Megan Rose
I am a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter at ProPublica. Please reach out with tips and documents.
Have a Tip for a Story?
I’m interested in the FDA’s regulation of generic drugs, and I’m looking to talk to insiders about that or any other concerns about the agency.
What I Cover
My reporting involves exposing how regular Americans are harmed by abuses in the criminal justice system, the military and, recently, the regulation of health care. I investigate complex issues and spend significant time getting to know the people affected to tell in-depth, nuanced stories.
My Background
I’ve been a reporter for more than 20 years (my byline was formerly Megan McCloskey). I joined ProPublica in 2013 after working as a correspondent in Iraq and Afghanistan and other places around the world for Stars and Stripes and others. I 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 before several fatal accidents.
I have also examined the billions wasted by the U.S. government in Afghanistan and how the Pentagon was failing to find missing service members from past wars.
A series I wrote exposed how rather than working to exonerate wrongfully convicted defendants, prosecutors instead pushed a little-known plea deal that left innocent men with records.
My work has resulted in several falsely convicted men clearing their records, congressional inquiries and high-level leadership changes.
I graduated from the University of Missouri and received the Gerald R. Ford Journalism Award, a White House Correspondents’ Association award and the Deborah Howell Award for Writing Excellence, and I was twice a finalist for the Livingston Award.
Pentagon Finally Identifies the Remains of a POW Lost Since 1942
Long buried alongside hundreds of unknown U.S. soldiers in the Philippines, Pvt. Arthur "Bud" Kelder is on his way home after a lawsuit by his family and an investigation by ProPublica and NPR.
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.