Mike Cerre: Nearly half of the veterans charged in the Capitol siege were
former Marines, despite their having served in the country’s smallest military
branch.
Lloyd
Austin, Secretary of Defense: It's not new to our country and sadly, it's not new
to our military. What is new is the speed and the pervasiveness with which
extremist ideology can spread today.
Navy Capt: The stand down you're experiencing today
is the Navy swarming against this threat.
Mike Cerre: In response to the Capitol riot, Secretary of Defense Lloyd
Austin ordered all U.S. military units around
the world to stand down from their normal operations to address the domestic
extremism threat.
Capt.
Alex Newham: The reason we're
doing this training is first to define it, why we're doing it, what's the cause
of it and how to prevent it.
1st
Sgt. Joey Cruz: So if you see someone putting something that's extremist out there,
as a fellow Marine, it's now your duty to report it.
Mike Cerre: Marine Company Commander Captain Alex Newham
and 1st Sgt. Joey Cruz, the company’s senior enlisted man, were tasked with
conducting the extremism training and reviewing the Marine corps’ regulations
with their unit Fox Company 2nd battalion, 5th Marines at Camp Pendleton,
California.
I first connected with
Fox 2/5, also known as “the Blackhearts”, while
embedded with the unit during the Iraq War, when the focus was more on
defending against foreign, rather than domestic threats to the Constitution as
part of their enlistment oath.
Sgt.
Radcliffe Humphrey, Squad Leader: Support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign
and domestic. I mean, you already took the oath. I think the problem is not
fully understanding what you signed up for.
Mike Cerre: Sgt. Radcliffe Humphrey and three of his Fox 2/5 colleagues
agreed to share their understandings of the domestic extremism threat within
the military and their rights and responsibilities as Marines after their stand
down training session.
It included running
through various scenarios and identifying possible extremist intrusions within
their ranks.
Mike Cerre: How many of you know what Pepe the Frog stands for? Or
“88”?
Staff
Sgt. Rees: I do. Pepe the Fog was
just the internet meme that they utilized. You know, I think like the Proud
Boys utilized Pepe the Frog memes to make dog whistle jokes towards the Left
and “88” would stand for “HH” Heil Hitler and other right-wing
connotations.
Mike Cerre: Most of the training was based on the Pentagon’s prepared outline
of do’s and don’ts, as they apply to service members’
political activities and sharing extremist posts on social media.
Cpl.
Noah Martin: You
could report it and or just not respond to it.
Sgt.
Radcliffe Humphrey: Then whoever's posting that, obviously
you can just be like, all right, I want to distance myself from this. Get rid
of whoever's profile that is, delete them as a friend, delete them as a
follower or whatever you have them as, get rid of them from your social
media.
Mike Cerre: Generally speaking, service members are allowed
to have political opinions, but they’re restricted from promoting them
while serving.
Sgt.
Radcliffe Humphrey: I'd be defacing the Marine Corps as a whole if I
said my political beliefs because it's not everyone's. My political beliefs aren't the same as these gentleman's political beliefs. They're going to be different just like anyone else’s would
be.
Mike Cerre: Is it clear in your mind what extremism is? I mean, you know, one
man's extremist could be another man's patriot.
Lance
CPL Nicholas Jones, Squad Leader: I mean, in this day and age, I would say
that it could be hard for some. But again, it goes back to the training that we're receiving now.
Mike Cerre: The new directives on extremism prohibit identifying with
extremist organizations, displaying their symbols like tattoos and bumper
stickers, demonstrating on their behalf in or out of uniform, promoting any
illegal activity or messaging, especially on social media.
Given the sensitivity
today and the training you went through, if a Confederate flag was spotted in your barracks or in your group, what would be
done?
Staff
Sgt. Rees: Oh, yeah, they're going to be held fully accountable for their
actions. They know they know what it stands for. They understand why they're putting it up. There's not
going to be a question about that. And so they're
going to-- they're going to face “the man” and answer for it.
Mike Cerre: There is always going to be a lot of grey in this. It’s not going to be totally black and white. So what’s the
“commander’s intent” here, if in doubt how do
you think they’ll make the right call?
Capt.
Alex Newham: So the commander's
intent is that they are all informed of the training and everyone has the
knowledge that they have. They have the skill sets now. But honestly, the meat
and potatoes is going to be from the squad leaders and
the team leaders doing the small group discussions because we can't be
everywhere all at once.
Mike Cerre: Given the intensity of their profession and interpersonal
relationships, there is very little room in the Marine
Corps for doubts over someone’s loyalty and allegiance.
Drill
Instructor:
You’re now onboard Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris
Island, South Carolina.
Mike Cerre: From Day One of getting off the bus at Marine boot camp,
standing on the yellow footprints, giving up their personal items and getting
heads shaved. Marines knew they were giving up much
of their personal identities to become part of something larger than
themselves .
Cpl Noah Martin: What it means to me is that you're being
shaved from like your civilian life and you're joining this institution and
you're going to uphold these standards.
Mike Cerre: And on that same day when you were on the yellow footprints and
they were saying, there's no black, there's no white, there's only green
Cpl Noah Martin: Roo-rah.
Mike Cerre: Does it stick? Does it stand this test today?
Cpl Noah Martin: It does.
Lance
CPL Nicholas Jones: Absolutely.
Staff
Sgt. Rees: You're getting a whole
new set of core values of honor, courage and
commitment. So it's pretty easy, you know, just as
long as you follow those rules and you uphold the life value and you take care
of your brother on your left and right and you uphold the Constitution of the
United States, like you promised you would, there’s not going to be any
issues.
Mike Cerre, Camp Pendleton, CA: Semper Fidelis: always faithful. That’s how Marines address each other. It’s also key to the Marines Corps strategy for keeping extremism out
of its ranks by keeping the focus on the bonds and allegiance that drew men and
women to the Marine Corps in the first place.
Cpl Noah Martin: I would say that there's extremism, but with the training that we're getting today and with the training that will be
pushed out. I think it could be mitigated
Sgt.
Radcliffe Humphrey: The Marine Corps isn't harboring or
taking in extremists left and right out of America. I would say it's pretty on par with the rest of the country. We're people too, you know, we're going to have onesies and twosies outliers from the baseline who are extremists.
1st
Sgt. Joey Cruz: Everything
that goes on out in society can definitely impact our
service members. The difference is that if we continue to equip them and train
them and educate them. They’ll understand it a little
better.
Sgt.
Radcliffe Humphrey: The reason why that's so important is
because especially in our profession as infantrymen, we have to be able to look
to our guys left and right and say, I know if we go to combat, this guy's gonna have my back no matter what happens.
Mike Cerre: For the PBS NewsHour, this is Mike Cerre reporting from
Camp Pendleton, California.
###
|
TIMECODE |
LOWER
THIRD |
1 |
0:16 |
LLOYD AUSTIN SECRETARY OF DEFENSE |
2 |
1:23 |
2003 IRAQ |
3 |
2:27 |
STAFF SGT. RANDY REES U.S. MARINE CORPS |
4 |
2:52 |
CPL. NOAH MARTIN U.S. MARINE CORPS |
5 |
3:00 |
SGT. RADCLIFFE HUMPHREY U.S. MARINE CORPS |
6 |
3:35 |
LANCE CPL. NICHOLAS JONES U.S. MARINE CORPS |
7 |
4:21 |
STAFF SGT. RANDY REES U.S. MARINE CORPS |
8 |
4:34 |
CAPT. ALEX NEWHAM U.S. MARINE CORPS |
9 |
5:01 |
BUG BURNED INTO FOOTAGE – CANNOT BE REMOVED |
10 |
6:10 |
CAMP PENDLETON, CA MIKE CERRE SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT |