In her testimony, Brooks clarified that the vast majority of those who serve in our Armed Forces have no connection to white supremacy or extremism and strive to uphold the best traditions of our nation’s democratic ideals. However, the military has a growing problem with white supremacy and extremism – because our country does. The surging white nationalist movement presents a serious danger to our country and its cherished institutions. It also poses a danger to our security by threatening the morale and well-being of those serving in our Armed Forces. 

This is not a new problem. 

We’ve been documenting white supremacist infiltration of the military and urging officials to take action since 1986. That year, we wrote Defense Secretary Weinberger and exposed the fact that active-duty Marines at Camp Lejeune were participating in paramilitary Ku Klux Klan activities and stealing military weaponry. One in five of those arrested in connection with the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection has served, or is serving, in the military. These numbers show a stark failure to prevent servicemembers from acting upon extremist ideologies.

Veterans and servicemembers are high-value recruitment targets for extremist groups. They bring social capital, legitimacy, specialized weapons training, leadership skills and an increased capacity for violence to these groups. Over the last several years, our researchers and journalists have identified dozens of former and active-duty military personnel among the membership of some of the country’s most dangerous and violent white supremacist groups. Those groups include:

• The Atomwaffen Division, a neo-Nazi group whose members have allegedly been responsible for five murders since 2017;
  
  
• The Boogaloo movement, from which three former members of the military were charged with planning to use gas-filled canisters and Molotov cocktails at a protest against the killing of George Floyd; and
  
  
• The Base. A number of individuals affiliated with this violent white nationalist group have military ties – including two trained soldiers, one from the United States and one from Canada. The SPLC has analyzed more than 80 hours of calls between Base recruits and the group’s leadership and found that roughly 20% of recruits claimed to have military experience. This number is consistent with other studies.

We’ve been sounding this alarm for over 30 years. Today, we sounded the alarm again.

We hope that Congress will take swift action to counter the growing threat of far-right extremism within the military. In our testimony, we urged the Department of Defense (DOD) to expand and clarify existing prohibitions against advocating for, or involvement in, supremacist or extremist activity while protecting whistleblowers and requiring strong internal reporting.

Additionally, the DOD should immediately rename the 10 U.S. Army bases named for Confederate leaders. We applaud the current Marine Corps and Navy prohibitions against the display of the Confederate battle flag and other racist symbols and urge the Defense Department to apply these regulations across all service branches.

Finally, we urged Congress to expand support services that work to deradicalize active-duty servicemembers and veterans reentering civilian life.

Our work tracking hate and extremist groups is possible because of people like you who support our movement to dismantle white supremacy, strengthen intersectional movements and advance the human rights of all people. Please consider making a special donation to the SPLC today to help us continue our work in partnership with communities to dismantle white supremacy, strengthen intersectional movements and advance the human rights of all people.

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Thank you for all that you do. We are so grateful for your ongoing support that makes it possible to continue building a just and equitable world for all. 

Sincerely,

Your friends at the Southern Poverty Law Center

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