CNN’s Pentagon correspondent Starr to depart

Barbara Starr, a Pentagon correspondent at CNN, will leave the network after more than two decades. Starr reported from Iraq, Afghanistan, Beirut, Russia, Central America, the Persian Gulf and the Chinese-North Korean border.

Starr announced her departure in a memo: “With the expiration of my contract in the coming days I have made the decision to move on. Let me say this … you never say goodbye to your friends, so I won’t.”

Starr joined CNN in 2001 from ABC News, where she had worked since 1998 as a reporter. She reported for Nightline, World News This Morning, World News Now, ABC Radio and ABCNews.com, and served as Washington bureau chief for London-based weekly newsmagazine Jane’s Defence.

She also worked as an energy correspondent at Business Week.

Starr served for years on the board of the Pentagon Press Association and is regarded by colleagues and competitors as a mentor.

In 2014, The Panetta Institute for Public Policy honored Starr with a Jefferson-Lincoln Award for her work in journalism and during her time at ABC, she won an Emmy Award as a location producer at NORAD/Cheyenne Mountain.

Starr graduated from California State at Northridge.