Tom Bowman
Tom Bowman is a NPR National Desk reporter covering the Pentagon.
In his current role, Bowman has traveled to Syria as well as Iraq and Afghanistan often for month-long visits and embedded with U.S. Marines and soldiers.
Before coming to NPR in April 2006, Bowman spent nine years as a Pentagon reporter at The Baltimore Sun. Altogether he was at The Sun for nearly two decades, covering the Maryland Statehouse, the U.S. Congress, the U.S. Naval Academy, and the National Security Agency (NSA). His coverage of racial and gender discrimination at NSA led to a Pentagon investigation in 1994.
Initially Bowman imagined his career path would take him into academia as a history, government, or journalism professor. During college Bowman worked as a stringer at The Patriot Ledger in Quincy, Mass. He also worked for the Daily Transcript in Dedham, Mass., and then as a reporter at States News Service, writing for the Miami Herald and the Anniston (Ala.) Star.
Bowman is a co-winner of a 2006 National Headliners' Award for stories on the lack of advanced tourniquets for U.S. troops in Iraq. In 2010, he received an Edward R. Murrow Award for his coverage of a Taliban roadside bomb attack on an Army unit.
Bowman earned a Bachelor of Arts in history from St. Michael's College in Winooski, Vermont, and a master's degree in American Studies from Boston College.
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Troops will be sent to the northern and southern U.S. borders as the spread of the coronavirus grows. Last week, the Trump administration ordered partial closures of those borders.
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Right now just over 2,000 members of the National Guard are assisting governors in 27 states, but the head of the National Guard Bureau said that number could double by this weekend.
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Following the December attack on a naval air station, the Pentagon has suspended training of all Saudi military students, as investigators conduct a review of the more than 800 students in the U.S.
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U.S. forces fighting ISIS could leave northeast Syria in just days. They are caught between two opposing armies: the Turkish military and Syrian Kurdish forces.
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President Trump says the U.S. Navy ship shot an Iranian drone down. That statement conflicts with those of Pentagon officials who say the Boxer used electronic jamming to take it down.
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Gen. Robert Neller will step down as Marine Corps commandant this fall. In a wide-ranging interview, he talks about Russia and China, cyberwarfare, female Marines and sexual assault in the Corps.
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Shanahan has served as acting defense secretary since former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis resigned last December over President Trump's decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria.
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An internal memo says the embassy has grown to an "extraordinary footprint" and it is time to "ensure our Embassy is right-sized for the long-term."
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The Army Corps of Engineers has been asked to identify projects that could be canceled or delayed so that funds could be redirected to build a border wall, congressional and Pentagon sources say.
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The Department of Homeland Security has asked the Pentagon to provide additional active-duty troops to work on barriers in Arizona and California.