Task & Purpose. News, culture, and analysis by and for the military community.
Top Story
Air defense soldiers who shoot down 5 incoming threats could get a new skill badge
A “pre-decisional” Army slide indicated that soldiers with at least five “successful hostile engagements” in a combat environment would be eligible for the new badge.
-
Soldiers are using the Army’s new dining halls ‘exponentially’ more, official says
“They can get their meals, and they can enjoy their weekends better than having to report to an old legacy facility,” one Army food program official said.
-
Why the Army only has one Security Force Assistance Brigade left
And what its commander says allies are asking of it in the Pacific.
-
What would special operations forces do in a really big war?
The leaders of the Army’s 22,000-person Special Operations Command are planning what their small units will do in a big war.
Task & Purpose Video
Each week on Tuesdays and Fridays our team will bring you analysis of military tech, tactics, and doctrine delivered from a rank-and-file perspective.
More from Task & Purpose
-
USS Abraham Lincoln crew prepares for base move weeks after extended deployment
The Navy says the long-planned move from their home port in California to Washington state will proceed by year’s end.
-
Air Force special ops trainees are graduating months faster in revised pipeline
An Air Force official said the course changes “reduced the average time to beret by nearly 70 days.”
-
The Navy SEALs behind ‘The Terminal List’ break down the new season’s sniper battle
A sniper battle that highlights the new season of the Amazon Prime thriller starring Chris Pratt was the brainchild of three former SEAL snipers behind the show.
-
Army wants to test and field new drone defenses in under six months
The Army will test drone defense systems in Morocco next spring that it plans to field within 180 days, including technology designed to detect drones that aren’t transmitting signals.
-
Rappel demonstrations are risky, but common among elite units
The football stadium demo in which an airman was killed Saturday was a tragedy, but highly trained troops frequently put on training events before large crowds.
-
Hegseth’s plan to restore Confederate memorial at Arlington expected to cost taxpayers $9 million
The Army confirmed that Hegseth directed the restoration, but his office declined to answer questions about its potential impact on military morale and unit cohesion.
-
Tracking America’s latest conflict: The Iran war timeline
To date, at least 21 American service members have been killed and hundreds more wounded.
-
Airman who died in football game rappelling incident identified
Tech. Sgt. Ian Patterson with 6th Combat Training Squadron, Detachment 2, died after falling to the ground at high speed at the Alamodome on Saturday.
-
National Guardsman shot while breaking up fight in DC
DC guard task force officials said the soldier was released after being treated at a hospital.
-
The Army’s main long-range missile battery in Europe fires new weapon for the first time
Soldiers with the European theater-focused 3rd Battalion, 12th Field Artillery Regiment, one of the Army’s few Typhon batteries, tested out the missile platform.
-
Airman dies in rappelling demonstration at Navy football game
The service member was part of an Air Force training unit that selects and trains candidates as Tactical Air Control Party, or TACP, airmen.
-
Pentagon’s wireless services left locations, data exposed, watchdog finds
Security vulnerabilities meant that malicious groups could “pinpoint sensitive locations like safe houses or command posts, and expose operational vulnerabilities, significantly compromising national security.”
-
Marine Corps establishes its first medium-range missile battalion
1st Battalion, 10th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division is trading in howitzers for NMESIS-launched anti-ship missiles.
-
Hundreds of 10th Mountain Division soldiers deploying to Latin America
Roughly 500 soldiers will support ongoing exercises with partners as the U.S. expands military operations against cartels.
-
Army releases rare account of soldiers surviving Iranian missile attack and how life has changed back home
Three Army air defense soldiers received Purple Hearts for a missile attack that knocked them unconscious. Now back in Texas, all three still feel the effects.
-
Korean War soldier’s grave exposed to the elements at Louisiana cemetery for years
Photographs show a collapsed burial vault beside a Korean War soldier’s grave marker at a historic Black cemetery in Baton Rouge that has deteriorated for years.
Task & Purpose was founded in 2014 to cover the military and veteran community from a rank-and-file perspective, and continues to do so with accurate reporting and great storytelling to this day. Our journalists have reported on the front lines of the Standing Rock protests in North Dakota and the war in Afghanistan. We’ve uncovered American veterans being abused in Kuwaiti prisons, deported veterans being forced to work for Mexican cartels, and drawn national attention to a longstanding legal rule barring service members from suing the government — even in the face of gross negligence.
