SALON: Neo-Nazis are in the Army now

[L. Coyote]

Neo-Nazis are in the Army now
Why the U.S. military is ignoring its own regulations and permitting white supremacists to join its ranks.
Matt Kennard - http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2009/06/15/neo_nazis_army/index.html

June 15, 2009 | On a muggy Florida evening in 2008, I meet Iraq War veteran Forrest Fogarty in the Winghouse, a little bar-restaurant on the outskirts of Tampa, his favorite hangout. He told me on the phone I would recognize him by his skinhead. Sure enough, when I spot a white guy at a table by the door with a shaved head, white tank top and bulging muscles, I know it can only be him.

Over a plate of chicken wings, he tells me about his path into the white-power movement. "I was 14 when I decided I wanted to be a Nazi," he says. At his first high school, near Los Angeles, he was bullied by black and Latino kids. That's when he first heard Skrewdriver, a band he calls "the godfather of the white power movement." "I became obsessed," he says. He had an image from one of Skrewdriver's album covers — a Viking carrying a staff, an icon among white nationalists — tattooed on his left forearm. Soon after he had another white power symbol, a Celtic cross, emblazoned on his stomach.

At 15, Fogarty moved with his dad to Tampa, where he started picking fights with groups of black kids at his new high school. "On the first day, this bunch of niggers, they thought I was a racist, so they asked, 'Are you in the KKK?'" he tells me. "I said, 'Yeah,' and it was on." Soon enough, he was expelled.

..............

[Still Sensible]

1. I was an Army brat and

I can assure you neo-nazis and other flavors of right wing bigots, minority haters, and all sorts of fringe folks have been in the services forever. While they did not necessarily identify themselves as such, there were folks I would describe as neo-nazi when I was a kid 40 years ago.

[YOY]

2. Well they have the haircut already...and they like wearing boots.

n.t.

[get the red out]

3. And gay people in the military are a problem?

I think we need some introspection in this country. :scared:

[hootinholler]

5. Ironic, isn't it? n/t

[BostonMa]

7. +

[ConcernedCanuk]

4. Wakey, wakey - they've been there for decades - "Military Intelligence" does not mean smart

.
.
.

But we already knew that . . .

[Ghost in the Machine]

6. This is nothing new.... they've been there for a LONG time...

A lot of weapons get smuggled out now, just as they were during the first Gulf War....

A lot of guys are being more covert now. No tattoos, no other symbols... especially since they started tacking on extra sentences for the tattoos under the hate crimes laws....

[votingupstart]

8. the military is a representation of our population

you are going to have all kinds right / left / middle / white / black / brown - you are going to have very good guys and some very bad guys. - it has happened, its going on right now, it will happen in the future. so.... moving on...