Extremism in the military and among veterans

"We owe the men and women of the Department of Defense an environment free of extremist activities, and we owe our country a military that reflects the founding values of our democracy."

Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III

Memorandum, Dec. 20, 2021

The military is very concerned about the spread of extremism within the ranks. In Feb. 2021, Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin ordered a stand down throughout the entire Department of Defense to discuss the problem of extremism in the ranks. He said extremism is not an insignificant problem, and it needs to be addressed. Austin recognizes it as a leadership issue, stating he is mulling over how he wants to organize an effort to attack the problem from an institutional perspective.

Needless to say, what happens in the military spills over to civilian life. The country has been alerted to this reality of extremism within the ranks over the last few years. Several of the 2017 Charlottesville white supremacists were either on active duty or were veterans. Two of the 13 men arrested in the 2020 alleged plot to kidnap the Michigan governor were reported to be Marine veterans. Many of those involved in the Jan. 6, 2021 capitol riot were also service members or veterans. A few weeks ago, a Navy veteran armed with an AR15-style rifle and a nail gun broke into an FBI office in Ohio.

The average soldier could see what was going on

After George Floyd was killed, the California Lawyers Association formed the Racial Justice Committee. One of its many presentations on racial and ethnic bias was an interview of African American active and former members of the military. In the March 25, 2021 interview, the veterans were asked if they saw any indication of extremism or white supremacy while they were serving.

The Vietnam Army veteran said the stars and bars of the Confederate flag were "everywhere" in the military." He added that just prior to serving in Vietnam, he was sent to a base in Fayetteville, North Carolina in 1969. He described a billboard that greeted him when he drove into the city to report for duty. It said: "Welcome to Fayetteville. You are now in Klan country." Next to it was "a guy in full Klan regalia."

A man who served in the Navy during the 1980s said he worked in a common area. One day, he sat down at a desk only to find an application to join the Ku Klux Klan.

A Marine who served from 1982 to 2010 said extremist tattoos, swastikas and other Nazi memorabilia were common in barracks and on wall lockers. Further, Confederate flags were considered acceptable decorations, especially for cars driven on bases. The Marine veteran said that as the years went by, he rose in rank and the Marine Corps had its first Black Sergeant Major. He and others felt empowered to speak up to complain about extremism. But that just resulted in extremists becoming covert and stealthy.

The FBI could see what was going on

In 2008, the FBI issued an unclassified report titled "White Supremacist Recruitment of Military Personnel since 9/11." The report warned that white supremacist leaders were making a concerted effort to recruit active-duty soldiers and recent combat veterans of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It states that a review of FBI white supremacist cases from 2001 to May 2008 identified 203 individuals with military service in the extremist movement. The report concedes that number is small, but adds that the prestige which the extremist movement bestows upon members with military experience grants them the potential for influence beyond their numbers.

Think tanks could see what was going on

The Center for American Progress and the McCain Institute for International Leadership contend that white supremacy has become a top national security threat, and that those with military experience have been overrepresented in the extremist community for decades. They say that white supremacists seek to bring tactical skills and credibility to their movement by recruiting current and former military members and by attempting to join the military. Speakers at a joint event on April 21 stated that extremism is embedded in our military and discussed how to stop the infiltration of extremists in the military. The groups also considered updating the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

In the McCain Institute's materials is a description of the paramilitary nature of militia movements. They routinely conduct training on paramilitary tactics and encourage members to obtain and practice with semi-automatic weapons and military gear.

Charlottesville

The Marine Times ran an article in 2019 about a Marine who was sent to the brig and thereafter booted from the Corps for his alleged neo-Nazi connections. Prior to being accepted into the Marine Corps, the man had no physical paper trail or criminal background connecting him to radical groups or extremist ideologies. That was until a bombshell 2018 ProPublica story exposed his online chat logs and participation in the deadly "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in Aug. 2017.

Both Newsweek and Brandeis University reported that a white supremacist group that embraced neo-Nazi ideology, Vanguard America, was also involved in Charlottesville. It was led by a former U.S. Marine recruiter who had separated from the military earlier that year. It was the Vanguard group that, dressed in white polo shirts and khaki pants, carried tiki torches while chanting "Jews will not replace us" as they surrounded the statue of Robert E. Lee.

Also part of the Charlottesville tragedy was Identity Evropa. The founder of Identity Evropa was a Marine. The Anti-Defamation League, ADL, says it was one of the most active groups of the alt right segment of the white supremacist movement. Both Task & Purpose and the Daily Beast reported that seven service members identified as part of Identity Evropa: two Marines, two Army ROTC cadets, an Army doctor, and one member each of the Texas National Guard and Air Force.

Jan. 6, 2021

We still don't know how many service members and veterans took part in the Jan. 6 events. We are learning more as time goes by.

According to a PBS report, the Jan. 6 mob that stormed the capitol had active and former members of the military in it. A Jan. 8, 2021 article in the New Yorker said that as insurrectionists stormed the U.S. Capitol, a few figures stood out. One man, in a combat helmet, wearing body armor and other tactical gear, was among the group that made it to the Senate floor as well as to Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office suite. He carried zip-tie handcuffs. The F.B.I. was notified that the man was a 53-year-old retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel, an Academy graduate and combat veteran.

Another man who stood out was wearing a fur-lined headdress with horns as well as face paint. He called himself the "QAnon Shaman." Military.com reported he served in the Navy for two years.

Ashli Babbitt was the one person shot and killed by Capitol Police. She was an Air Force veteran who served at Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska. While serving, she worked with explosives. The L.A. Times reported that the day before her death, facing the prospect of weather-canceled flights to the capital, Babbitt wrote on Twitter, "Nothing will stop us....they can try and try and try but the storm is here and it is descending upon DC in less than 24 hours....dark to light!"

Newsweek said in March 2021 that 20% of 140 insurrectionists who had been arrested at that point were either military veterans or retirees. One was a member of the Army Reserve who was a contractor at a Naval depot with access to a variety of munitions and a secret security clearance. He had a history of alleged criminal activity and regularly posted anti-Semitic You-Tube videos. According to the PBS report, the military does not routinely check the social media accounts of people it puts in sensitive security positions.

George Washington University held a program on extremism in April, 2021. The materials have an executive summary stating that 43 of the 357 who had been criminally charged at that point had military experience. Of those 43 individuals, 93 percent were veterans and no longer on active duty, or in the Reserves or National Guard. Many of them belonged to extremist groups such as the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys.

According to the ADL: "The Oath Keepers are a large but loosely organized collection of right-wing anti-government extremists who are part of the militia movement, which believes that the federal government has been coopted by a shadowy conspiracy that is trying to strip American citizens of their rights. . . what differentiates them from other anti-government extremist groups is their explicit focus on recruiting current and former military, law enforcement and first responder personnel." The ideology of the Proud Boys is: "They are primarily misogynistic, Islamophobic, transphobic and anti-immigration. Some members espouse white supremacist and antisemitic ideologies and/or engage with white supremacist groups."

By Dec. 15, 2021, the number of veterans and active-duty service members who were criminally charged with taking part in the insurrection had risen. CBS News scoured service records, attorney statements and court documents, and reported "at least 81" of the 700 who had been charged up until then, had ties to the military.

Just last week, the Department of Justice filed a sentencing memorandum recommending a 210-month sentence for a former Marine who is also a former New York police officer. He assaulted a Capitol police officer with a Marine flagpole, then tackled and choked the officer. He was convicted of five felonies and one misdemeanor. Prosecutors had argued the veteran came to the Jan. 6 event armed and ready for battle.

Battling extremism and the First Amendment

While extremist activity and white supremacy is banned, there are limits on the military's ability to surveil the activities of the troops without violating their rights. The DoD recognizes that service members have a right of free expression that should be preserved to the maximum extent possible in accordance with the First Amendment and titles 10 and 18 of the United States Code.

Secretary Austin has instructed the services to improve screening of those entering the military and to better train those separating from the military with regard to recruitment methods of extremist groups. He called for updated screening questionnaires to detect current or previous extremist activities.

Tattoos are a challenge for the branches. Stars and Stripes recently reported changes in the military's rules about tattoos. At the same time that more tattoos are being tolerated in order to boost enlistments, extremist tattoos are banned. Banned tattoos include any that symbolize philosophies or organizations that advocate racial, gender or ethnic hatred and tattoos that advocate overthrow of the government.

The New York Post reported in May 2021 that the Pentagon had plans to launch a program that would screen the social media of military personnel for extremist material, and was "looking for a private firm to do the digging in order to circumvent First Amendment protections." By Oct. 2021, the Pentagon said all DoD personnel were subject to continuous vetting designed to spot extremism, with surveillance of their public social-media postings "coming soon," according to Defense One. Then, effective Dec. 20, 2021, the DoD amended Instruction 1325.06.

Instruction 1325.06

DoD Instruction 1325.06 orders development of an overall policy and guidelines for handling extremist activities among members of the armed forces. It also allocates to commanders the power to require approval of publications, other than those available in official outlets, and to place off-base establishments off-limits when certain activities are performed in those places.

Military personnel are forbidden from actively participating in extremist activities. The meaning of that term consumes two pages of 1325.06. A few examples of what extremist activities mean are "advocating or engaging in unlawful force or violence to achieve goals that are political, religious, discriminatory, or ideological in nature;" "knowingly displaying paraphernalia, words, or symbols in support of extremist activities or in support of groups or organizations that support extremist activities, such as flags, clothing, tattoos, and bumper stickers, whether on or off a military installation;" and, "advocating widespread unlawful discrimination based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex (including pregnancy), gender identity, or sexual orientation."

With regard to the internet, service members may not pursue personal writing for publication whether by websites, blogs, and other electronic communications during duty hours. Nor may they use government funds or property for this purpose, on or off duty, unless it is for official use or authorized purposes. Publication of personal matters by military personnel off-post, on their own time, and with their own money and equipment is not prohibited. However, if such a publication, including posting, liking, sharing and re-tweeting, contains language the utterance of which is punishable under the Uniform Code of Military Justice or other Federal law or otherwise violates Instruction 1325.06 or other DoD issuances, those involved may face appropriate discipline.

Additionally, members of the armed forces are prohibited from participating in off-post demonstrations when they are on-duty, in a foreign country, the activities constitute a breach of law and order, any activities where violence is likely to result or when the activities are in violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

Conclusion

Extremism in the military has been going on for a long time. As noted, Secretary Austin is aware of the threat that extremism and white supremacy pose to the military. But he has his work cut out for him because not all military leaders acknowledge there's a problem.

CNN reported that Admiral Charles Richard, head of the U.S. Strategic Command, which oversees nuclear weapons, told the Senate Armed Services Committee: "I am very confident that the number of extremists in my forces is zero." And General James Dickinson, head of the U.S. Space Command said: "I would tell you right now that we have done everything that Secretary Austin has asked us to do in terms of training and awareness, but in my organization I would say that number is zero."

Extremist groups prey on the patriotism of those who have served by twisting what America is all about. Hopefully, Secretary Austin is successful with his plans to better train service members to detect the devious recruitment methods used by groups who violently object to our American ideals and way of life.