U.S. Army reservist with KKK ties faces military review after Raw Story report

The U.S. Army is conducting a formal review of a reservist who conducted a “white nationalist” paramilitary training in North Carolina earlier this year and has boasted of Ku Klux Klan ties. Raw Story’s investigation uncovered a specific chat on the messaging app Telegram in which Woodall bragged about “running a state for the KKK,” and referenced past involvement with the neo-Nazi group National Socialist Movement. After Woodall’s interest in his white nationalist training group appeared to flag midway through this year, he joined a Telegram chat for a neo-Nazi group in western North Carolina that claims to be dedicated to “forging strong men worthy of our nation” while announcing that “the harvest season is here.” The group’s founding statement is explicitly framed around antisemitic hate, fulminating against “the destruction wrought upon our culture, our nation, and our soil by these wicked Jews who have scorched the earth we walk upon.” Woodall inquired about joining the neo-Nazi group when it was founded in July. ‘Extremist activities’ Under Department of Defense Instruction 1325.06, a Pentagon policy for “Handling Protest, Extremist, and Criminal Gang Activities Among Members of the Armed Forces,” military personnel are prohibited from “actively participating in extremist activities.” Under the policy, “extremist activities” includes “advocating or engaging in unlawful force or violence to achieve goals that are political, religious, discriminatory, or ideological in nature” and “advocating widespread unlawful discrimination based on race, color, national origin religion, sex, gender identity, or sexual orientation.” The Department of Defense defines “active participation,” among other things, as “advocating or engaging in the use or threat of unlawful force or violence in support of extremist activities,” “recruiting or training others to engage in extremist activities,” and “creating, organizing, or taking a leadership role in a group or organization that engages in or advocates for extremist activities, with knowledge of those activities.” The policy cites three reasons for prohibiting extremist activity among military personnel. Having people like Woodall in any capacity related to the armed services is a danger to the American people.” Delayed military response Initially, when Raw Story inquired in early August about whether the revelations about Woodall’s white supremacist activities would prompt an official investigation, a spokesperson indicated that the information would be reported to the proper authorities in the North Carolina National Guard.