 | |
| Type | Defense news publication |
|---|---|
| Format | Website |
| Owner(s) | North Equity LLC |
| Founder(s) | Zachary Iscol, Brian Jones, and Lauren Katzenberg |
| Editor-in-chief | Marty Skovlund Jr. |
| Founded | 2014 |
| Headquarters | New York, NY |
| Website | taskandpurpose |
Task & Purpose is an American online publication founded in 2014 which covers the United States Armed Forces and the defense industry. They serve millions of readers monthly. [1]
Task & Purpose was founded in 2014 by Zachary Iscol, Brian Jones, and Lauren Katzenberg. [2] The company grew out of the job board HirePurpose and its content originally had a focus on helping soldiers transition back to civilian life. [3]
In 2018 managing editor Adam Weinstein resigned after CEO Zachary Iscol requested that he change the title of a ProPublica investigation into undue influence over the Department of Veterans Affairs featured on the site. [1] Weinstein contended that Iscol strongly disagreed with both the title and the factual accuracy of the reporting done by ProPublica which Weinstein felt was undue influence on the publication's editorial independence. Weinstein also said that this was not the first time that management, specifically Iscol, had interfered in the editorial process in an effort to make the publication appealing to more conservative readers. [4]
In October 2018, Paul Szoldra was named the editor-in-chief. Szoldra is a U.S. Marine Corps veteran and the founder of the popular military satire website The DuffelBlog. [5]
In 2019, Task & Purpose broke the story that eight of the Navy staff involved in the Eddie Gallagher trial had been awarded the Navy Achievement Medal. Following the reporting President Trump ordered the medals rescinded. [6]
In October 2020, Task & Purpose was acquired by North Equity LLC. [7]
In March 2021, James Clark was promoted to deputy editor of Task & Purpose. Clark had been with the publication for over six years. [8]
In November of 2022, Marty Skovlund Jr. was named the editor-in-chief. Marty is an Army veteran and served as an Army Ranger with the 75th Ranger Regiment. He has five combat deployments. He was one of the original contributors to Task & Purpose and was the founding editor of Coffee or Die.
A 2018 article titled "‘They didn’t have to kill him’: The death of Lance Corporal Brian Easley" by author Aaron Gell was later made into the movie "Breaking" starring John Boyega and the late Michael K. Williams. [9] [10]
More than 500 contributing authors have published work in Task & Purpose. These authors have been a mix of active military, retired military, and civilian. Notable authors who have contributed work to Task & Purpose include President Barack Obama and the late Senator John McCain. [2]
Michelle Caruso-Cabrera is an American journalist, board member and former politician. She was CNBC's first Latina anchor at and first Chief International Correspondent regular and is now a CNBC contributor, where she has worked for more than twenty years.
Robert Leon Wilkie Jr. is an American lawyer and government official who served as the United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs from 2018 to 2021, during the Trump administration. He was previously Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness during the Trump administration, from November 2017 to July 2018. A Naval intelligence officer in the Reserve, he was Assistant Secretary of Defense for Legislative Affairs in the administration of President George W. Bush.
Donald Mitchell Brown, Jr. is an American author, attorney, and former United States Navy JAG Officer. He has published fifteen books on the United States military, including eleven military-genre novels, the best known of which is Treason (2005) in which radical Islamic clerics infiltrate the United States Navy Chaplain Corps. He has published four works of military nonfiction, including his national bestseller, The Last Fighter Pilot: The True Story of the Final Combat Mission of World War II (2017). Brown may be best known for his work as legal counsel to Army Lieutenant Clint Lorance, who had been convicted of murder by a military court-martial at Fort Bragg when his platoon became involved in a firefight in Afghanistan in 2011, and his authorship of the 2019 book Travesty of Justice: The Shocking Prosecution of Lt. Clint Lorance. On November 15, 2019, President Donald Trump pardoned Lorance, and the book is considered to be a factor in leading to that pardon. Between the release of Travesty of Justice on March 31, 2019, and Lorance's pardon on November 15, 2019, Brown made numerous national television appearances and penned a number of national Op-eds urging President Trump to free and exonerate Lieutenant Lorance. On the Wednesday night before Thanksgiving, November 27, 2019, Brown and Lorance appeared on Hannity, the nightly national broadcast on the Fox News Channel to discuss the presidential pardon and release.
George Joseph "Mike" Kelly Jr. is an American politician and businessman who has been a U.S. representative since 2011, currently representing Pennsylvania's 16th congressional district. The district, numbered as the 3rd district from 2011 to 2019, is based in Erie and stretches from the northwest corner of the state to the outer northern suburbs of Pittsburgh.
William Kyle Carpenter is a medically retired United States Marine who received the United States' highest military honor, the Medal of Honor, for his actions in Marjah, Helmand Province, Afghanistan in 2010. Carpenter is the youngest living Medal of Honor recipient.
Peter Brian Hegseth is an American television host and author.
Jamie Weinstein is an American political journalist, opinion commentator, and satirist. He currently hosts The Dispatch podcast on Mondays and formerly hosted The Jamie Weinstein Show podcast, which was at one time a National Review Online podcast.
Mark Thomas Esper is an American politician and manufacturing executive who served as the 27th United States secretary of defense from 2019 to 2020. A member of the Republican Party, he had previously served as the 23rd U.S. secretary of the Army from November 2017 to July 2019.
Thomas B. Modly is an American businessman and former government official who served as acting United States Secretary of the Navy from November 24, 2019, to April 7, 2020. He resigned as acting Secretary in the wake of his firing and berating Brett Crozier, the captain of the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, for allegedly going outside his chain of command in calling for help to deal with a COVID-19 outbreak onboard. Later, Modly traveled to the ship at port in Guam, where he addressed the crew in a manner that was perceived as disrespectful. He was subsequently widely criticized, and submitted a letter of resignation.
USS Patrick Gallagher (DDG-127) is a planned United States Navy Arleigh Burke-class Flight IIA guided missile destroyer, the 77th overall for the class. She will be named for Lance Corporal Patrick Gallagher (1944–1967), an Irish-born Marine who earned the Navy Cross during the Vietnam War.
"I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration" is an anonymous essay published by The New York Times on September 5, 2018. The author was described as a senior Trump administration official. About a week before the 2020 United States presidential election, Miles Taylor, who had been deputy chief of staff to the Department of Homeland Security's secretary Kirstjen Nielsen when writing the essay, revealed himself as the author. The op-ed criticizes Donald Trump and states that many current members of the administration deliberately undermine his suggestions and orders for the good of the country. It also states that some cabinet members in the early days of the administration discussed using the Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution as a way to remove the president from power.
Edward R. Gallagher is a retired United States Navy SEAL. He came to national attention in the United States after he was charged in September 2018 with ten offenses under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. In the most prominently reported offense, he was accused of fatally stabbing an injured 17-year-old ISIS prisoner, photographing himself with the corpse, and sending the photo to friends.
Black Rifle Coffee Company (BRCC) is a coffee company based in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. Founded in 2014 by former U.S. Army Green Beret Evan Hafer, it gained national attention in 2017 after pledging to hire 10,000 veterans to protest Starbucks's pledge of 10,000 Refugees.
The Mar-a-Lago Crowd, also Mar-a-Lago Three, was an informal council organized by US President Donald Trump which oversaw many of the activities of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Despite not holding any official position, the Mar-a-Lago Crowd were seen as key architects of the Administration's veterans policy. All three members were members of Trump's Mar-a-Lago Club.
The Military Sexual Trauma Movement (MSTM) is a nonprofit organization founded by Janelle Marina Mendez Viera in 2018 with the aim of protecting members of the United States Armed Forces from military sexual trauma (MST) and advocating for survivors of trauma. The Military Sexual Trauma Movement seeks legislative and institutional reforms that would prevent sexual violence and harassment in the military, and create greater accountability for harassment within the military.
Zach Iscol is an American civil servant, non-profit executive, politician, and United States Marine veteran who serves as Commissioner of New York City Emergency Management. Iscol is a United States Marine veteran and was a Democratic candidate in the 2021 New York City Comptroller election.
Breaking is a 2022 American thriller drama film starring John Boyega as a Marine Corps veteran, Brian Brown-Easley, who is in financial trouble and robs a bank. It is written and directed by Abi Damaris Corbin and co-written by Kwame Kwei-Armah, based on the true story of Brown-Easley, detailed in the 2018 Task & Purpose article "They Didn't Have to Kill Him" by Aaron Gell. The film also stars Nicole Beharie, Selenis Leyva, Connie Britton, Jeffrey Donovan, and Michael Kenneth Williams.
Combat Obscura is a 2018 documentary film about the War in Afghanistan, and the directorial debut of Miles Lagoze.