![]() ![]() Aiden Bilyard was undergoing basic training at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, when FBI agents showed up to question him about his participation in the riot. The military has struggled to remove some members from its ranks even after they were identified and charged.Ī National Guardsman who was part of the mob is still serving in Wisconsin despite having been sentenced by a federal court to probation and a fine for his actions. Fellow soldiers and his commander wrote letters of support ahead of his sentencing. “Even though the number’s small, it can have a corrosive, outsized effect, and that’s the point he’s trying to make,” Kirby said.William Braniff, the director of the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START), told reporters at an event on extremism in the military last month that "when military individuals or veterans participate in violent extremism domestically, they really punch above their weight, having an outsized impact."įurthermore, Braniff's data shows that these veterans "were affiliated with no fewer than 120 different organizations around the country local militia groups or local white supremacist groups without a national footprint. ![]() The report says DoD will look into it, but the Pentagon’s personnel and readiness directorate could not confirm in March whether it was still under consideration.Ī more thorough data set of extremism would involve not only culling judicial and non-judicial punishments related to extremist behavior, but also force-wide surveys for collecting anecdotes about experiences with extremism, not dissimilar to the way the Pentagon surveys its work force on sexual assault and harassment.Īustin, for his part, has said he believes “99.9 percent” of troops are serving with honor and dignity, though that is an “colloquialism,” Kirby told Military Times on Friday. Last June, a report to the armed services committees suggested several fixes, only one of which the Pentagon did not immediately adopt: creating a separation code that would immediately identify a service member on their discharge paperwork. Though efforts picked up pace early this year, the incidence of extremism in the military has been gaining more and more attention in recent years, most notably with requests for information from Congress. quite a few personal anecdotes about experiencing it, and I think that was reflected across the force,” Kirby said of feedback from the force-wide stand-downs. “Not all, but in many, people did express that they understand this is a problem, that some of them have experienced personally. This is primarily because any criminal charges are generally levied by the Justice Department, which handles many of the military’s extremism cases, leaving it up to the military to discharge them so they can be sentenced federally.Īt the same time, involuntary discharges are a common way of handling troops who are a threat to good order and discipline but aren’t necessarily criminal. In response to a request for information, the Pentagon told Congress in 2020 that it had discharged 21 troops in the previous five years for extremist activity.ĭischarges are a common outcome for service members investigated for extremist activity or affiliation. ![]()
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