By BRENDAN McGARRY
- Troop counts in Iraq and Afghanistan: Navy Commander William Speaks, Pentagon, 703-697-0657, william.speaks@osd.mil (Pentagon counts differently than NATO)
- Pentagon contract awards: http://www.defense.gov/contracts/ (awards in excess of $5 million announced every day at 5 p.m.)
- Federal Procurement Data System (FPDS): https://www.fpds.gov/fpdsng_cms/ (search by contract award or awards and thus programs)
- USASpending.gov: created and maintained by the Office of the Management and Budget (OMB) partly in response to criticisms of FPDS
- DoD’s Statistical Information Analysis Division (SIAD): http://siadapp.dmdc.osd.mil/ (stats on casualties, active-duty figures by service, paygrade, gender, etc.)
- Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute (DEOMI): http://www.deomi.org/EOEEOResources/DemographicReports.cfm (demographic data)
- icasualties.org (Independent count of casualties, both troops and civilians, from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Includes a “cause of death” filter)
- Defense Manpower Data Center: https://www.dmdc.osd.mil/appj/scra/scraHome.do (one of its few public databases; allows you to verify military service status)
- National Personnel Records Center: http://www.archives.gov/st-louis/military-personnel/ (where you can request personnel records, including DD-214s and 215s, of discharged and deceased veterans — and fakers — but not general officers)
- Military Times’ Hall of Valor: http://militarytimes.com/citations-medals-awards/ (unofficial list that can be used to verify Medal of Honor and service cross recipients)
- Defense Department’s Selected Acquisition Report summary tables: http://www.acq.osd.mil/ara/am/sar/ (Pentagon’s biannual updates on weapons programs, including quantity and cost estimates)
- Government Accountability Office’s annual assessment of selected weapon programs: http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d11233sp.pdf (independent audit of the Pentagon’s top weapons programs)
- GAO bid protests: Ralph White, Managing Associate General Counsel, Procurement Law, 202-512-8278, whiter@gao.gov
- Pentagon Comptroller’s website: http://comptroller.defense.gov/Budget2012.html (great resources for current and planned budgets, including the “Sears Roebuck” guide to weapons systems)
- Pentagon budget search: http://www.dtic.mil/descriptivesum/index_2010.html
- OSD’s Installations and Environment’s Base Structure Report: http://www.acq.osd.mil/ie/download/bsr/BSR2010Baseline.pdf (annual “real property inventory” that contains population data by installation, among other data)
- The Project on Government Oversight’s Federal Contractor Misconduct Database: http://www.contractormisconduct.org/
- Ed Offley’s book, “Pen & Sword: A Journalist’s Guide to Covering the Military”: http://www.amazon.com/Pen-Sword-Journalists-Covering-Military/dp/0966517644
- Brant Houston’s book, “Computer-Assisted Reporting: A Practical Guide”: http://www.ire.org/carbook/
