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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Should the Afghan government sign a security agreement, the U.S. plans to keep as many as 9,000 American troops in Afghanistan even after the U.S. and NATO's combat mission officially ends late in 2014. But the remaining U.S. troops will almost certainly be outnumbered by civilian contractors. -
For the first time, three women were among the Marines who graduated Thursday from the two-month combat training course. The U.S. lifted the ban on women in combat earlier this year. Now, the Marines are conducting tests to see if women have what it takes to actually serve in the infantry. -
EGOTISTICALGIRAFFE, MINARET and SHAMROCK are a few of the tens of thousands of code names the NSA gives everything, including programs, exercises, weapons and even its budget.
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Several Marines were disciplined after a videotape surfaced showing them urinating on dead Taliban members in Afghanistan in 2011. The case seemed to be over, but now there are allegations that the top Marine officer, Gen. James Amos, intervened in an attempt to get a harsher punishment. -
A senior U.S. government official says some intelligence agencies are able to focus only on the biggest threats: counterterrorism and nuclear nonproliferation. So other issues are falling by the wayside. -
Administration officials continue to push for Congressional support of strikes on Syria. Meanwhile, the Pentagon is adding to the number of targets inside Syria that could be struck. They include warplanes, attack helicopters and missile sites. If they're destroyed, Assad's regime could be weakened. -
Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi led the recent ouster of Egypt's democratically elected president. Seven years earlier, he was a student at the U.S. Army War College and wrote a paper called "Democracy in the Middle East." He's the latest in a series of U.S.-trained military officers to topple a civilian government. -
The Special Operations Command, which runs the Green Berets and Navy SEALs, is teaming up with scientists and engineers to build a suit with more protection, a wearable antenna and computers that monitor wounds. They hope to have working prototypes within a few years. -
The nation's largest intelligence agency has seen its power 鈥� and abilities 鈥� greatly expand over the past decade. Both privacy advocates and security experts agree that the laws governing electronic eavesdropping have not kept pace with technology. -
Sgt. Chris Cunningham has served five tours in Afghanistan, surviving some of the past decade's most horrific fighting. These days, his excitement about war has been replaced by a grim wisdom 鈥� and the heavy responsibility of teaching Afghan soldiers and honoring fallen comrades.
