Pentagon Archives

News in Brief

The Pentagon Finally Decides to Dig Up the Remains of a Long-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.

Megan McCloskey

News in Brief

The Big Revamp of the Pentagon’s Troubled Mission to Find Missing Soldiers Looks a Lot Like the Old Revamp

Without change of leadership throughout, meaningful improvement could be elusive.

Megan McCloskey

News in Brief

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.

Megan McCloskey

News in Brief

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.

Megan McCloskey

News in Brief

4 Ways to Really 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.

Megan McCloskey

News in Brief

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.

Megan McCloskey

News in Brief

How the Obama Administration Helped Kill a Transparency Push on Military Aid

Last year a bipartisan effort to force more transparency about military aid failed after objections from the Pentagon. Will the same thing happen this year?

Cora Currier

News in Brief

Does the U.S. Pay Families When Drones Kill Innocent Yemenis?

We requested information on how the U.S. handles condolence payments for civilian drone strike deaths in Yemen. But the military won’t reveal a thing.

Cora Currier

News in Brief

Who Is the United States at War With? That’s Classified Information

President Obama has repeatedly said the U.S. is targeting Al Qaeda and “associated forces.” But the government won’t say who those forces are.

Cora Currier

News in Brief

The Most Important Journalism About Rape in the Military

A Pentagon report says 26,000 service members were sexually assaulted in 2012. For context, we’ve rounded up some of the best journalism on sexual assault in the U.S. armed forces.

Christie Thompson