National Guard sergeant tied to Nazism is fired

Sunday, March 18, 2012

MACON, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri National Guardsman accused of proclaiming himself a neo-Nazi has been fired from his state job as a member of a military honor guard that appears at veterans' funerals of veterans.

Former co-workers of Nathan Wooten filed complaints nearly a year ago claiming he had a portrait of Adolf Hitler in his living room, had tried to recruit others to the cause and had named his son after a notorious leader of the German SS, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch (http://bit.ly/FP8eyi) reported.

The Post-Dispatch was about to publish a story about the state's lack of action when a guard spokeswoman, Maj. Tammy Spicer, notified the newspaper Friday that Wooten had been fired from his full-time state position with the funeral program as a result of an investigation into a variety of complaints.

Wooten is not accused of having broken any laws, but the U.S. military bans participation in extremist groups and groups that "actively advocate supremacist doctrine, ideology or causes." Spicer would not elaborate about the funeral honors program firing. She said a separate investigation by the Guard is in its final stages.

Wooten, however, has denied being involved in neo-Nazi activities.

"I didn't do any of that," said Wooten, 32, at the National Guard armory in Macon last month. "I don't need to explain anything to you guys. It's been taken care of."

He didn't immediately return a phone message Saturday from The Associated Press.

"It's about time," said Republican State Sen. Bill Stouffer, of Napton, who had inquired about the case on behalf of three of the co-workers. "... I don't know why it took so long to get to where we are, but, finally, the right thing has happened."

Brandon Knott, 24, said he began working with Wooten in 2007 at the funeral honors program, which sends at least two uniformed National Guard members or retirees to funeral services. He said that around the time Wooten was promoted to team leader, Wooten told him about joining the National Socialist Movement, which the Southern Poverty Law Center describes as one of the largest and most prominent neo-Nazi groups in the U.S.

"He always talked about how great of an organization it is and how they hate minorities like blacks, Mexicans and Jews and how great the U.S. would be without them," Knott later wrote in a complaint to one of his superiors. Knott and two other co-workers provided copies of their complaints to the Post-Dispatch.

Knott and another worker who filed a complaint, Eddie Ratliff, said that in November 2008, Wooten drove his own vehicle to a Columbia, Mo., funeral so that afterward he could attend a neo-Nazi protest in Jefferson City and a private after-party that included the burning of books by Jewish authors. Knott wrote in his complaint that Wooten showed him cellphone photographs of the book burning.

Knott also said Wooten showed him Facebook photos that he said were taken in a Jewish cemetery and that showed purported friends of his urinating on a grave and giving the Nazi salute.

Knott said he considered turning Wooten in at the time, but thought he lacked proof and wouldn't be believed.

A spokeswoman for the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish civil rights group, said the league had reported Wooten to the Army in 2009, saying he had created a personal profile on New Saxon, a white supremacist social networking site operated by the National Socialist Movement.

Knott said he was asked by one of the funeral program's area directors about Wooten's involvement with white supremacist groups while Wooten was deployed to Afghanistan in 2009 and 2010. Knott said Wooten later told him that his superiors in Afghanistan had told him to stop any such activity but that he received no other discipline.

Co-workers said the racist comments resumed after Wooten's return to the Macon office in 2010, and that in April 2011 they complained to a superior that Wooten fostered a racist and hostile work environment. In their statements, the co-workers reported that Wooten complained when they ate lunch at a Mexican restaurant, refused to have a person temporarily assigned to the office serve on the honor guard because he was of Mexican descent and balked at presenting flags to the families of black and Jewish veterans.

Frustrated by the investigation, Ratliff resigned and now works as a security guard at Missouri Military Academy in Mexico, Mo.

"I couldn't put up with it anymore," said Ratliff, 49. "I just didn't believe I belonged in the sort of group that would support something like that."

Knott's active duty orders that had him working full time for the funeral program ended in September. In December, Knott contacted Stouffer, the state senator, who contacted the National Guard.

"On the surface, it's unforgivable," Stouffer said about the length of the National Guard investigation. "To me that's unacceptable."

More like this story

CommonSense4US 1 year, 2 months ago

The National Guard does the right thing only after its told this story is about to go public? Where is the leadership? Nazism is wrong and no one wearing the uniform should be loyal to anything other than the constitution, but what about the people that allowed it to go on WHEN THEY KNEW ABOUT IT FOR MONTHS? Wrong, wrong wrong!

martin2thetruth 1 year, 2 months ago

Racism, under any flag, is wrong. Fact is, every human on Earth can trace their genes to the same woman in Africa. So genetically there is no difference between us. And as diverse as the army, its a shame he lasted as long as he did

CommonSense4US 1 year, 2 months ago

@Graceful - No, I'm sorry to say, free speech does not apply to the military. If it did, soldiers could criticize the president or governor, but they cannot. Leadership is acting when it's time, not when the media threatens to expose a situation. My question is is the "state resource officer" in charge of personnel decisions? Does Jill Delgato have a boss? Who knew about all of this all along, but didn't act? And is this the tip of the iceberg?

tonto_goldberg 1 year, 2 months ago

The Uniform Code of Military Justice applies to members of the military, and it does not guarantee a full set of constitutional rights in the way that civilians think of them. Wait! You're citing CBS news as an authority? That commie pinko lame-stream media organization? Shall I expect to see the four horsemen riding this way soon?

Sequoia 1 year, 2 months ago

The soldier says "The Constitution trumps all else."

Well, sort of. The question is: What do the words in the Constitution mean, and what happens when powers, duties and rights all bump up against each other?

This soldier's right to free speech under the First Amendment should be limited by the armed forces' duty to maintain order. Where's the line? Not easy to answer.

But you can't just cite the First Amendment and say that it "trumps all else." It does not.

It is very similar to scriptural interpretation. You can always say "the Bible trumps all else." But the question remains: Who decides what the Bible means, and who decides how it gets applied to modern society?

Text alone won't save us. We still have to think things through.

wow 1 year, 2 months ago

Graceful...based on your comments you have either never served in uniform, were kicked out of the service for what ever negative reason, or will never serve in the Amercan Armed Forces. Either way...when it comes to the US MIlitary it's plan as the nose on your face. American Servicemen/women who associate with groups sucha as Neo_Nazi's the Black Panther's, etc etc, are traitors to this nation. As people who are serving in uniform...the UCMJ is crystal clear. Such behavior is not acceptable under any conditions!!!!! Not only should this traitor be dismissd from the Honor Guard detail, he should be brought up on charges of nothing less than "Conduct unbecomining". In this time of War, he could very well be shot for his disgusting conduct and associtation. This has nothing to do with the left or right or any of that mess. It's about a traitor who needs to be properly dealt with!

There is no way in the world this guy should be visiting the families of fallen American Commerades...because that is truly dishonorable The entire Chain of Command needs to be investiagted disciplined and if found wrong.... they all need to be properly punished.

Bad Conduct Discharge and Leavenworth doesn't sound to harsh!

JCLifer 1 year, 2 months ago

Your comments apply well to Barrack Husein Obama.

spelchek 1 year, 2 months ago

SNAP!

CommonSense4US 1 year, 2 months ago

Folks, we're getting off track. The issue is why a neo-nazi is allowed to serve openly, and not only wear the military uniform, but supposedly honor fallen veterans for months! My father-in-law was a Marine in Vietnam. He says he will not have the National Guard Honor Team preside at his funeral because of this whole thing.

spelchek 1 year, 2 months ago

I'm sure the ACLU is all over this.

CommonSense4US 1 year, 2 months ago

I think we're going to find out more bad news here. Not because the National Guard tells us (though they already know) but because some hotshot reporter (not from around here obviously) is going to expose it. Where has military leadership gone?

wow 1 year, 1 month ago

Let's get into this MESS real deep and let the chips fall where they may....make no mistake this has got to get cleaned up. Clearly racism isn't dead....but let's not only go after these Neo Nazi's, get them all exposed...the Klan, Aryans, MS13, Bloods, Crips, BGF, Panther's...there should no place in our society where the people in these type groups should feel comfortable. American's are better than that and the ideals of America are as well. IT'S TIME TO STAND UP AND DO THE RIGHT THING!!!!!!

CommonSense4US 1 year, 1 month ago

@wow - you said it best! We need to weed out the bad apples AND the weak leaders who allow it to exist. Don't want my town to have any hate group person, especially in a military uniform showing up for a disaster or any reason.

CommonSense4US 1 year, 1 month ago

Looks like this thing IS going to get a good look. Sen Stouffer is going to investigate the National Guard and the reason why a neo-nazi is allowed to wear the military uniform for so long. Think we will start to see a bunch of information we won't like to believe...

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