White supremacist movements problematic in the military

The F-B-I has ended its on-site probe at the Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, where a gunman killed six people Sunday morning.
Even though the probe at the scene is over, investigators are busy digging into the past of the alleged shooter, Wade Michael Page.
He was a 40-year-old Army veteran who police say was the lone gunman, and who evidence suggests was a white supremacist.
Wade Michael Page's belief in white power was tattooed all over his body. But back at ft. Bragg, you couldn't tell by looking at him.
"He didn't have the tattoos when he was in the Army," said fellow soldier and friend Chris Robillard
He says Page wasn't shy about sharing his views, and ranted against non-white people.
"He would often mention the racial holy war that was coming," said Robillard.
Criminologist Pete Simi, who interviewed Page, said he started identifying with the New-Nazi movement while he was in the army, because he thought African-American soldiers got preferential treatment.
"Specifically, what he told me at one point was that, 'If you join the military, and you're not a racist, then you certainly will be by the time you leave,'" said Simi.
Well before pictures were posted on Facebook, the FBI had identified hundreds of veterans involved in white supremacist incidents. And federal investigators say small numbers of white supremacists have infiltrated most parts of the military. While Page was at Ft. Bragg in 1995, three soldiers were caught and convicted of murdering a black couple outside the base. All were identified as Neo-Nazi Skinheads. The army cracked down on racists in the ranks and kicked out dozens of soldiers. But the problem goes way beyond one base.
"Every major military installation, you will have at least two or three active neo-Nazi organizations actively trying to recruit on-duty personnel," says T.J. Leyden, a former Marine and skinhead, who says some military units ignore overt racism.
"I used to hang a swastika flag on my wall locker,” says Leyden. “And everybody in my unit all the way up to my commander knew it. The only time they ever asked me to take it down is when the commanding General would come through, just so they wouldn't get in trouble."
Now, that's not to say that happens across the board. In fact, even Leyden admits that in his brother's unit, the commander there took an extremely hard line against this kind of racism. He would crack down whenever troops put out anything that had racist overtones, made them take it down, and send it home. The Army and Marines have strict rules against this. But ultimately it can come down to how much the individual commander takes a look at it, and enforces those rules.