Patriot Front formed after Charlottesville, and leaked messages reveal members are getting trained like they’re in boot camp.

A leader of an emerging white-supremacist group is a Marine veteran who uses his military experience to train other extremist recruits in military tactics, leaked messages show.

Erik Sailors is the head of a Texas chapter of Patriot Front, a white-supremacist group that splintered from one of the main groups at the deadly white-power rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, last year. Sailors gives “hip-pocket classes” (short, informal military class) to white nationalists, from the “gear list” of what members should bring to protests (Marine Corps-issued combat boots and decontaminate wipes) to lessons in mixed martial arts and hand-to-hand combat techniques, the leaked messages reveal.

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Marine Corps officials said Sailors enlisted in 2011 before transitioning to the Individual Ready Reserve (IRR) in 2016. Unlike active-duty or reserve forces, most IRR members have been discharged but can be recalled to active duty. While military regulations prohibit personnel from “actively advocating supremacist, extremist, or criminal gang doctrine, ideology, or causes,” it doesn’t apply to the IRR.

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“There is no place for racial hatred or extremism in the Marine Corps. Our strength is derived from the individual excellence of every Marine regardless of background,” said Marine spokesman Maj. Brian Block.

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