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 Biden administration faced mounting pressure to relocate about 18,000 Afghans who helped with U.S. military operations, along with their families. Many fear a resurgent Taliban will seek revenge. -
U.S. military officials say the withdrawal from Afghanistan is nearly complete. At the same time, a spat has broken out about how U.S. forces withdrew from the last big base.
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Afghan military officials say the U.S. left in secret and turned the electricity off on the way out. The Pentagon pushed back. It's yet another mishap in the rocky U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. -
Bagram Airfield was the United States' largest base in Afghanistan. The U.S. military has now withdrawn and handed control over to the Afghan National Security and Defense Force.
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Former U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has died at the age of 88.
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As security conditions deteriorate, the White House has signaled that it intends to evacuate thousands of Afghan citizens who worked with U.S. forces, and who now fear retribution.
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Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told lawmakers he supports a major change to the military justice system. It would let independent military lawyers handle cases of sexual assault and domestic violence.
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Under an agreement made by the Trump administration, today was supposed to be the deadline for the US to withdraw troops from Afghanistan. But the Biden administration is taking more time.
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The Afghan military remains heavily dependent on U.S. equipment, training and money. It's far from clear how effective this U.S. assistance will be once American troops are gone. -
The Biden administration plans to withdraw all U.S. troops from Afghanistan by Sept. 11 of this year. The move would bring to a close America's longest war.
