White Supremacists and the Military

 At the end of an active life, I find two things that most shaped me as an adult. The first and most obvious was a choice of medicine as a career. Sometimes frustrating but always fulfilling and intellectually stimulating, it was always an anchor point for me. The second is also obvious to anyone who knows me. Becoming a Naval officer and spending a career in the United States Navy had the same dimensions as medicine. The fact that the two were fused for me was simply a plus. I have deep feelings for the Navy and the military and they are a part of my being -- and always will be.

The military is far from a perfect place. As with all organizations, it may be described as a consensual hallucination; its members bring themselves to it, add something, and leave it either more or less enriched than they found it. What I am concerned about of late is the growing evidence of white supremacist ideas and culture in the military. Military leaders recognize this, especially after the failed insurrection of 6 January 2021. They know they need to act to eliminate this cancer from their organization. It will be a daunting but essential task.

I have some thoughts about how white supremacy found fertile soil in the current U.S. military. From 1940 to 1973, the U.S. military (primarily the Army) had used conscription to fill the ranks. There were several reasons that the U.S. military became an all-volunteer force in 1973: demographics, cost, moral and economic arguments, the opposition to the war in Vietnam, and the U.S. Army’s desire for a change due to disciplinary problems in draftees merged to abolish the draft. 

Withdrawal from Vietnam marked a low point in the military. In 1980, the Carter administration and Congress significantly increased military pay to reflect the realities of a pay scale that had long lagged behind the civilian sector. Ronald Reagan’s emphasis on building up U.S. military strength in the 1980s further enhanced service in the military. Then, in 1990, Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait and the administration of George H.W. Bush sent the American military to the Middle East, along with multiple allies under U.N. resolutions in what would be called the Gulf War. I was there for over six months at Fleet Hospital Five.

Unlike with Vietnam, returning troops were feted as heroes with victory parades and other signs of positive recognition. That positivity had a downside, though. For many in the military, it was affirmation that they were in some way superior to those back home on the civilian front. Our continued presence in the Middle East, the fallout from 9/11, and subsequent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (which have turned into America’s longest war) have sharpened the idea in the minds of many military members that they constitute a “warrior elite”.

Let me be clear. I am not and have never been a warrior. By definition, medical personnel are noncombatants. Many who do cast themselves as warriors look down on those in the tail of the organization as lesser beings; that sort of commentary I have heard myself. Nevertheless, when they are wounded, we are there to care for them. When I show my retired military ID to board an airplane for a trip, the TSA agent invariably thanks me for my service. There is no need to do that. I chose to serve and enjoyed my time in uniform. As citizens, we all serve in one capacity or another. But I have come to believe that the issue of white supremacists is given extra energy when their self-identification as an elite is bolstered in many ways such as thanking them for their service. 

American demographics are rapidly changing; we are becoming more numerous, older, and less white. The world wherein whites could believe themselves superior to others simply due to skin color is disappearing. In military units, I can easily see how bonding could occur along racist lines. The election of Barack Obama in 2008 for white supremacists was a shot across the bow; someone with dark skin became President. Under the administration of Trump, white supremacists were emboldened (see: Charlottesville 2017). The Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, and other such groups draw heavily from people who were (or still are) in the military, as well as law enforcement (again, heavy military connection). The toxic stew pervades American society. An excellent article in today’s New York Times sums up much of this. A Black woman in Rocky Mount, Virginia scoffs when she is told the insurrectionists who invaded the U.S. Capitol were radicalized. As she says, “They learned this from birth.” Yes, and they carried it over into the military. This BBC video includes interviews with some of the people in the NYT article on Rocky Mount -- watch it. Read the NYT article. We are a confused and divided nation. Our military needs to be cleansed of white nationalists. Now.