In the aftermath of insurrectionists storming the Capitol building in Washington D.C. many Americans were surprised to learn that there were veterans, law enforcement officers and active-duty troops involved in the riots.
Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt was shot and killed while attempting to climb through a window. Retired Lt. Col. Larry Brock made it as far as the floor of the Senate wearing tactical gear and carrying zip-tie handcuffs. Active-duty Capt. Emily Rainey helped organize and transport people to the rally turned riot.
ABC News has also identified a former Navy SEAL who participated in the insurrection. Connecting Vets has independently identified two former Special Forces soldiers who were also involved.
The uprising did not appear out of thin air. Veterans and active duty service members have always been represented in anti-government extremist groups. QAnon, the conspiracy theory which falsely claims that President Donald Trump is waging war against a deep state run by Satanic pedophiles, has been on the rise for years including amongst veterans and active-duty troops.
“The military has an internal crisis,” Eric Robinson, a former Army officer who later worked as a civilian at NCTC and JSOC, told Connecting Vets. He estimates that the number of QAnon supporters in the military may be in the thousands, and much more if those who believe similar conspiracies about the deep state are included in the total tally.
"What I'm hearing from colleagues is really panic, to be honest," Eric said based on more than a dozen conversations with service members. "Everyone knew it was there because they are on Facebook but now that division has been mobilized. It isn't a question of having extreme political views, now they are taking action on it."
In the aftermath of the violence in Washington, individual unit commanders are now having to ask themselves difficult questions about what is going on inside their own formations. QAnon members swear an oath to their movement and vow to fight their own government. How many soldiers are no longer loyal to their chain of command but rather to a parallel cult movement? The Department of Defense was concerned enough that military leaders recently issued a memo signed by the secretaries of each branch restating the military's loyalty to the constitutional process.
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In their minds, QAnon supporters are not infiltrators, but rather patriots fighting a holy war against evil. They see themselves as reformers and crusaders rather than traitors and infiltrators.
“You've been trained to utilize violence as something heroic, right and that's what we ask of people, as American citizens of our military, to be willing to do that. Well, how do you re-engage with the world” after a soldier's military service, Shannon Foley Martinez asked, pointing out that service members use the frame of reference they already have from the military interact with the world around them. If they don't form a new template, or acquire new tools, then they re-engage with the world the same way they were trained in the military.
Martinez is a former Neo-nazi who became radicalized near Fort Gordon, Georgia, where she interacted with many active-duty soldiers who were a part of the white power movement. Martinez said these types of extremist groups, whatever their ideology, may offer a sense of brotherhood and help soldiers make sense of a world that often appears to be fundamentally unstable.
"It's a huge institutional crisis and the military has been able to get away with the idea that we don't talk about politics, but the military is inherently political and exists in a political world,” Robinson said. “We have generations of leaders who simply do not have the tools. Look at issues like SHARP that the Army tries to educate leaders, but this concept of who is in the Constitutional chain of command, and who is in a peaceful demonstration and participating in violent act. Your average battalion commander doesn't have the tools to deal with that yet."
From his point of view, the military has programs to educate soldiers about sexual assault and equal opportunity, but nothing to educate them about the difference between political and partisan behavior.
“The chain of command needs a tool kit to say, 'This is was political partisanship looks like.' The challenge becomes when significant portions of your formations say, 'No, this process is fraudulent and illegitimate.' You have to have a chain of command with an extracurricular interest in being able to describe this stuff,” Robinson explained.
QAnon had repeatedly promised its followers, to this day, that a messianic event called "The Storm" is about to take place in which Trump will order the military to cleanse corruption from the United States, rounding up politicians, perverts and human traffickers. Those promises have clearly not come to fruition and the cult now has to find ways to rearrange around the reality of its core tenet collapsing.
“It is a cult with core texts, and because Trump didn't get elected we are seeing the Q reformation to keep this thing going,” Robinson said. “The events of Nov. 3 leading to Jan. 6, is a period of reformation in QAnon because fundamental promises made by QAnon failed but the ground has been set for a new set of theories."
Reach Jack Murphy: jack@connectingvets.com or @JackMurphyRGR.
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