The Army launched an investigation after images of National Guardsmen wearing what appeared to be Nazi symbols on Kevlar helmets were discovered on social media.
The official Instagram page of the 20th Special Forces Group posted on Sunday a photo of three soldiers, including one of the Nazi SS Totenkopf Verbande (also known as “Totenkopf”) on a palm tree. It appears to have a patch depicting a figure (also known as the “death’s head”). , According to Military.com.
“That weekend feeling. Enjoy the rest of your weekend. Don’t stop training. Don’t get complacent,” the post’s caption read.
The faces of the three Green Berets are blurred in the post, which is common in images showing Special Forces soldiers and U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) personnel, but the photo was edited before being posted to social media. , indicating that the post has been verified.
The 20th Special Forces Group addressed the controversy on its page after an Instagram user noticed the historically horrifying symbol.
“There was none. According to the outlet, this is a third group team patch taken out of context,” the account reportedly replied to the user.
The image has since been deleted from the account.
The Totenkopf logo was once identified as the “unofficial” emblem of the 3rd Special Forces Group, but was “banned in 2022 after the leadership of the 3rd Special Forces Group brought it to our attention.” said Maj. Russell Gordon, 1st Special Forces spokesman.instructions he told Army Times.
The 3rd Special Forces Group is based at Fort Liberty, North Carolina, but Army Special Operations Command spokeswoman Jacqueline Hill told Military.com that Green Berets wearing the patch are based in Birmingham, Alabama. He admitted that he belongs to the 20th group.
“The use of symbols and patches depicting images of historical hate is unacceptable and is a clear violation of our values,” Army Special Operations Command spokeswoman Jacqueline Hill said Tuesday.
Hill said the command is aware of the “situation” and the matter is under investigation.
It is unknown how this logo was used before it was banned, or how many teams within the Special Forces community adopted it before it was banned.
Gordon shared that the soldiers who were flaunting the patch before the 2022 investigation were unaware of Totenkopf’s historical meaning.
“We did not find anything that clearly identified the person who was attempting to display images of hate,” Gordon told Army Times.
The Totenkopfberbande was a paramilitary organization that included members of the Schutzstaffel (SS), which operated Nazi concentration and extermination camps, and participated in mass murders throughout Europe during World War II. It was the symbol of the Einsatzgruppen members.
SS members who wore “death’s heads” did so to distinguish themselves from other units of the SS.
The patch worn by the soldier in the Instagram post appears to be a mock-up of SS operations in Africa, and also features a symbol on top of a palm tree.
The only difference in the logo was that the patch worn by the soldiers had a “Death’s Head” insignia in the center, rather than the authentic swastika used by the Nazis’ Afrika Korps.
This is not the first time Nazi logos and images have been adopted by U.S. military personnel.
The controversy comes just a month after the Army had to apologize for a recruiting poster for the Montana National Guard that depicted Nazi soldiers marching during World War II. According to KTVQ.
In 2012, the Marine Corps was forced to apologize after a scout sniper was seen posing with a Nazi SS flag with a lightning-like flash.
This photo was taken in 2010 during a deployment in Sangin Province, Afghanistan.
marine corps spokesperson told the Guardian In 2012, he claimed that the sniper was not intended to glorify or refer to the SS in any way, but instead represented a “scout sniper”.
