly identical to a memorial interview given by a veteran Moreno had served with years before.

Even the description of a damaged bridge was the same.

“He changed the names and made himself the hero,” she said.

“I recognized the details.”

She sent me the publicly available recording.

In it, a man named Sergeant First Class Daniel Reyes described a tense deployment, not as a glorious adventure but as a night when frightened soldiers depended on each other.

The story ended with a remembrance of a friend who hadn’t made it home.