Task & Purpose

If President Donald Trump decides to order the U.S. military to capture Kharg Island from Iran, the operation would require at least 1,200 troops, experts told Task & Purpose. Whether or not that number would be enough to hold the island is less clear. For the moment, it is uncertain whether U.S. troops may be tasked with capturing the island, which processes about 90% of Iran’s crude oil exports.  Trump initially wrote in a Thursday social media post that “at some point in the no

Pick-Up Day is the moment of truth for Marine recruits. Sometimes given the unofficial moniker of “Black Friday” among Marines, it marks the first time they meet their drill instructors, who will train them for the next 13 weeks of boot camp. The U.S. military recently published photos of recruits’ first encounters with their drill instructors at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, California, and you can almost hear the yelling. The May 30 photos by Marine Cpl. Evelyn Doherty underscore

The Army has been on an as-of-yet unending quest for a true light tank or mobile gun capable of landing behind enemy lines alongside airborne troops. Just last year, the service canceled the M10 Booker — a light tank that never was. And that’s hardly the first of its weight class to end up in the Army’s boneyard — there’s the M56 Scorpion and the M50 Ontos, to name two. It hasn’t been since the M551 Sheridan that the service got what it needed out of a light tank, and even then, only kind of.

An Army recruiter used the identities of seven would-be recruits to open bank accounts, cash in on fraudulent checks and credit cards in their names, and even buy plane tickets for a Las Vegas trip, according to federal court documents. Former Sgt. 1st Class Jane Crosby pleaded guilty to bank fraud and aggravated identity theft in a federal court in Newark, New Jersey. Crosby was a recruiter in East Orange, New Jersey, in 2023 when, according to a plea agreement released by the Department of

An annual event put on by members of Congress to honor fallen servicewomen was canceled this year after the Navy, Air Force and Space Force bowed out, citing Pentagon and White House policies on diversity, equity and inclusion programs, according to the Democratic members of the caucus leading the event. The Bipartisan Women’s Caucus’ 28th annual wreath-laying ceremony is typically held at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. The Democratic Women’s Caucus announced the cancellation on Mon

Officers on their way to the general and admiral ranks will have another benchmark to meet before picking their first star.  The “Joint Warfighting Evaluation” will be used to assess the “operational analysis, communications, and decision-making skills” when officers are screened for promotion from O6 to O7, according to a recent memo from Undersecretary of Personnel and Readiness Anthony Tata. Task & Purpose has confirmed that the memo, which has been shared on social media, i

Veterans seeking to file disability claims related to military sexual trauma are “more likely” to be denied by the Department of Veterans Affairs than those whose claims are for combat injuries, according to a new report mandated by Congress. That conclusion emerged in a major review of VA protocols around disability claims related to military sexual trauma, or MST. The report found that the “major challenge” veterans face at the VA when filing a claim for military sexual trauma i

Neighbors at a Texas Air Force Base say that they have seen poisonous snakes and scorpions hiding in waist-high weeds and grass in base neighborhoods where landscaping crews have not worked in over a month.  Families at Lackland Air Force Base, which is home to Air Force basic training, shared photos with Task & Purpose of waist-high grass that residents say has been allowed to grow by base housing officials since the first week of May. “The last time they mowed in my neighborhood

President Donald Trump has promised to respond after the crash of an Apache helicopter, which he said was shot down by the Iranians. On Tuesday, Trump posted on social media that he had been informed by the U.S. military that the Apache had been shot down by Iran while the helicopter was patrolling the Strait of Hormuz. “There were two pilots involved, both are safe and uninjured,” Trump wrote. “Nevertheless, the United States must, of necessity, respond to this attack.” It

An Army veteran who served in Iraq was subdued and apprehended by three National Guardsmen during an incident last month in Washington, D.C., that was captured on video and recently posted online by a local community group. Posted by Free DC, the roughly 2-minute video shows a woman telling the National Guardsmen to get away from her and that they have no authority to detain her. Two Guardsmen eventually force her to the ground and restrain her while she yells at them to get off of her. 

A mission to reach a sick man on a remote island in the southern Atlantic Ocean last month prompted a team of British soldiers to pull off one of the rarest, most high-risk parachute jumps that special operations troops have in their bag of tricks. Flying 7,000 miles from a base in England, a team of six British commandos from a Pathfinder platoon in the 16 Air Assault Brigade jumped from a cargo plane over the island of Tristan da Cunha to reach a local man showing signs of Hauntavirus. Two

A Navy veteran is one of three men recently arrested for allegedly trying to pay more than $2,000 to a person whom they thought was a member of the Islamic State group, or ISIS, to buy rocket-propelled grenades and drones for an attack against U.S. troops overseas, officials said. Bareen Dzayee, 25, was taken into custody on June 5 along with two other men, a Justice Department news release says. Prosecutors claim Dzayee suggested the drone attack target U.S. Special Forces, according to the

Army investigators are looking into the theft of tens of thousands of dollars worth of gear from a soldier’s rental vehicle in Portland, Oregon. The missing Army gear includes flight helmets, supplies and survival radios. Three soldiers checked into a Portland hotel while on an assignment to return a helicopter to Oregon. They locked $33,000 worth of gear in their rental vehicle that was parked in the hotel’s lot, according to reporting from KGW, an Oregon-based news outlet. The list of stole

The Army officially has a new standardized mobile app for firing mortars. This spring, the Army gave the final clearance for a new system, called simply the Mortars App, that soldiers can use on smartphones and tablets to get accurate mortar fire on targets.  The new app got the final approval in March, although the Army announced the rollout at the start of June. The new app, which has been tested by units including the 82nd Airborne Division, is meant to be used through different kinds

The military’s latest attempt to create cheap and effective counter-drone weapons looks like a shipping container. And for the first time, it took out a mid-sized aerial drone with a Joint Air-to-Ground Missile. The Army and weapons developer Lockheed Martin successfully took out the drone during recent testing at the Army’s Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona, the Army and Lockheed announced. They used Lockheed Martin’s GRIZZLY platform, a missile launcher based on the M229 launcher system

The Army wants you…to leave nicotine pouches behind when traveling through France. Seriously, the Army says don’t take Zyn or any other brand with you inside French borders. On Friday, the 21st Theater Sustainment Command and Army Garrison Rheinland-Pfalz issued a formal travel advisory, calling on soldiers to not bring any kind of nicotine pouches into or through France, after the country criminalized them. “France has criminalized the possession, importation, and use of non-medical

The Department of Defense is drastically reducing the number of religious faiths and belief systems it recognizes in its personnel records, from 211 to just 31.  The military’s revised list of religious affiliation codes removed 180 previously accepted ones, according to a May 20 memo signed by Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Anthony Tata. The codes are used to identify troops’ faith and help plan religious support services for them. The memo notes that the c

A new Army directive outlines how service officials will examine the religious basis and sincerity of soldiers’ requests for waivers to wear beards. Published on Thursday, the directive implements Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s mandate from March that troops meet new requirements for submitting such requests. The new rules include having to provide sworn statements and other supporting evidence to prove that their religious beliefs include growing beards.  The directive stresses tha

The Army has a plan in place for the service to carry out executions of military prisoners on death row, if execution orders are approved by President Donald Trump, officials confirmed.  Called “Operation Resolute Justice,” the plan directs the Army to coordinate with the Federal Bureau of Prisons to transport inmates from Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, to Federal Correctional Institution, Terre Haute, in Indiana. The plan also calls for the establishment of a viewing station for witnesses. A

Attention to orders: The commander of the 379th Air Expeditionary Wing has promoted the beloved feline assigned to Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar, widely known as “Pizza Cat” to serve in the next higher grade of Senior Meowster Sergeant. The cat, who earned her moniker for regularly being spotted near the on-base Pizza Hut, has a very large fanbase on social media — so much so that military officials had to issue a memo last year debunking rumors that she had been ordered to be put down. Also kn