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James Michael LaPorta III is an American journalist, technical advisor and investigative correspondent for The Associated Press. He covers national security and the Department of Defense. Since 2019, he has worked as a consultant to a variety of Hollywood studios and production companies to achieve a high degree of verisimilitude in portraying the U.S. military. LaPorta has worked on NBC’s critically-acclaimed series This is Us, Chicago P.D., and FBI on CBS.

LaPorta is a veteran of both the U.S. Marine Corps and the Afghanistan war.

Early life and education
James LaPorta was born in Orlando, Florida, to James M. LaPorta Jr., a truck driver, and Cynthia A. Holland, a long-time McDonald's manger. He attended both Winter Park High School and Edgewater High School. LaPorta played football and was active in both Junior ROTC and dramatic arts. While in high school, he worked at Taco Bell, Albertsons, and Blockbuster Video.

While in the U.S. military, LaPorta attended the American Military University, where he earned an undergraduate certification in Homeland Security with a focus on counterterrorism. LaPorta majored in political science and minored in journalism at the University of North Carolina Wilmington but left in his senior year to focus on a career in journalism full-time. While in college, he drove for Uber.

Military career
Ten-days after graduating from Edgewater High School in Florida, LaPorta enlisted in the U.S. Marines and shipped off to Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island in South Carolina in June 2006. He was assigned to 3rd Battalion, 8th Marines as an infantryman. LaPorta later joined 2nd Battalion, 8th Marines where at different times, he served as a rifleman, an infantry squad leader and intelligence cell chief. He deployed to Afghanistan in 2009, participating in Operation Khanjar. LaPorta's infantry company was featured in an episode of Frontline and the documentary Hell and Back Again, which was nominated for Best Feature Documentary at the 84th Academy Awards. In 2013, LaPorta deployed again to Afghanistan, where he worked as an intelligence cell chief. He received a certificate of achievement for being nominated for the 2014 William O. Studeman Military Award for his early and significant contributions to intelligence and national security of the United States from the Intelligence and National Security Alliance.

Career
LaPorta's first professional job in journalism was as a part-time military reporter at the Jacksonville Daily News in Jacksonville, North Carolina in 2015. While attending the University of North Carolina Wilmington, he was a contributing writer to The Seahawk, UNC Wilmington's college newspaper. An article about the university photocopying Defense Department identification cards, which was in possible violation of federal law, won an award from the Military Reporters and Editors Association.