For 1st Black Pentagon chief, racism challenge is personal

[dalton99a]

https://apnews.com/article/race-and-ethnicity-biden-cabinet-lloyd-austin-army-4b92df07f4c319deeb7d6a94ae9af60a

For 1st Black Pentagon chief, racism challenge is personal
By LOLITA C. BALDOR

Austin took office Friday as the first Black defense chief, in the wake of the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, where retired and current military members were among the rioters touting far-right conspiracies.

The retired four-star Army general told senators this week that the Pentagon’s job is to “keep America safe from our enemies. But we can’t do that if some of those enemies lie within our own ranks.”

Ridding the military of racists isn’t his only priority. Austin, who was confirmed in a 93-2 vote, has made clear that accelerating delivery of coronavirus vaccines will get his early attention.

But the racism issue is personal. At Tuesday’s confirmation hearing, he explained why.

In 1995, when then-Lt. Col. Austin was serving with the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, three white soldiers, described as self-styled skinheads, were arrested in the murder of a Black couple who was walking down the street. Investigators concluded the two were targeted because of their race.

The killing triggered an internal investigation, and all told, 22 soldiers were linked to skinhead and other similar groups or found to hold extremist views. They included 17 who were considered white supremacists or separatists.

“We woke up one day and discovered that we had extremist elements in our ranks,” Austin told the Senate Armed Services Committee. “And they did bad things that we certainly held them accountable for. But we discovered that the signs for that activity were there all along. We just didn’t know what to look for or what to pay attention to.”

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https://apnews.com/article/bae68db9859211fa47f453c30d46063d

Soldier joked about death tattoo before killings
ESTES THOMPSON
February 14, 1997

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. (AP) Riding around with two fellow soldiers, a Fort Bragg paratrooper joked about earning a skinhead spider web tattoo for killing a black person, one of the soldiers testified.

Former Army paratrooper James Burmeister, who had a 9mm pistol in his belt, got out of the car with fellow paratrooper Malcom Wright, Randy Meadows testified Thursday.

"I heard gunshots," said Meadows, who pleaded guilty to reduced charges in exchange for his testimony in the murder trial of Burmeister, 21, of Thompson, Pa.

Burmeister could get the death sentence if convicted of killing Jackie Burden, 22, and Michael James, 36.

Earlier that day, Burmeister and Meadows had seen Wright’s spider web tattoo, which Wright said meant the wearer had killed a black person, Meadows said.

Burmeister "laughed and said, `Maybe I’ll earn my spider web tonight‴ just before the shooting, Meadows said.