The Pentagon press corps has a bad case of the musical chairs.

For starters, U.S. News' Julian Barnes just can't get enough of Mark Mazzetti's old jobs. Word today that he's accepted an offer from the L.A. Times to be their new Pentagon/defense reporter, filling the vacancy left by Mazzetti's departure to the NYT. Barnes came to the beat at U.S. News when Mazzetti vacated the defense beat there to move on to the LAT. (And, in the small city department, Barnes' wife, too, is a deputy editor at The New Republic.)

In other Pentagon news, Steven Komarow, USA Today's veteran national security correspondent, will be the AP's assistant international editor. Komarow succeeds Steven R. Hurst, who moved to Cairo.

Lastly Pentagon scribe Tom Bowman becomes the latest Baltimore Sun-er to defect to NPR and follow Bill Marimow. He'll join Mazzetti's old partner, former LATer John Hendren, in covering defense for the radio network.