Task & Purpose

The Air Force is permanently moving three of its RQ-4 Global Hawk surveillance drones to Yokota Air Base in Japan, after more than a decade of being stationed in Guam. The 4th Reconnaissance Squadron, 319th Operation Group began relocating the RQ-4s to Japan in late May, with the first arriving in the Tokyo-area base on May 27, although the 374th Airlift Wing only officially announced the transfer this week. The squadron has made seasonal visits to Yokota, but this permanently stationed it

Nearly 250 years after he died in the Battle of Camden, researchers identified Pvt. John Pumphrey as one of more than a dozen Continental Army John Does that were found near the battlefield. On Thursday, researchers in South Carolina announced that they confirmed the identity of one set of remains. Pumphrey, whose death was not recorded and whose identity was nearly lost to history, had been from a prominent Maryland family who enlisted in the Continental Army in his early teens. Given his se

The Navy will keep its ships in the area around the Strait of Hormuz after lifting its blockade, U.S. Central Command said on Thursday, ending two months of a dual stoppage of the waterway. “American forces are not impeding the transit of vessels to or from Iranian ports,” CENTCOM said in its announcement. “All U.S. military blockade enforcement efforts have ceased.”  The move comes after President Donald Trump signed an initial agreement to end the war and open the Strait of Hormuz.

An influenza outbreak that started in late May has left nearly 160 Air Force recruits sick, with some hospitalized. An Air Force spokesperson told Task & Purpose that the 37th Training Wing has been dealing with a “localized influenza outbreak among trainees at Basic Military Training” at Lackland Air Force Base. The flu outbreak has been going on for three weeks, the Air Force said, although training at the base has not been interrupted. The New York Times first reported on the outbre

President Donald Trump presented the Medal of Honor on Thursday to three service members who fought in Vietnam and Afghanistan: Retired Marine Maj. James Capers Jr.; retired Army Maj. Nicholas Dockery; and retired Marine Col. John W. Ripley, who received the award posthumously. Capers saved his reconnaissance team in South Vietnam following a bloody ambush in April 1967. Dockery’s bravery during a 2012 battle in Afghanistan included using his body to shield another soldier from a grenade blas

The Navy wants to find civilians who work in artificial intelligence and other fast-changing tech fields and fast-track them into service as Reserve officers, some with ranks as high as captain. Once commissioned, the officers will maintain their day jobs in the tech world while working remotely and part-time for the Reserve’s new Navy Innovation Unit. The officers will be commissioned at ranks ranging from ensign (O-1) to captain (O-6), an official told Task & Purpose, as determined by a

As we like to say in our videos, “logistics wins wars.” From Hannibal crossing the Alps to attack Rome to Napoleon’s army starving just weeks into his invasion of Russia, the ability to get supplies to your troops is vital. Russia is learning this lesson the hard way in occupied eastern Ukraine and Crimea. Ukrainian drone operators have been picking off Russian supply trucks and support systems, including air defense platforms, in strikes 30 to 180 kilometers behind the front lines. They’re c

Nearly 60 years after he led his reconnaissance team through a harrowing ambush in South Vietnam — ignoring his numerous serious wounds — retired Maj. James Capers Jr. will finally be honored with the U.S. military’s highest award for valor on Thursday. President Donald Trump will award Capers the Medal of Honor at Thursday’s ceremony, a White House official confirmed to Task & Purpose. Capers’ heroism during an April 1967 ambush in South Vietnam is legendary. He led a nine-man t

A new bill introduced in the Senate aims to clean up the convoluted process that governs what benefits and pay National Guard and Reserve troops are eligible for when they’re called up. When National Guardsmen were mobilized to cities across the U.S., many took to social media joking that they would be given 29-day orders on purpose. For the average civilian, it might not mean much. But for part-time troops, the type of mission they are assigned to can impact their paycheck and other benefits

Officials at Edwards Air Force Base, California, released the names of the eight crew members of a B-52 Stratofortress who were killed on Monday when the bomber crashed shortly after takeoff at the desert base. The crew included five active-duty Air Force aviators and three civilians. According to the Air Force, those killed were: Col. Greg Watson, 53, weapon systems officer and employee of Boeing. Watson was an Air Force reservist, assigned to the 10th Air Force, and lived in Shrevepo

Earlier this month, Nick Ricigliano finally came face to face with a fugitive he’d been tracking since 2019 and whom the Army had been after for nearly 30 years. “I was a bit taken aback by how much he had aged and how unhealthy he appeared,” Ricigliano, an Army veteran and long-time U.S. Marshal, told Task & Purpose. “I suppose 30 years of waiting for that knock on the door had taken a physical as well as mental toll.”   The fugitive that Ricigliano finally got t

A major factor for service members as they consider whether to stay in the military is how frequent moves to new assignments affect their children. An Army program is designed to ease that burden on military families by allowing soldiers to remain at one duty station through a child’s last two years of high school. Roughly 4,000 soldiers took part in the High School Stabilization Program over the past year, according to a recent Army news release. The program was established in 2000 for fa

Congress is considering a proposal that would grant full retirement and disability benefits to combat veterans, while slashing future disability checks for veterans with tinnitus and sleep apnea. The Take Care of America’s Veterans Act is a package with dozens of legislative proposals for veterans, caregivers, and survivors. Among the bundled bills is the Major Richard Star Act, which allows veterans with fewer than 20 years of service to collect both disability compensation and retirement pa

A botched midair refueling last year ripped the refueling boom off one of the Air Force’s newest tanker aircraft, sending the multi-million-dollar fueling arm tumbling into the Atlantic Ocean. A report released last week on the mishap found that the violent mishap was set in motion when the KC-46A Pegasus’ fuel probe became stuck in a fighter jet’s fuel port. The 2025 accident marked the second time in 11 months that the same failure — a KC-46A’s fuel probe becoming stuck while re

The Army recently commissioned a batch of executives from tech and venture capital firms with deep ties to Silicon Valley under a recruitment program launched last year.  The three officers were commissioned as lieutenant colonels and are the second cohort of soldiers to join an Army Reserve unit called Detachment 201. The program brings in professionals from major tech companies to serve as advisors. In June 2025, the first four came from day jobs at companies like Palantir, Meta, and O

A B-52 Stratofortress bomber carrying eight people onboard crashed shortly after takeoff on Monday at Edwards Air Force Base, California, the base posted on social media. “Initial indications are that the crash was not survivable,” the 412th Test Wing said in a statement shortly after 3 p.m. PDT. “Emergency response personnel are on scene, and officials are working to account for all personnel.” The crash took place at 11:20 a.m. PDT, according to Edwards Air Force Base. The 412th Test Win

Sailors assigned to military operations at the southern U.S. border are now eligible for the new Mexican Border Defense Medal. The move puts sailors assigned to ships and ground units involved with border operations on the same footing for the award as thousands of soldiers and, as of last month, Marines. The service announced the eligibility in a Navy Administrative Message, or NAVADMIN, detailing new guidance for how commanders can approve sailors for the relatively new award. The new ru

When Ethan Cobb graduated from high school and started college, he felt that his life lacked purpose. Since his grandfather had served in the Air Force, he decided he wanted to enlist to find a sense of duty. But Cobb weighed 398 pounds at the time. In order to join the military, he needed to lose nearly half his body weight. He accepted the challenge, and over the course of two years he dropped about 200 pounds so he could ship to Air Force Basic Military Training at Joint Base San Antonio-L

Airmen from the Rhode Island National Guard and soldiers from the Michigan National Guard moved a powerful rocket artillery system more than 2,000 miles across the country this month, flying a M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System from Michigan to the National Training Center at Fort Irwin to test rapid deployment capabilities. Troops from the two states’ National Guards pulled off a “HIMARS Rapid Infiltration,” or HIRAIN, over the course of June 6-13, according to a release from the Mic

The Navy will lift its two-month-long blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, President Donald Trump announced, after the United States and Iran reached an agreement to end the war. Posting to social media, Trump said that he authorized “the immediate removal of the United States Naval blockade.” Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif first announced that a deal had been reached on Sunday. Both parties will meet in Switzerland to sign the agreement on Friday, June 19, Sharif said.