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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Witnesses tell NPR about the raid, the military's first under President Trump. It resulted in deaths of a Navy SEAL and civilians. A CENTCOM investigation is underway, but similar raids could follow. -
In 2017, major fighting against the ISIS in Iraq may wind up and focus may shift to a new protracted campaign in northern Syria. Ari Shapiro talks with NPR's Tom Bowman about what lies ahead.
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President-elect Donald Trump has already picked two former generals, Michael Flynn and James Mattis, for top positions and is considering at least one more, David Petraeus.
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The retired general was one of the first ex-military officers to back Donald Trump. His brazen comments and partisan political work trouble some of his former colleagues. -
In Iraq, the battle for control of Mosul, the country's second largest city, has been raging for almost a week. There are differing narratives coming from the Pentagon and the front lines.
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A U.S. official says the Navy has destroyed three radar locations in Yemen after missiles were fired at a U.S. destroyer off the Yemeni coast.
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When a Pentagon official proposed flexible schedules at a town hall meeting, "They actually laughed at me," she says. But the schedules went into place. The military also now allows 1 to 3 years off. -
A U.S. airstrike on Syrian military forces aligned with Bashar Assad has challenged the already tenuous cease-fire in Syria.
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Since the Sept. 11 attacks, the drone has become America's go-to weapon when it comes to tracking and killing extremists. But drones have raised many legal, moral and ethical issues. -
Rear Adm. Mustafa Zeki Ugurlu, who had just finished a NATO job in Norfolk, Va., is among the "pro coup fugitives" being pursued by Turkey following last month's failed coup attempt.
