Megan Rose

Reporter

Photo of Megan Rose

Megan Rose, formerly Megan McCloskey, has investigated criminal justice and the military for ProPublica since 2013. She won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting with two colleagues for a series examining how Navy and Marine Corps leadership failed to heed warnings and implement reforms leading up to several fatal accidents.

Rose has also examined the billions of dollars wasted by the U.S. government in Afghanistan and how the Pentagon was failing in its efforts to find and identify missing service members from past wars. In a series investigating prosecutorial misconduct, she exposed how rather than exonerating wrongfully convicted defendants, prosecutors instead pushed a little known plea deal that left innocent men with a record.

Rose’s work at ProPublica and elsewhere has resulted in several falsely convicted men clearing their records, Congressional inquiries, and high-level leadership changes.

Previously Rose was a correspondent for Stars and Stripes, reporting from the war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan, a disaster zone in Haiti, and U.S. military bases in Asia. She also worked for the Associated Press both domestically and abroad.

She graduated from the University of Missouri with degrees in journalism and political science, and has received the Gerald R. Ford Journalism Award, a White House Correspondents’ Association award and the Deborah Howell Award for Writing Excellence, and was twice a finalist for the Livingston Award.

Rose lives in Washington with her husband and son.

Head of Flawed Effort to ID Missing Soldiers Loses Job

The departure of veteran lab director Tom Holland appears to be the first leadership change in the Pentagon's overhaul of its identification process.

Pentagon Report Finds Litany of Problems with Effort to Recover MIAs

A draft inspector general report found that the mission lacks basic metrics for how to do the job – and when to end it.

Pentagon Finally Decides to Dig Up Remains of Long Lost Soldier

After a ProPublica story, the military will exhume a grave in the Philippines that may hold the remains of Bud Kelder, an American POW whose family has long been fighting the Pentagon to get him home.

Big Revamp of Pentagon's Troubled Mission to Find Missing Soldiers Looks a Lot Like Old Revamp

Without change of leadership throughout, meaningful change could be elusive, critics say.

Pentagon Overhauls Effort to Identify its Missing

The restructuring promises to address many of the problems laid out in a recent ProPublica and NPR investigation.

French, Germans Return Fallen GI After Pentagon Gives Up

For more than 50 years, Army PFC Lawrence S. Gordon was mistakenly interred as a German soldier in a cemetery in France. Then European officials did what the U.S. military would not, exhumed and identified him with DNA.

Four Ways to Really Fix the Pentagon’s Effort to ID the Missing

Changes must go beyond bureaucracy to update the scientific approach and embrace outside help.

Interview: How You Can Help Find an MIA

John Eakin shares what he learned about tracking down the remains of his cousin who died in a World War II POW camp.

Bud’s Story, from the Records

Private Arthur ‘Bud’ Kelder died as a POW in the Philippines during World War II. His parents always hoped that his body would eventually be sent home. But despite clues, the military has never recovered his remains. Here are letters and others documents from his case from 1941 to 1950. The documents and photographs below are either from the National Archive or courtesy of John Eakin.

The Military is Leaving the Missing Behind

Private Bud Kelder went missing during World War II. Evidence suggests he's buried as an unknown soldier in Manila. Will the Pentagon ever move to identify him?

Follow ProPublica

Latest Stories from ProPublica

How Lincare Became a Multibillion-Dollar Medicare Scofflaw

A 13-Year-Old With Autism Got Arrested After His Backpack Sparked Fear. Only His Stuffed Bunny Was Inside.

Despite Biden’s Promise to Protect Old Forests, His Administration Keeps Approving Plans to Cut Them Down

An Idaho Baby’s Unexplained Death Got No Autopsy and a Scant Coroner’s Investigation. State Law Says That’s Fine.