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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As Kabul fell to the Taliban in 2021, a teenager got separated from his family at the airport and wound up on a plane without them. He's been living on his own in the U.S. -
More than 100 countries ban such weapons because unexploded bomblets can be picked up by civilians, causing injury or death. An announcement is expected Friday. -
In 2004, a U.S. general told the family of an Iraqi interpreter that insurgents killed their brother. The truth was more painful: He was mistakenly killed by Americans he had risked his life to help. -
Two convoys of private U.S. citizens arrived in Port Sudan over the weekend after departing the capital of Khartoum, where deadly fighting between rival militaries has killed hundreds. -
A mortar blast killed two Marines in Iraq almost 20 years ago. But families weren't told for years it was "friendly fire," a tragic accident, despite regulations. Some of the wounded were never told. -
The transfer of the sophisticated missile system comes amid a Russian barrage on Ukraine's energy infrastructure. The announcement came as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited Washington. -
Volodymyr Zelenskyy is visiting Washington to meet with President Biden and Congress on Wednesday. The trip comes as lawmakers are debating billions more in aid for Ukraine. -
Russia says all its forces are gone from the key southern city of Kherson. Yet the Biden administration is publicly asking Ukraine to show a willingness to negotiate. -
President Biden said in a guest essay in The New York Times that he's decided to provide Ukraine with more advanced rockets that will enable it to more precisely strike targets on the battlefield. -
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian forces have begun their new offensive against cities in the east and south and that a "substantial part" of the Russian army is taking part.
