In the aftermath of the January 6 Capitol attack by supporters of Donald Trump, The Washington Post uncovered an alarming pattern. Of the nearly 380 rioters who have been federally charged, at least 44 are current or former military members, according to service records. The findings, published on Tuesday, highlight the ties between right-wing extremism and the military—an ongoing issue that has come to a head as more information is unearthed about the January 6 riot.
The relationship between the U.S. military and extremism has been well documented. In 2017, a number of former service members were reportedly linked to the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. Atomwaffen Division and Identity Evropa, two far-right groups whose notoriety has grown significantly since the 2017 rally, were both founded by extremists with military experience. And on Friday, an NBC News report found that members of elite units have been using closed Facebook groups to promote far-right conspiracy theories, share racist comments about a Black member of Joe Biden’s cabinet, and boost QAnon talking points.
The veteran aspect of the problem, however, is relatively unstudied. While the Department of Veterans Affairs typically stays in contact with soldiers after their enlistment ends, per the Washington Post, it has no dedicated program aimed at steering veterans away from extremism. John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesperson, did acknowledge that extremist groups can be “waiting on the other side to recruit” veterans once they leave the military. But, he added, “we wouldn’t have the resources and certainly don’t have the authorities to be checking up on veterans.”
When troops do reenter civilian life, joining a group like the Oath Keepers––a militia made up of current and former members of the military and law enforcement––could feel like a natural transition. “There’s something to be said about how, in the military and in law enforcement, a lot of that training is very focused on ‘us versus them,’ where the enemy is sort of abstracted, which is also at the core of extremist propaganda,” explained Jared Holt, a fellow at the Atlantic Council who studies domestic extremism, in a phone interview with Vanity Fair. “Their propaganda also relies on identifying an out-group or ‘other’ that’s posing a dangerous threat to society and then rallying up hate against that out-group.” Ergo, “extremist groups and extremist movements can find sympathizers with military experience.”
In 2009, Homeland Security analyst Daryl Johnson and his team wrote an internal report warning that “veterans possess combat skills and experience that are attractive to rightwing extremists,” and expressing concern about said extremists attempting “to recruit and radicalize returning veterans in order to exploit their skills and knowledge.” Johnson’s report leaked to the public, causing outrage among Republicans and veterans groups. He eventually left DHS. But his warnings appear to have been valid. “Once [extremist service members] are alone and out of the military, that’s often when they are the most dangerous,” said Christopher Mathias, a HuffPost reporter who covers the far right. Citing conversations with current and former military personnel who told him they had witnessed “widespread” white supremacist views in their ranks, Mathias explained that the military’s extremist elements go “much deeper than we realize”––an issue he thinks the Pentagon appears unprepared to handle. “The Pentagon is very fixated on ties to specific extremist groups, but one of the more difficult things they have to deal with are veterans who become radicalized but aren’t affiliated with any one group,” he told me.
That variety of affiliations was clear in NBC’s Friday report that focused on two Facebook groups: “SF Brotherhood – PAC” and “US Special Forces Team Room,” which feature a combined 5,000 members and reportedly include current and former Special Forces units. One post accused Mike Pence aides of involvement in a “concerted effort by the thieves and pedophiles walking the hallowed halls of the [people’s] government” to undermine Trump. In one post shared during the fallout of the Capitol riot, a member wrote that “Trump was sabotaged once again!” They then asserted that getting to “the bottom of the obvious election fraud now looks like it doesn’t have a chance.”
Another user condemned the Black Lives Matter protests, sharing a photo of a noose and writing that “TO MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN WE WILL HAVE TO MAKE EVIL PEOPLE FEAR PUNISHMENT AGAIN.” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, the first African American person to serve in that cabinet post, was also a target in the groups, as one person accused him of only “riding on the color of his skin” to get there, while other posters only mentioned him by using terms like “pus-gut maggot” and “bubba.” (As prefaced in NBC’s research, the outlet stated that the two groups are not “reflective of the overall views of the whole special operations forces community.”)
Following the Capitol riot, a number of retired members of the U.S. Special Forces members have been hit with charges for their involvement. Jeffrey McKellop, a retired member of the Green Berets, used a flagpole to strike a police officer, per body camera footage from January 6. (McKellop pleaded not guilty to the charge last week). “I am concerned about active duty. I don’t think special operations forces just develop these ideas in their head when they get out and are in their late 40s,” remarked retired Green Beret Robert Wilson to NBC. “So I think it starts in the military and probably gets worse when they’re out.”
With extremist elements repeatedly being unearthed within the military’s ranks in recent years, the Defense Department has been pushed to act. Austin declared a “DOD-wide stand down” in February for the military to address extremism within its ranks and penned a memo on April 9 announcing that the DOD will update its definition of “extremism” and its screening questionnaires. Austin has also established the Countering Extremism Working Group to address these concerns.
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