Megan McCloskey
Megan McCloskey covers the military for ProPublica. Previously she was the national correspondent at Stars and Stripes. She reported from several conflict and disaster zones, including Iraq, Afghanistan, and Haiti, and covered military operations in the Pacific. Her three-part series on a family’s struggle with the Department of Veterans Affairs to care for their severely wounded son was a finalist for a Livingston Award and ASNE’s Distinguished Writing Award for Nondeadline writing.
Rare Italian Goats Helped Afghanistan How?
At a Senate hearing last week, lawmakers questioned whether a Pentagon business task force had accomplished anything worthwhile.
Afghanistan Waste Exhibit A
A Senate subcommittee is looking at waste by a Pentagon task force. It would do well to review the reasons why a major hydroelectric power plant sits unfinished.
The U.S. Spent Half a Billion on Mining in Afghanistan
The special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction has labeled yet another project in danger of failing. This time its U.S. plans to develop the country’s oil, gas, and minerals industries.
The Pentagon's Mysterious $766 Million Task Force
Senators were already questioning why the Department of Defense was restricting a government watchdog. Now there are criminal investigations and questions about retaliation against a whistleblower.
The Pentagon Evades Questions on $800 Million Afghanistan Program
Despite lacking access to key documents and personnel, the inspector general determined that nearly $43 million had been spent on a natural gas station that should have cost closer to $300,000.
Another Unneeded, Unnecessary Building in Afghanistan You Helped Fund
The United States military shelled out millions before deciding the project was unnecessary, bringing the total for unused buildings spotted by the Inspector General for Afghanistan to nearly $42 million.
The Military's Other Multimillion-Dollar Building in Afghanistan That No One Used
In its latest report, the inspector general found that the U.S. military continued to build a $14.7 million warehouse after it knew it wasn’t needed, echoing an earlier investigation into an unused $25 million headquarters.
The Pentagon Has Finally Identified the Remains of a POW Lost Since 1942
Long buried alongside hundreds of unknown U.S. soldiers in the Philippines, Private Arthur “Bud” Kelder is on his way home after a lawsuit by his family.
The Problems With the Pentagon's Effort to Recover MIAs
A draft inspector general report found that the mission lacks basic metrics for how to do the job—and when to end it.
Pentagon Finally Decides to Dig Up Remains of Lost Soldier
The military will exhume a grave in the Philippines that may hold the remains of Bud Kelder, an American POW whose family has long been fighting the Pentagon to get him home.
Big Revamp of the Pentagon's Troubled Mission to Find Missing Soldiers
Without change of leadership throughout, meaningful improvement could be elusive.
Pentagon Finally Overhauls Effort to Identify Its Missing
The restructuring promises to address many of the problems laid out in a recent ProPublica and NPR investigation.
Why Did the Pentagon Give Up on a Fallen GI?
For more than 50 years, Army PFC Lawrence S. Gordon was mistakenly interred as a German soldier in a cemetery in France. Then European officials did what the U.S. military would not: exhumed and identified him with DNA.
Ways to Fix the Pentagon's Effort to ID 83,000 Missing Service Members
Changes must go beyond bureaucracy to update the scientific approach and embrace outside help.
How You Can Help Find Someone Missing in Action
John Eakin shares what he learned about tracking down the remains of his cousin who died in a World War II POW camp.