Outside the Beltway

The 82nd Airborne Is Still Fighting Fascists

· Friday, August 18, 2017 · 3 comments

The 82nd Airborne Division is calling out a man who was photographed at the Charlottesville rally on Saturday wearing an 82nd Airborne hat:

The 82nd Airborne Division fought several campaigns against Nazi Germany during World War II. So after a man in a hat bearing the elite Army paratrooper unit’s insignia was pictured throwing a Ku Klux Klan salute (which resembles and is sometimes mistaken for a Nazi salute) during the weekend’s Charlottesville protests, the division delivered a pointed message.

“Anyone can purchase that hat,” 82nd Airborne wrote on its official Twitter page. “Valor is earned.”

The infantry unit, nicknamed the All American Division, was reacting to a photograph that Brandon Friedman, a former Obama administration official, shared of the demonstrator on Twitter. The image was retweeted more than 20,000 times Monday

Here’s the original image that was shared on Twitter:

The 82nd Airborne Division responded in a series of Tweets:

Excellent.

FILED UNDER: Military Affairs, , , , , , , , ,
Doug Mataconis
About Doug Mataconis
Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.

Comments

  1. CSK says:
    Friday, 18 August 2017 at 11:32

    As you say: Excellent.

  2. John Peabody says:
    Friday, 18 August 2017 at 12:39

    “Anger is a wind that blows out the lamp of the mind” -Robert Green Ingersoll. Looks like we need a few lamp-lighters in this country.

  3. JohnMcC says:
    Friday, 18 August 2017 at 13:17

    Deafening uproar from conservatives protesting ‘stolen valor’. Come on…. Waiting….

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