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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The Army is working with private industry to create a coronavirus vaccine, but also working on its own. The military service has a history of creating vaccines and making medical breakthroughs. -
President Trump came into office with high praise for current and former generals, but now he's attacking them in ways that are unprecedented, according to military analysts. -
The United States and nine other countries are participating in naval exercises off Hawaii. China used to partake in this biennial exercise, but its relations with the U.S. are tense now.
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The Air Force's new top officer, Gen. Charles Brown Jr., is the first African American to serve as a military service chief. He will be the first Black officer on the Joint Chiefs of Staff since 1993.
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Some 4,000 National Guard soldiers are the first to return to large-scale training at Fort Irwin, Calif., since the pandemic hit in March. Generals say the troops are regularly monitored for symptoms.
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Mustafa Ugurlu who was charged with staging a July, 2016 coup but denied any involvement, says while his family has been embraced in Norfolk, Va., he fears the Turkish state will track him down. -
Gen. John Hyten says it's "absolutely not right" that the incoming Air Force chief of staff will be the first African American to sit on the Joint Chiefs since Colin Powell, nearly three decades ago. -
More than 700 military health professionals are being sent to southern and western states where cases have skyrocketed, military officials say. -
Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley appeared before a House panel Thursday to talk about the role of the National Guard during recent protests.
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Gen. Mark Milley's recent apology for walking with President Trump to his church photo op has prompted discussion about how the military maintains nonpartisanship under a Trump administration.
