A Follow-up Story
Last year, a Marine with ties to a hate group was dumped by the Marine Corps. He had been next to invisible as a radical until some deep digging by NCIS found the online trail he had created.
From the article: Marine Lance Cpl. Vasillios G. Pistolis ultimately was booted from Corps mid-summer 2018 for his ties to a hate group. But, his ability to enlist in the Corps highlights a challenge to the military recruiters armed with few tools from records checks to interviews to keep supremacists out of the ranks.
An investigation into his hate group ties by Naval Criminal Investigative Service — obtained by Marine Corps Times through a government records request — reads like a psychological evaluation into extremist thought and behavior, detailing his own path to radicalization and views on various hate groups.
In June 2018, Pistolis was sentenced before a military court to 28 days confinement, reduction in rank to E-1 and forfeiture of two-thirds pay for one month. He was booted from the Marine Corps in July 2018. – article
The full article is worth the time it takes to read it. He was essentially rootless, looking for a common chord with other people when he enlisted, and drifted from Antifa to neo-Nazism over time.
Category: "Teh Stoopid", "The Floggings Will Continue Until Morale Improves"
One down for the USMC, now here’s hoping that the US Army will get its act together and boot that little shit in Fort Hood.
Interesting read. Prolly more where that one came from. Hard to say if their own stupidity outed him, or somebody was on the ball, looking. I agree with API on the POS at Hood, and any others of their ilk that are out there.
Some of the older readers here may recall back yonder when there were sympathizers of the Bader Meinhof (sp?) Gang and Red Army Faction. Saw a few get busted for lit from them or having copies of the Anarchists Cookbook laying around.
I had a copy of The Anarchist Cookbook in my room, but it was as a reference for demolition ranges and booby-trap classes.
Let’s not forget that some years ago there was an active Hate Group Cell on Fort Bragg and one of its members decided to go on a racial killing spree one night, the DoD needs to nip that shit right in the bud!
We were in JRTC when that Army Times article dropped. It turned out the interview and photos were done in one of our guys new off base apartment. His lil wife had been very naughty the month we were gone with the tards. It hit the fan hard and fast, everybody was assumed guilty by association. Lots of CID sneaking around in barracks.
As they used to say, “curiosity killed the cat”, so I must have been lucky since I used to read and correspond with a couple of “underground” publications. Mostly left-wing and antiwar stuff. Read parts of the Anarchist’s Cookbook. I still read and listen to some of that stuff on the internet.
Somewhere I acquired the idea that it is good to know as much as possible about your enemies. Also that having an open mind is a good thing.
It seems to me that the more you know about your opposition, the easier it becomes to stop them, especially now.
My reading list and bookshelf made heads spin.
I boggled a few “educated” sorts with “you mean you haven’t read…”
The assortment of political stuff reaching the troops was… amazing. Some of it was likely “prank”.
Some SJWs are doing their best to make it easier for convicted felons and other miscreants to hide their past. Not sure if that will allow more bad guys to get into the DOD or not. I have a beef with the Times article in that they referenced the Southern Poverty Law Center. They are nothing more than an anti-Christian, anti-conservative pile of crap.
Kind of makes me wonder what the SJWs will do if those felons (especially those locked up for violent crimes) decide to come after them one day. Sure is not fun getting stabbed in the back.
Yup, felons will be able to join the police force, run for office and vote, but don’t ever say anything nice about Republicans on Facebook…
The writer of the Marine Corps Times seemed to have a problem keeping a coherent narrative flowing. There was a lot of skipping around from one ex-Marine to another for no apparent reason other than to shotgun examples of white supremacy. I’d also take a wild guess that the story missed some relevant things:
Pistolis joined Atomwaffen and eventually had a falling out with them in October 2017. As a matter of revenge, it’s likely that those in Atomwaffen released his chat logs to ProPublica. The same leak of chat logs also led to Pistolis’ getting doxxed with the release of his identifiable personal information. At that point, the NCIS probably got involved due to a complaint which could have come from Atomwaffen or somebody else.
Point being that the NCIS likely didn’t have to do much sleuthing in Pistolis’ case. It was all but handed to them tied up with a ribbon.
Those are good points, Perry.
Bobby Francis O’Rourke has a solution proposal:
“Ban the Marine Corps”
Those “alarming terms” were his undoing. Good thing LEAs can’t search my searches. And, of course, Trump. Plus, Pistolis mentioned paintball and soccer.
Had a guy from Georgia in my basic 3521 class at Camp Johnson in 1985. He used to go out on libo with a belt buckle that had a KKK guy holding a rebel flag standing on a pile of skulls. I asked the Company gunny about it one day. He basically said yeah he saw it but it was not against the rules. My how times have changed.
Recruiters got it tough. I mean, they did this:
https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-army/2019/09/05/army-launches-inquiry-into-how-teen-with-autism-and-arm-disorders-was-recruited/
IMHO said Recruiter needs to answer for that.
Aw, the kid could be an Air Defender…
I did an article on that a few days ago. It’s obnoxious enough that the recruiter got that young man’s hopes up, but it’s worse when you find out that many of them are doing it.
There are a number of them that will do whatever they can to make their monthly quota, ethics be damned.
I don’t think recruiters should have quotas.
THEY DO, I’ve known a few, one of which would pull shit like this.
If they didn’t have quotas, what would the CRFers do?
Seriously, some of the shit I saw with their blessing (or at least a wink and a nod) made me glad I never served with most of them in the fleet.
Sorry Ex, couldn’t remember if I’d seen it here or not. It’s worth re-reading.
I feel bad for the kid too, but that recruiter and whomever signed off on the medical at MEPS need to atone. As unbelievable as the story should be, we all know it’s 100% true because we’ve seen the recruiters encourage lying.
It’s okay. We need to be reminded about these things. I am sure the disappointment felt by that young man was very, very real.
Don’t know anything about the situation but in some cases — applicants learn what is disqualifying in one recruiting station and just go to the next nearest community and lie their ass off on their own. But in most cases and probably this one the recruiter coached the applicant on what to say and how to fill out the paperwork. Recruiters have it tough and your integrity is challenged every day – 90% of the applicants they see are disqualified, overweight, and can’t pass the asvab (read) – recruiting is viscous and can put good Soldiers, Marines, Airmen, and Sailors under incredible pressure to succeed and threatened with the hint of ruining your career if your not successful. But no excuse in this case if the applicant was coached.
That kid has Antifa snowflake written all over him, but a Marine ???
He must weigh 90 lbs soaking wet…..
If that’s what the USMC is letting in these days, we’re all screwed…
Further proof there’s but a dime’s worth of difference between shitbag groups like Atomwaffen and Antifa.