Leader of neo-Nazi group linked to Charlottesville attack was a US marine
Source: The Guardian
The leader of the neo-Nazi group that James Fields marched with in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Saturday before allegedly killing a protester with his car served in the US marine corps until earlier this year.
Dillon Hopper, the self-styled “commander” of Vanguard America, is a recently retired marine staff sergeant and veteran of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Members of his white supremacist group marched in Virginia last weekend.
Hopper, 29, has been using his former name, Dillon Irizarry, when appearing in public for Vanguard America. But he officially changed his name to Dillon Ulysses Hopper in November 2006, according to court records in his native New Mexico.
Hopper’s active duty with the marines ended in January this year, according to a Department of Defense record. He has lived in California and Ohio since returning to the US. Hopper’s full service record could not immediately be obtained. His Facebook avatar is currently a cartoon image of Donald Trump building a wall.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/aug/14/charlottesville-attack-vanguard-america-james-fields-dillon-hopper
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Leader Of Charlottesville White Nationalist Group Was A Marine Corps Recruiter
By ADAM LINEHAN on August 14, 2017
Dillon Hopper in Columbus, Ohio in 2012.
Photo via Facebook
James Alex Fields Jr., the 20-year-old Army basic training wash-out accused of running down counter-protesters demonstrating against hate groups in Charlottesville, Virginia, may not have been the only U.S. military veteran marching under the banner of white nationalism this weekend, Splinter reports.
Dillon Ulysses Hopper, the self-described “CEO” of the Vanguard America neo-Nazi hate group whose members appeared alongside Fields in a widely-circulated photograph taken at the rally, reportedly joined the Marine Corps in 2005. A veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Hopper’s military records show the 29-year-old New Mexico native (whose birth name is Dillon Irizarry) served as an enlisted Marine, an information security technician (MOS 0681).
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Hopper in 2017 in Pikeville, Kentucky
Photo via Anti-Defamation League
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Vanguard America reportedly formed in California in 2015 and, according to its website, is guided by the belief that that America has been “brought to its knees by decadence,” and “White Americans will be a minority in the nation they built” if “current trends continue.” To join the group, a person must be “of at least 80% White/European heritage,” and not a criminal or addict of any kind, explains the group’s website. “Homosexuals, transexuals, adulterers, or any form of sexual degeneracy,” also need not apply.
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Hopper’s claim appears contradicted by the fact that Fields, who served in the Army for less than four months before washing out, was photographed standing in a Vanguard American formation holding a shield and wearing the group’s uniform: khakis, a white collared shirt, and a thousand-yard stare that seems to say, “this guy is really, really good at computer games.”
More:
http://taskandpurpose.com/leader-of-charlottesville-white-nationalist-group-was-a-marine-corps-recruiter/
