Image: from “One in Five Patriot Front Applicants Claim Military Ties.”

This page is part of a resource collection on far right extremism.

Documentaries

• VICE News: American Terror: The Military’s Problem With Extremism in the Ranks.

Books

• Kathleen Belew: Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America.

Resources

• Military Veterans in Journalism: MVJ Information Integrity Project.

Reports by Government Agencies

Department of Defense:

• 2021: Department of Defense Releases Report on Countering Extremist Activities and Outlines Next Steps.
• 2022: Evaluation of Department of Defense Efforts to Address Ideological Extremism Within the Armed Forces.

Department of Homeland Security, 2009: Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment.

Department of Justice, 2021: Group With Ties to Racially Motivated Violent Extremists Including two Former Marines Facing Additional Charge of Targeting Energy Facilities.

Articles

2024

AP News: His country trained him to fight. Then he turned against it. More like him are doing the same.

Steve Beynon: 2 Virginia Guardsmen Are Running a Rural Anti-Government Militia.

Andrew Dyer: Leaked audio reveals Navy SEAL accused of extremism using Proud Boys slogan.

David Gilbert: US Navy Veteran Who Feds Say Rammed FBI Headquarters Had QAnon-Linked Online Presence.

Jordan Green. Marine Corps veteran accused in Nazi plot plans to plead guilty.

Abner Häuge: Nazi Marine is out of the brig and trying to make prize fight money.

Michael Kunzelman: Marine vet who hurt cop at US Capitol sentenced to 5 years in prison.

Mack Lamoureux: US Military Veterans Are Increasingly Turning to Extremism: DOD Report.

Sara Ruberg: U.S. Army Soldier Is Charged With Lying About Ties to Insurrectionist Group:The soldier, Kai Liam Nix, 20, who was stationed at Fort Liberty in North Carolina, is also accused of illegally selling firearms.

Jeff Tischauser: ‘We Will Fight!’ The Soldier Waging War Against America from Fort Liberty.

Nikki Wentling:

• Two former Marines to serve prison time for neo-Nazi power grid plot.
• Army vet gets 25 years for bomb-making class used to target cops.

Jason Wilson: Ex-US air force specialist with Christian nationalist ties leads combat trainings: Michael Caughran’s history raises questions about extent to which his far-right and survivalist activities overlapped with his enlistment.

2023

Natalie Neysa Alund: Ex-Ohio National Guardsman sentenced to 6 years after creating ghost guns, antisemitic threats.

Timothy Bella: Ex-soldier sentenced to 45 years in neo-Nazi plot to kill his troops.

Will Carless:

• The military ordered big steps to stop extremism. Two years later, it shows no results.
• After USA TODAY investigation, watchdog report says military failed to screen extremist recruits.
• ‘Attack on military readiness’: Human rights groups sound new alarm on extremism.

Jordan Fischer: ‘A rabbit hole of darkness and extremism’: Ex-Navy Reservist sentenced to 4 years in Capitol riot case.

Matthew Gault: Pentagon Has Investigated Dozens of Extremism Cases Within Its Ranks: A new Department of Defense reports says dozens of soldiers were suspected of advocating or supporting the overthrow of the U.S. government.

Jordan Green:

• Neo-Nazi Marine Corps vet accused of plotting terror attack possessed classified military materials.
• U.S. Army reservist ran a ‘white nationalist’ training camp and touted KKK ties.

Institute for Defense Analysis: Prohibited Extremist Activities in the U.S. Department of Defense.

Joe Jurney: Fort Bragg soldier with genocidal goal to eliminate minorities pleads guilty to gun charge, US Attorney says.

Jordan Libowitz and Sara Wiatrak: Emails reveal Secret Service contacts with Oath Keepers.

Ben Makuch: Rightwing Edgelords Are the Real Threat to National Security: “The amount of Three Percenters and Boogaloo guys I work with is untenable,” said one Department of Defense worker.

Military.com: 3 Active-Duty Marines Who Work in Intelligence Arrested for Alleged Participation in Jan. 6 Riot.

Military Times: A ‘lethal threat’: why the far right sees more scrutiny than the left.

The New York Times: The Veteran Outing Domestic Extremists.

Sky Palma: White supremacist groups aim to recruit US Military members to attack minorities.

Nicholas Slayton: Confusion, uneven reporting hurting Pentagon effort to combat extremism: Extremist activity is growing among veterans, the study found, but internal DoD efforts to track the problem are hamstrung by a lack of unified policies.

SPLC: Neo-Nazi Ex-Marine Buys Up Land in Rural Maine for ‘Blood Tribe’.

2022

Air Force Times: 2 Air Force staff sergeants charged with stealing ammunition.

Hanna Rigault Arkhis & Jessica White: Female veterans and right-wing extremism: becoming ‘one of the boys’.

Center for Strategic and International Studies: Assessing the Pentagon’s Progress on Countering Extremism in the Military.

Seamus Hughes & Adam Rawnsley: Neo-Nazi Marine Plotted Mass Murder, Rape Campaigns with Group, Feds Say: While tasked with protecting the nation, Matthew Belanger was plotting a killing spree against minorities and to rape “white women to increase the production of white children,” according to federal prosecutors.

Daniel Koehler: From Superiority to Supremacy: Exploring the Vulnerability of Military and Police Special Forces to Extreme Right Radicalization.

Military.com: Veterans Make Up Most of Proud Boys Members Indicted on Sedition for Jan. 6 Violence.

The New York Times: Extremists in Uniform Put the Nation at Risk.

Tess Owen: Every Single House Republican Voted Against Investigating Neo-Nazis in the Military.

SPLC:

• Roughly one in five applicants to the white supremacist group Patriot Front claimed to hold current or former military status, according to leaked documents reviewed by Hatewatch.
• Former Marine Collaborates With Violent White Nationalist.

2021

Bryan Bender: The military has a hate group problem. But it doesn’t know how bad it’s gotten. The rise of extremism in the ranks is seen as a “crisis issue” but the military’s efforts to weed out radicals are “haphazard” at best.

Center for Strategic and International Studies:

• The Military, Police, and the Rise of Terrorism in the United States.
• Statement before the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs: “Violent Domestic Extremist Groups and the Recruitment of Veterans.”

Combating Terrorism Center: The Insider Threat: Far-Right Extremism in the German Military and Police.

Helene Cooper, Eric Schmitt, & Jennifer Steinhauer: Pentagon Accelerates Efforts to Root Out Far-Right Extremism in the Ranks: The nation’s military has a history of downplaying white nationalism and right-wing activism, but the siege of the Capitol has created a new urgency for dealing with them.

Joseph Cox: Parler GPS Data Shows Users Posting from Military Bases. The analysis comes as Congress wants to know how much white supremacy has penetrated the military.

Tal Lavin: The U.S. Military Has a White Supremacy Problem: What is the Biden administration going to do about it?

Ben Makuch: Why Are So Many Marines Neo-Nazis? While many vets are being outed as far-right extremists, one branch keeps popping up when it comes to neo-Nazis: the United States Marine Corps.

The Washington Post: 3 retired generals: The military must prepare now for a 2024 insurrection.

Jason Wilson: Oath Breaker: How a Serving National Guardsman Helped The Base Plan a White Power Army.

2020

Thomas Gibbons-Neff & Neil MacFarquhar: Air Force Sergeant With Ties to Extremist Group Charged in Federal Officer’s Death: The sergeant had expressed his allegiance to the so-called boogaloo movement, an extremist ideology that seeks to overthrow the U.S. government.

Mike Giglio: A Pro-Trump Militant Group Has Recruited Thousands of Police, Soldiers, and Veterans.

Ann McAdams: Some residents concerned about sheriff’s large acquisition of military surplus equipment.

NAACP: Stop the Infiltration of the U.S. Military by Violent Far-Right Extremist Organizations.

Jennifer Steinhauer: Veterans Fortify the Ranks of Militias Aligned With Trump’s Views.

2019

Niko Georgiades: Ex-Marine Linked to Minneapolis Mass Shooting Shared War Gore and Murder Fantasies After Trial.

Christopher Mathias: Military Investigating 4 More Servicemen For Ties To White Nationalist Group: That’s 11 members of Identity Evropa who are under investigation by the U.S. armed forces.

2018

Documenting Hate: Ranks of Notorious Hate Group Include Active-Duty Military: A Marine took part in the violent assaults in Charlottesville last summer and later bragged about it online with other members of Atomwaffen, an extremist group preparing for a race war.