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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U.S. special operations forces have captured one of the men suspected of playing a key role in the 2012 terror attack in Benghazi. Ahmed Abu Khatallah has been associated with one of the militias involved in the attack that killed four Americans. Currently being held outside Libya, he will face trial in a U.S. federal court.
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President Obama said that he will help the Iraqi military break the momentum of the militants on the march to Baghdad. The Pentagon said that one possible option could include airstrikes. But the president said that any military help must include political solutions from the Iraqi government, which has helped fuel the unrest by failing to reach out to its Sunni minority.
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Five U.S. soldiers were killed in Afghanistan, the result of what might have been friendly fire from an American plane. The deaths, if confirmed, would be the worst case of friendly fire in the war.
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As Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl recovers in a Germany hospital, details continue to emerge about his captivity, the circumstances of his initial disappearance and the effect his release has had on the military.
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Questions surround Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl's initial disappearance. Bergdahl has said he was captured by the Taliban while lagging behind on a patrol, but many wonder whether he planned to desert.
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Everything the Obama administration touches seems to set off a political firestorm. The latest involves Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl and the prisoner exchange that led to his release by the Taliban.
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A member of Bowe Bergdahl's squad tells of a soldier who soured to the Afghan mission and deserted. If true, the Army would have to consider the circumstances and whether charges are warranted.
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The U.S. State Department has confirmed that an American was involved in carrying out a suicide attack. The man, who was fighting in Syria against President Bashar Assad's regime, had ties to Florida.
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President Obama intends to keep a force of 9,800 American troops after the end of 2014. The troops will remain in the country to train Afghan forces and support counterterrorism operations.
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Lance Cpl. James Boelk was a Marine killed in Afghanistan in the fall of 2010. Like many families of fallen soldiers, on this Memorial Day his parents say they will gather to honor and remember.
