Seven active U.S. service members have been exposed as being part of the white nationalist group Identity Evropa, according to a HuffPost report.
The identities of two Marines, two Army ROTC cadets, one Army doctor, one Airman, and one Texas National Guardsman were discovered via messages from the app Discord, which is typically used among gamers.
Identity Evropa, which was founded by a Marine who served in the Iraq War, is listed as a white supremacist organization by the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center, who refers to them as an extremist group.
The group was heavily involved in organizing the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. A mix of neo-Confederates, neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups organized the demonstration that led to violent clashes in 2017, including the death of Heather Heyer.
Identity Evropa claims to uphold European pride but is known for espousing a racist and anti-Semitic worldview.
Army ROTC
- Jay C. Harrison, a 20-year-old Army ROTC cadet at Montana State University in Bozeman who is currently serving in the National Guard. “Go play n***erball is you aren’t tough enough for wrestling,” he wrote in one post. “God I hate basketball so much.”
He also posted anti-Semitic messages. “I wish the holocaust has been real,” said Harrison, adding “Not one k**e was ever gassed,” using a slur for Jews.
- A lawyer for 23-year-old University of Rochester Army ROTC cadet Christopher Hodgman told HuffPost that his client posted Identity Evropa posters, but that doesn’t mean he is a member of the group.
Both ROTC cadets are under investigation by the Army.
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Army Reserves
- Christopher Cummins, 44, a lieutenant colonel and doctor in the Army Reserves is also in the Military Order of Stars and Bars—a neo-Confederate group. He reportedly told other members in chats that he likes living in Tennessee because it is “conservative & Christian—implicitly white.”
Texas Army National Guard
- Joseph Kane serves in the 636th Military Intelligence Battalion of the Texas Army National Guard. He was once accused of being a white nationalist in 2017, when he was a precinct chair for the Denton County Republican Party.
By the summer of 2018, he wrote in one message, “I mean my wife isn’t in (Identity Evrope) but she comes to the events same as most of our guys' wives.”
- Dannion Phillips is currently stationed at Incirlik Air Base in Turkey. Last October, he posted photos of the group’s stickers he put up around Oklahoma City when he was stationed at Tinker Air Force Base.
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Click here to read HuffPost's reporting.
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