Happy Thanksgiving, Task & Purpose readers.
From all of us here at T&P, thank you for your continued support and for the trust you place in us every day as we report on America’s military and those who serve in it. Covering the military and veteran community is a privilege, but we also have an obligation each time we write a story. As journalists, we have an opportunity to ask questions of those in leadership positions that those in uniform (particularly at junior levels) cannot.
And because we can do that without fear of reprisal or, at the very least, without having to worry that we’ll be standing 24-hour duty every Saturday for the foreseeable future, we must ask those questions.
But we couldn’t do that without you. Time and again, you — our readers — tell us what to ask and let us know what’s going on. You alert us to issues with your command, or in your barracks. You call out bad actors in the community and you shine the light on incredible ones so we can tell their stories. You let us know when we’re on track and when we’ve fallen short so we can do better in the future.
Thanks to your postings on social media — the internet’s smoke pit — you’ve alerted us to stories that needed to be told, such as Marines at Camp Pendleton, California being encouraged to fix their own barracks rooms, soldiers at Fort Bliss being allowed to wear boonie hats, Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma, getting a new motto, and sailors at Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia getting locked out of their barracks rooms for failing inspection.
This year, we are especially thankful to service members who have gone above and beyond to help people in need, including Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Gabriel Journey, who climbed into a burning building to rescue people inside; the seven airmen with the 857th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron who rescued four hikers from flash flooding, including a pregnant woman; Marine Sgt. Brett D. Meil, who used his own body to shield a fellow Marine from a grenade blast during a training mishap; and Army Ranger Master Sgt. Joe Thach, who has saved people from three separate car crashes since 2023.
We thank the experts, scientists, researchers, and members of this community who have lent their varied expertise to a range of complex stories, from essays on the need for advances in plasma ahead of a possible large-scale war to the recovery of the remains of U.S. Air Force Sgt. David Price from a dangerous and secret CIA base established during the Vietnam War. With your help, we’ve been able to write about how veteran DNA is helping with genetics research, how researchers are developing new tech to help soldiers sleep better, and how new simulators will help medics train better with female bodies to save women in battle.
We’d also like to thank those who help us hold officials accountable for serious issues, like the Pentagon undercounting domestic violence cases and the lawyers and advocates who inform us about issues like sexual assault and service member healthcare battles.
We’re thankful for the Army general who told us about his final watch at the Tomb of the Unknown, the Marines who told us how they taught a whole Air Force Base to PT, the Navy SEALs who told us how sketchy ship boarding missions can be after the death of two comrades, and the Air Force “attack pilots” who told us about the bitter-sweet duty of shutting down a legendary A-10 squadron after flying the plane their whole careers.
And we’re thrilled that so many of you have subscribed to our newsletters. Task & Purpose Today is a collection of our best stories every day and we just relaunched The Pentagon Rundown by Jeff Schogol, everyone’s favorite Pentagon correspondent. Jeff is the reporter who will fearlessly ask officials questions on behalf of the rank-and-file, no matter how unexpected. We’re equally thankful that so many of you have tuned in to watch our trusted “ginger newsman,” Kyle Gunn, whose deadpan delivery of the day’s news is without equal.
Lastly, we want to send a special thanks to Army Lt. Gen. Joel “JB” Vowell and the outstanding public affairs team at Operation Inherent Resolve for arranging Task & Purpose’s exclusive “Between Two T-Walls” interview in Baghdad this June. It was so hot at the time that the interview had to stop while diligent public affairs officers cooled the cameras down.
We’re incredibly grateful to all of you for your help and for constantly driving us to do better as we try to write about this community from a rank-and-file perspective.
So, from all of us here at Task & Purpose: Thank you, and happy Thanksgiving.
Oh, before we forget, here’s your holiday safety brief: Don’t do anything stupid over the weekend that we’ll have to write about on Monday.