About
Matt White is a senior editor at Task & Purpose. He writes on news, people and events that affect the lives of those in the Army, Air Force and Space Force, Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard. He also helps direct and edit coverage across Task & Purpose’s newsroom. He has written widely on military aviation and mishaps, service members with unique stories, and special operations including combat search and rescue.
Got a story to tell? You can reach Matt at matthew.white@taskandpurpose.com
Experience
Matt was a pararescueman in the active duty Air Force and the Alaska Air National Guard for eight years. He made multiple deployments to Afghanistan and Africa, and numerous civilian rescue missions around the state of Alaska.
Prior to joining Task & Purpose in 2023, Matt was a senior editor at Coffee or Die Magazine, writing features and coordinating coverage of seven reporters in that newsroom. In more than a decade of daily and magazine journalism has worked in the newsrooms of the Philadelphia Inquirer, Hampton Roads Daily Press, and Anchorage Daily News, along with bylines at Esquire, Outside, and the Washington Post.
Matt has also taught news writing at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill's Hussman School of Journalism and Media.
Education
Matt used Air National Guard education benefits to earn a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Alaska-Anchorage, and the GI Bill for a master’s degree in business at UNC-Chapel Hill.
Highlights
- Expertise in military history and institutional knowledge of how technology, leadership and people perform in military operations.
- Regularly write on mishaps in military operations, particularly in aviation, decoding how even major disasters are nearly always caused by a cascade of small, simple mistakes, often long before the accident.
- Expert in understanding and writing about military culture, particularly for those in enlisted ranks.
- Matt broke the national story on the censorship of Arlington National Cemetery’s website, which scrubbed lists and articles on those buried there who were women and non-white, and the Navy’s promotion of no women among 22 admirals.
- Matt has broken stories on and extensively covered the deadly crashes of V-22 Ospreys and the death of Navy SEAL trainee Kyle Mullen.
- In 2016, Matt’s first post-military essay was for Task & Purpose on surviving Pararescue pool training.
Other Notable Work
- Raider Five Zero on Fire: An Impossible Story of Survival 2 Miles High | Coffee or Die
- After Hurricane Maria, their families are suffering in Puerto Rico. The Army needs them in Alaska. – The Washington Post
- ‘My Son Was Tortured’: Mom of SEAL Candidate Who Died Hours After Completing ‘Hell Week’ Speaks Out – Military.com
- The Operator: Joshua Wheeler – Esquire
- ‘Jettison!’ — A Chinook Crew’s Incredible Story of Survival Over Afghanistan | Coffee or Die
- The Scars of Moral Injury | Coffee or Die
