any idea re combat photography in the army or military photo journalism?

Answer 1

Assuming you are asking about doing this as a military member, not as a civilian who works for a civilian paper and goes in embedded, then you will have to go to DINFOS - it's the Defense Information School where all branches are trained to be journalists, photographers, combat journalists, etc. The school is located at Ft Meade in Maryland. This school is a multi service school, meaning that all the branches send their people there, both as students and as instructors and staff.

Answer 2

What about it? Do you want to work for a military newspaper or do you want to be embedded with units documenting what they're doing for more historical purposes (but also having your work used in news papers)? Have you check into the Air Force? They have a special operations combat photo job where you jump in with Navy SEALs, Army Rangers/SF, etc. Very cool job. It's competitive, but no harcore qualification school like special operations. I'm sure you saw some of the very good work they did documenting the early part of Afghanistan.