The military ordered big steps to stop extremism. Two years later, it shows no results

USA TODAY identified 20 reforms proposed by Defense secretary and a group he assigned to the task. Today, many steps appear stalled, and the most important reforms haven't happened.

More than two years ago, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin launched a sweeping initiative − triggered by the Jan. 6 insurrection − to root out the threat of extremism across the United States armed forces. 

But today, the military has almost nothing to show for its efforts, a USA TODAY investigation has found. Most steps in the process are stalled or inactive, and the reforms experts said were most important haven’t happened. 

The proposed policy changes aimed to confront extremism before, during and after military service by: 

• Diverting extremists from the recruiting process with tougher questions and screening for warning signs such as white supremacist tattoos. 
• Creating an investigative unit to weed out potentially dangerous extremists in the ranks. 
• Building an education initiative to teach veterans about the extremist groups that court them and severing the long-known and often deadly veteran-to-extremist pipeline.

Instead, today the military offers almost no answers about what has actually happened. Even a crucial internal study on the scope of the military’s extremism problem has never been released, despite being ordered by Austin himself and completed more than a year ago, USA TODAY has confirmed. 

If this sweeping effort ends with no measurable impact, that’s “a tragic outcome,” said Kathleen Belew, a Northwestern University historian and author of “Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America.” Austin’s post-Jan. 6 initiative was “an incredibly powerful lever for real change, and to let it simply fall apart because there are a lot of other things to do would be a tragic misstep.”  

USA TODAY identified 20 reforms proposed by Austin and by a working group he assigned to monitor the effort and make recommendations. Over several months, the newspaper filed inquiries at various levels of the Department of Defense about whether changes had been implemented and their current status. In late May, after repeatedly requesting more time to prepare a response, the department first answered a few of USA TODAY’s questions, then provided several vague responses and no information on most of the proposed reforms.  

“The Department of Defense takes extremist activity seriously and continues to make progress toward implementing the actions approved by the Secretary in December 2021,” Cmdr. Nicole Schwegman, a Defense department spokesperson, said in a written response.

“The vast majority of Service members serve with honor and integrity and do not participate in extremist activities,” Schwegman said. 

Though the mathematics behind that statement may well be accurate, the risks from the extremist minority have already resulted in dozens of deaths and injuries. And while the military is yet to release its own findings, outside experts continue to warn that extremism in the armed forces is a potent − and growing − threat to American lives and American democracy. 

“There’s this myopia to deal with this kind of far-right extremism in this country,” said Heidi Beirich, co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism. “It’s inexplicable. Look, people with military training show up too much in domestic terrorism plots, and they’re killing people, including killing troops.”

What are the warning signs of extremism? One ‘single strongest’ predictor

Being affiliated with the U.S. military is the “single strongest” predictor of violent extremism in America. 

That’s according to a report from researchers with the University of Maryland’s National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism, or START, who analyzed a database of thousands of violent incidents going back to 1990 to reach their conclusions.

People who served or are serving in the armed forces "are 2.41 times more likely to be classified as mass casualty offenders than individuals who did not serve," according to the START research. And the problem appears to be getting worse: The number of extremists connected to the military in the past decade more than quadrupled compared with the decade before, the research found.

Most extremists connected to the military are veterans, but recent years have also seen high-profile examples of active-duty servicemen being ensnared in extremism. 

In March, for example, Ethan Melzer, a 25-year-old former Army soldier, was sentenced to 45 years in prison for attempting to murder members of his own regiment. Melzer admitted sharing information about his unit’s location and movements for an upcoming deployment in Turkey with a Satanist neo-Nazi organization. 

The START researchers identified at least 188 people with military backgrounds who participated in the Capitol attack on Jan. 6. 

But, in addition to the insurrection, they tallied many more people – 451 – who have committed extremist offenses since 1990. Of those, 37% either plotted or followed through with a deadly terrorist attack. Twenty-nine people with military backgrounds have committed an extremist attack that left at least four people dead or injured. 

So, when Austin announced his proposed reforms, extremism experts across the country welcomed the news.

"We’ll have to see how this all works out in process, but overall it’s very positive," Mark Pitcavage, a senior research fellow at the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism, told USA TODAY at the time.

They were joined by members of Congress who have long sounded the alarm about extremism in the military.

“If you truly care about a professional military, which I care deeply about, then you would want to address anything that weakens that professional military,” said Illinois Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth, an Iraq War veteran and recipient of a Purple Heart decoration. “Anything that weakens that force needs to be addressed − and extremism in the military is that.”

Investigation:After Jan. 6 riot, hundreds of identifiable people remain free

Groundbreaking orders in 2021

In April 2021, Austin called for four key “immediate actions” and formed a working group of nearly 100 people from across the military, which issued a more detailed report with further directions at the end of that year. 

The working group’s December 2021 report contained at least 20 recommended steps, some with 90-day deadlines. As of the middle of 2023, USA TODAY’s inquiry found, only two of these appear to have been completed with any clear effect.