Capitol insurrection forces military’s extremism problem out of the shadows

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Servicemembers and veterans make for prized recruits for extremist organizations

In the late 1980s, Chuck Leek was an aviation electrician stationed at Naval Base San Diego, home of the Pacific Fleet. There, he worked on electrical systems that ran through Navy helicopters. He says he was a “full-on skinhead.”

Leek, now 54, has cut ties with the white supremacist movement and works to bring others out of it. While in the military in California, Leek and two other neo-Nazis he met while in training formed a skinhead gang, rented a house together and began working to recruit other active-duty servicemembers.

Military commanders largely looked the other way. Continue reading.