Tom Bowman

The president has taken a series of abrupt moves, firing the defense secretary and announcing troop cutbacks in Afghanistan and Iraq. Critics say these actions have no clear strategic goal.

A recent shake-up in senior leadership at the Pentagon has raised a lot of questions. Those questions increased with news about the administration's plan to pull troops out of Afghanistan and Iraq.

A U.S official has confirmed with NPR that the White House is planning to cut the number of troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. This news comes in the wake of a shake-up in leadership at the Pentagon.

The firing of Defense Secretary Mark Esper was the beginning of a series of changes to top-level positions at the Pentagon.

President Trump fired Defense Secretary Mark Esper on Monday — replacing him with Christopher C. Miller, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center. What does the timing of this mean?

Defense Secretary Mark Esper has been "terminated," President Trump announced on Twitter on Monday. Esper will be replaced by Christopher C. Miller, director of the National Counterterrorism Center.

Secretary Esper has kept a letter of resignation on hand since the summer, when he and the president disagreed over the use of active duty troops to put down street protests.

Steps from the White House, where divisions of the past year have played out, crowds are celebrating. So far, the National Guard has not been activated this election.

Uniformed police are generally not allowed around polling places, and the Pentagon doesn't want to get involved. Still, they're getting ready if things get out of control.

Uniformed police are generally not allowed around polling places, and the Pentagon doesn't want to get involved. Still, authorities are getting ready if things get out of control.

Last week the president tweeted that troops should be home from Afghanistan by Christmas. In an interview with NPR, Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley said no final decisions have been made.

The military's Commander in Chief, President Donald Trump, is in quarantine after testing positive for the coronavirus. So what does that mean for the military operations?

In a letter addressed to "Our Fellow Citizens," the 489 signees, which include 22 four-star officers, state the "current president" is not up to "the enormous responsibilities of his office."

The Army is working with private industry to create a coronavirus vaccine, but also working on its own. The military service has a history of creating vaccines and making medical breakthroughs.

President Trump came into office with high praise for current and former generals, but now he's attacking them in ways that are unprecedented, according to military analysts.

The United States and nine other countries are participating in naval exercises off Hawaii. China used to partake in this biennial exercise, but its relations with the U.S. are tense now.

The Air Force's new top officer, Gen. Charles Brown Jr., is the first African American to serve as a military service chief. He will be the first Black officer on the Joint Chiefs of Staff since 1993.

Some 4,000 National Guard soldiers are the first to return to large-scale training at Fort Irwin, Calif., since the pandemic hit in March. Generals say the troops are regularly monitored for symptoms.

Mustafa Ugurlu who was charged with staging a July, 2016 coup but denied any involvement, says while his family has been embraced in Norfolk, Va., he fears the Turkish state will track him down.

Gen. John Hyten says it's "absolutely not right" that the incoming Air Force chief of staff will be the first African American to sit on the Joint Chiefs since Colin Powell, nearly three decades ago.