Extremism is becoming more common among veterans and service members

There is a steadily growing faction among U.S. military veterans and service members: extremists. While the number of people in the military who practice extreme ideologies remains small compared to the 2.86 million active service members and 16 million veterans, experts are concerned that this extremism is continuing to infiltrate armed-forces ranks.

Recent deep dives into the phenomenon have shined a light on these ideologies, which most often manifest as far-right extremism but can encompass all facets of the political spectrum. And concerns are growing that this radicalization could lead to violence, as it has in the past.

How widespread is extremism in the military?

No data is absolute, but reports have attempted to quantify military extremism. More than “480 people with a military background” have been “accused of ideologically driven extremist crimes from 2017 through 2023,” according to an investigation from The Associated Press. At least 230 of these arrests have been in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. At least 80% of extremists with military backgrounds identify with the far-right, according to the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START).

Veterans have also “made up four of the five members of Proud Boys leadership indicted by federal prosecutors on seditious conspiracy,” according to an investigation from RAND. This investigation also found that “having a military background was the single strongest predictor of involvement in a mass casualty attack in the United States from 1990 to 2021,” while “having a military background increased the lethality of attacks by up to two times.”

Why is military extremism becoming more common?

When people in the military “radicalize they tend to radicalize to the point of mass violence,” START’s Michael Jensen said to the AP. Among extremists, the top predictor of becoming a mass casualty offender “was having a U.S. military background — that outranked mental health problems, that outranked being a loner, that outranked having a previous criminal history or substance abuse issues.”

Prior studies, including those from the Department of Defense (DOD), have “confirmed what many observers of the military” already knew: extremism “doesn’t have to be big to be lethal,” said The Atlantic. Participation in violence from “even a small number of individuals with military connections and military training … could present a risk to the military and to the country as a whole,” a DOD report said in 2023.

Although the “military draws from the general population, initial vetting and training should screen out people who do not belong in the military for various reasons,” said The Atlantic, but this does not always happen. And veterans are “considered significant additions to violent extremist groups, given their past weapon training and their logistic and leadership skills,” said the RAND investigation, and veterans also “lend a sense of legitimacy to militant groups that can further aid recruitment.” The military also skews male and white, two demographics that are “associated with right-wing (and to some degree left-wing) extremism in the United States.”

What can be done about this?

Recent programs have been created to counteract veteran suicides, and “these initiatives should also be replicated to combat extremism among veterans,” said U.S. News and World Report. But extremists already indoctrinated are hard to remove from this lifestyle, so “greater efforts to screen bad recruits in the first place is thus critically important.”

The Pentagon and Congress have also “called for greater efforts to root out extremism in the ranks,” said The Intercept. This includes efforts to “implement steps and provide recommendations addressing the threat posed by extremist activities. However, politicians have often ignored reports identifying “veterans with negative military experiences as the demographic at higher risk for radicalization.”