2023
1. “A Secret War, Strange New Wounds, and Silence From the Pentagon” November 5, 2023 (with Matthew Callahan) The flagship investigation. Many U.S. troops who fired vast numbers of artillery rounds against the Islamic State developed mysterious, life-shattering mental and physical problems, but the military struggled to understand what was wrong. Citizen Shame URL: nytimes.com/2023/11/05/us/us-army-marines-artillery-isis-pentagon.html
2. “U.S. Troops Still Train on Weapons with Known Risk of Brain Injury” November 28, 2023 A follow-up showing that despite the findings, troops say they see little being done to limit or track blast exposure, and training continues largely as it did before. U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren URL: nytimes.com/2023/11/26/us/military-brain-injury-rocket-launcher.html
2024
3. “Signs of Brain Injury in Mortar Soldiers: ‘Guys Are Getting Destroyed'” May 2024 Extended the investigation to mortar crews, finding the same pattern of injuries from their own weapons’ blast waves. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/02/us/blast-mortar-brain-injury-military.html
4. “Pattern of Brain Damage Is Pervasive in Navy SEALs Who Died by Suicide” June 30, 2024 A version of this article appeared in print on June 30, 2024, Section A, Page 1 of the New York edition under the headline: “Navy SEALs Lost to Suicide Share a Pattern of Brain Damage.” Eight SEAL brains donated by grieving families to the DoD’s brain tissue repository all showed the same distinctive blast-related damage pattern. URL: nytimes.com/2024/06/30/us/navy-seals-brain-damage-suicide.html
5. “Top-Gun Navy Pilots Fly at the Extremes. Their Brains May Suffer.” 2024 Documented brain injury in TOPGUN and carrier-based fighter pilots from the extreme G-forces and catapult/arrested landing shocks of carrier aviation. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/08/us/navy-pilot-brain-injury-topgun.html
6. “Chronic Brain Trauma Is Extensive in Navy’s Elite Speedboat Crews” November 12, 2024 The article you originally asked about — on Special Warfare Combatant-Craft Crewmen (SWCCs) and the brain damage caused by years of high-speed wave-slamming. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/12/us/brain-trauma-cte-navy-speedboat.html
7. Indoor Gun Ranges piece (with Thomas Gibbons-Neff and Jeremy White) 2024 Reported that shooting indoors poses a hazard that has been almost entirely overlooked — concussive blast waves that can damage the brain — and that evidence has emerged from the U.S. military that firing some military weapons can damage brain cells, with repeated exposure potentially causing permanent injuries. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/04/briefing/at-the-gun-range.html
Impact of the series: In December 2024, a bipartisan group in Congress enacted the Blast Overpressure Safety Act as part of the National Defense Authorization Act, mandating all branches of the military to track blast exposure and design safer weapons. The Pentagon began implementing the bill’s mandates, including baseline brain scans for new recruits — 36,000 had been scanned as of December 2024. The investigation also spurred policy changes in allied countries including Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. The Journalist’s Resource
I should note that the series may include additional shorter follow-up pieces, updates, and co-byline articles that I haven’t captured here. The NYT has a dedicated topic page for Philipps’ work at nytimes.com where the complete collection can be found.