The 20th Special Forces Group, headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, posted the photo Sunday along with the caption, “That weekend feeling. Enjoy the rest of your weekend. Don’t stop training. Don’t get complacent.”

The post was then deleted after it garnered comments criticizing the patch, which was visible on the back of one service member’s helmet.

“The use of symbols and patches depicting historic images of hate is not tolerated and a clear violation of our values,” said Maj. Russell Gordon, spokesperson for 1st Special Forces Command. “We are aware of the situation and are currently investigating the matter.”

The Alabama National Guard is assisting 1st Special Forces Command with the investigation, said Mack Muzio, a National Guard spokesperson.

Gordon confirmed the unit deleted the post. However, a screenshot of the image was shared by individuals to other social media sites in subsequent days, where hundreds of people have criticized the unit and commented on the historical significance of the image.

The Totenkopf is listed in the Anti-Defamation League’s hate symbols database, where it’s described as the symbol adopted by the SS-Totenkopfverbande, a branch of the SS that guarded concentration camps. Since World War II, neo-Nazis and other white supremacists have adopted it as a symbol of hate, the database states.

The investigation comes just one month after the Montana National Guard issued an apology for its use of photos in recruiting materials that showed Nazi soldiers marching during World War II. Those images, too, sparked outrage online.

This story was produced in partnership with Military Veterans in Journalism. Please send tips to MVJ-Tips@militarytimes.com.

The policy, which technically expired in November but is still part of the department’s force management guidance, includes a waiver process for units to revert to the mandatory minimum 1:2 deployment-to-dwell ratio, but the numbers on waiver requests and approvals are classified, Army Maj. Grace Geiger said.

“The Department has multiple processes in place to identify, approve, and track individuals and units not meeting the goal,” she added, including oversight from the services, the Joint Staff and the defense secretary’s office.

The Pentagon had not answered follow-up questions seeking details of these oversight processes as of Friday afternoon.

Questions about the Pentagon policy emerged following an Army Times investigation last week that found that members of Army armor brigades — units that largely have not met the dwell time goals over the past decade — were twice as likely to kill themselves than other active duty soldiers in recent years.

Long periods of high operational tempo can increase a service member’s suicide risk, according to Craig Bryan, a psychologist and mental health researcher at Ohio State University who spoke to Army Times.

Bryan, a former Air Force psychologist, was a member of the suicide prevention independent review committee convened by the Pentagon in 2022.

That committee found that “training demands and requirements … [are] primary sources of stress, burnout and demoralization.” Other common stressors include shoddy computers, byzantine promotion policies, unsupportive leaders and poor housing.

Army tank brigades have flirted with or broken the dwell threshold in recent years.

The 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team returned from a nine-month South Korea rotation in August 2021. But the Raider Brigade rapidly deployed to Europe six months later in February 2022, when Russia expanded its invasion of Ukraine. The brigade’s families were furious about the move, detailing the hardships they faced during a March 2022 town hall with the Army’s then-top noncommissioned officer at Fort Stewart, Georgia.

This month, the Fort Carson, Colorado-based 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team of the 4th Infantry Division, deploys to Europe approximately 16 months after returning from an eight-month Poland mission in December 2022.

Former officials argue that the sustained operational tempo has harmed units as well.

Retired Gen. Robert “Abe” Abrams, who led Army Forces Command before retiring in 2021, previously told Military Times that the Army’s armor units struggle with a 1:2 deployment-to-dwell ratio at current resourcing levels and “cannot sustain that tempo indefinitely.”

“That’s what’s crushing them,” he said.

Other communities, such as air defense, have faced high deployment rates as well.

The Navy has also dealt with a bruising tempo in recent years, with an ever-increasing assortment of missions. The COVID pandemic only exacerbated that pace, as pre-cruise quarantines and zero port calls became the order of the day.

The aircraft carrier Nimitz and its strike group spent an historic 11 months at sea from April 2020 through February 2021.

Precisely 22 months later, a perfect 1:2 dwell ratio, they were back on deployment. Policy dictates they would have needed a waiver to deploy again that quickly.

In a series of letters sent Feb. 5, the head of the National Guard Association of the U.S., retired Maj. Gen. Francis McGinn, claimed that the Pentagon is 16 months late in submitting plans for boosting such pay. The fiscal year 2022 defense policy bill required the Defense Department to study how it could provide equivalent special and incentive pays to part-time troops and send Congress a copy of their implementation plan.

The Pentagon submitted a report to Congress on the topic in the spring of 2023, but McGinn argued the department “did not comply with congressional intent and did not provide an implementation plan, as required.”

At issue are 18 entitlements such as aviator incentive pay, which distributes up to $1,000 per month to qualified active duty pilots, and jump pay, which pays $150 per month to active duty who jump at least once every three months.

Although part-time service members must satisfy the same eligibility requirements (and incur the same minimum risk, in the case of hazardous duty) to earn such pays, they do not receive the same amount of money. Reserve component paratroopers, for example, receive only $5 in jump pay for each drill period or annual training day they complete, despite still needing to jump as often as their active duty counterparts.

While the fiscal 2022 law explicitly directed the military to provide equal pays for equal skills or equal risks, the bill also said the pay tables won’t change until the defense secretary formally tells Congress that doing so won’t negatively impact recruiting and retention of active duty service members.

The Department of Defense acknowledged but did not respond to questions sent for this story. Pentagon officials told lawmakers in March 2023, though, that they fear increasing part-time special and incentive pays could lead troops to leave active duty for the Guard or Reserve.

But McGinn argued that fear misses the point.

“Long gone are the days where we could focus on one component over the other,” he said in the letter. “We must look for new ways to encourage, reward and retain military service across all components. We cannot afford to lose and of our skilled professionals just because the [Pentagon] is slow rolling the will of Congress.”

Davis Winkie, the author of this story, is a member of the National Guard Association of the United States.

The three fallen troops were all members of the Army Reserve’s 718th Engineer Company. Their names, according to Defense Department and Army releases, are: Sgt. William Jerome Rivers, 46, a resident of Carrollton, Georgia; Spc. Kennedy Ladon Sanders, 24, of Waycross, Georgia; and Spc. Breonna Alexsondria Moffett, 23, of Savannah, Georgia.

Rivers, who hailed form Willingboro, New Jersey, joined the Reserve as an electrician in 2011, according to the Army release. He previously deployed to Iraq in 2018 as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, the anti-ISIS effort. His individual awards included an Army Achievement Medal in addition to service and campaign ribbons.

Sanders enlisted as a horizontal construction engineer in 2019, the Army said. She deployed to Djibouti in 2021, earning numerous service and campaign ribbons.

Moffett, who also joined the Reserve in 2019 as a horizontal construction engineer, was on her first deployment, the release said.

All three soldiers were assigned to the 718th Engineer Company in 2023 ahead of the deployment. Sanders and Moffett previously served in another engineer unit based in the south Georgia town of Tifton.

Drone hit “containerized housing units”

At least 34 other service members were injured in the attack, including eight who required medical evacuation from Jordan, said Central Command. Iran-backed militia groups, supported by the Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps, launched the drone, according to U.S. officials.

The drone hit the soldiers’ housing units, the Army release said, adding that an investigation into their deaths is underway.

The remote base where the soldiers were killed, Tower 22, houses approximately 350 American troops, according to Central Command. It provides engineering, aviation and logistical support to other U.S. facilities in the region, including the garrison at al-Tanf, Syria, some 12 miles north.

The 718th Engineer Company — part of the 926th Engineer Brigade’s 926th Engineer Battalion — is headquartered at Fort Moore, Ga., and consists primarily of part-time soldiers. It’s unclear whether the injured include troops from other units.

In its current form, family separation allowance provides an additional tax-free $250 per month to service members who are involuntarily separated from their families for 30 days or more. Eligible circumstances include dependent-restricted permanent duty tours (unless the member volunteered), sea duty and temporary duty away from the member’s permanent station. The defense policy bill, which President Joe Biden signed on Dec. 22, authorized DoD to boost the allowance to $400 per month.

Despite the updated law, officials are waiting to decide whether they’ll do it, according to a Pentagon spokesperson and an internal newsletter obtained by Military Times.

“The Department has not made any decision to change the monthly amount of Family Separation Allowance at this time,” said a Pentagon official who argued that Congress intended to create “a payment range with upper and lower payment boundaries.” The official, who requested anonymity to discuss ongoing policy deliberations, said the law gives the DoD “flexibility over time to adjust payment levels … without having to seek specific legislation to change the payment amount.”

The defense policy bill also required the Pentagon’s regular reviews of military pay — which occur every four years — to include family separation allowance rates in their studies. The Pentagon official said the review commission is expected to issue its final report and recommendations by the end of 2024, though it’s uncertain whether family separation allowance will increase before (or even after) the study concludes.

One of the law’s original sponsors, Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, emphasized that the changes are intended to increase the amount of money going into troops’ pockets.

“Our military families make great sacrifices every day — it’s only fair that we do everything we can to improve their quality of life,” Gonzales said in a statement to Military Times. “That is why I pushed hard to increase the Family Separation Allowance in this year’s NDAA for the first time in two decades. I will continue to work with the Department of Defense to ensure this boost is made a reality for military parents across the country.”

Advocates for military families expressed frustration with the Pentagon’s inaction when reached by Military Times.

“It has been 20 years since the last increase of the Family Separation Allowance. It’s time to bring it in line with the current cost of living,” said Kelly Hruska, government relations director for the National Military Family Association. “This is what Congress intended. We are disappointed that DoD chose to ignore the will of Congress and keep this allowance flat.”

The vehicle, with bumper number 618-26 and windshield decals reading “PFC Arms and LT Dyke,” has not been recovered. Readers with information can collect a $5,000 reward if they provide CID with a tip that leads to the identification, arrest and conviction of anyone involved in the theft.

Belated editor’s note: Reward information is where reality ends and where, in this case, satire begins. What follows is Army Times’ senior reporter Davis Winkie’s fictional recreation of the speech the company first sergeant may have given to soldiers after day three of looking for the vehicle. It’s formatted as a screenplay. To be frank, we can’t really tell you why Davis chose to do that. Whatever. It’s Friday.

This satirical story is shockingly devoid of reality. We do not know the people involved, and we don’t know the circumstances under which any of this occurred. Please do not email us unless it’s to offer Davis a movie deal, and do not hold this against the vehicle’s authorized user, who has probably suffered enough already.

FADE IN:

EXT. COF, 618TH ENGINEER SUPPORT COMPANY (AIRBORNE) – 1745 HOURS, FRIDAY NOV. 10

WE OPEN outside the company operations facility, late on Friday afternoon, after three days of searching for the company executive officer’s Humvee, which disappeared without a trace on Tuesday night. The disappearance derailed the company field exercise, and leaders are furious. The shot begins wide, capturing the entire company formation and the building’s facade, before it slowly pushes in closer on the man standing in front of the unit.

As we draw nearer to him, it becomes clear that the FIRST SERGEANT isn’t mad. He’s just (visibly) disappointed. And maybe a little afraid?

FIRST SERGEANT

Ok, 618th, on the command “fall out,” I want you to form a school circle around me, hooah? It’s been a long week, so let’s make this quick and enjoy the long weekend, hooah?

Scattered “hooahs” emanate from the beleaguered paratroopers.

FIRST SERGEANT

Fall out!

BEHIND THE FIRST SERGEANT

The soldiers quickly assemble around the FIRST SERGEANT. Noticeably absent is the COMPANY XO.

FIRST SERGEANT

Listen up, paratroopers. As we all know, someone stole Nasty 5′s Humvee while we were in the field earlier this week. The LT and the CO are currently in the brigade commander’s office.

FACING THE COF, SLIGHTLY ELEVATED TO SEE FIRST SERGEANT OVER THE SEA OF SHOULDERS

FIRST SERGEANT

It’s been a tough three days. We’ve combed damn near every training area on this post.

FIRST SERGEANT

If anyone in this company knows anything about where the LT’s Humvee is, please step forward now. Let’s end this here and now. I can offer amnesty — no harm, no foul, no negative consequences.

BEHIND FIRST SERGEANT, LOOKING OUT ON TROOPS

Nobody steps forward. A few junior enlisted soldiers exchange suspicious glances, but it’s not clear whether they plotted the theft or whether this is just how they act all the time. Really could be either.

CLOSE UP OF FIRST SERGEANT’S FACE

The FIRST SERGEANT pauses, grimaces and shakes his head as if he’s choking on the words that come next.

FIRST SERGEANT

Please.

Several seconds of silence follow. The specialists in the back continue exchanging suspicious glances, and now it’s certain that this is just the way they are. Or is it?

FACING THE COF

FIRST SERGEANT

I’m serious, please return the LT’s truck. If this is a prank, it is no longer funny. Hell, it stopped being funny two days ago. Return it now, and it can be funny again! Please, guys. Please.

The soldiers shift back-and-forth uncomfortably. They sense something bigger might be at play here. The FIRST SERGEANT, visibly nervous, checks his watch — the biggest, chunkiest, most stereotypical rubber impact-resistant watch ever seen on Fort Liberty.

FIRST SERGEANT

You don’t understand what’s going to happen if we don’t find this Humvee by 1800. Any soldier who is man enough to come forward now and admit stealing it — or to tell us who did it — will receive four-day special pass for next weekend as well.

Nobody moves or speaks up. A DISGRUNTLED SPECIALIST IN THE BACK groans audibly.

FIRST SERGEANT

We are running out of time to solve this problem ourselves. I cannot save us from anything that happens next — unless one of you comes forward. Please, guys. It’s Friday of a long weekend. Today was supposed to be a DONSA. My wife has called me six times in the last 30 minutes.

The FIRST SERGEANT’s elaborately shock-resistant, waterproof watch beeps.

CLOSE UP OF CHUNKY WATCH

The watch reads 18:00, because of course the FIRST SERGEANT’s watch is set to 24-hour time. A vehicle engine sounds in the background as a lifted pickup truck approaches.

FIRST SERGEANT

Please! Just give us the LT’s Humvee. If you come forward in the next 30 seconds, you’ll also get out of our next red cycle tasking.

FACING OUT FROM COF, STREET IN BACKGROUND

The doors of the lifted pick-up truck open, and five people get out. It’s not clear how they all fit inside. The BATTALION CSM, two CID AGENTS wearing marked civilian clothes, the COMPANY COMMANDER and the COMPANY XO (who looks like he hasn’t slept since Tuesday) emerge and walk toward the formation.

As the soldiers realize what is happening, they turn around to watch the group approach.

INTERCUT BTWN BATTALION CSM, FIRST SERGEANT, COMPANY COMMANDER and COMPANY XO

BATTALION CSM

First Sergeant, any luck?

The FIRST SERGEANT shakes his head to signal no. The BATTALION CSM appears a little too excited about what’s going to happen next. The COMPANY COMMANDER sports a 1,000-yard stare. The COMPANY XO — wait, is the XO crying?

TRACKING SHOT follows the BATTALION CSM, who is flanked by the CID agents, as they walk to the front of the gaggle formation. (DW note: Not sure if the Imperial March is appropriate for this scene or not, remember to discuss with director.) Camera settles back in FACING THE COF once finished tracking.

BATTALION CSM

How we doing, Nasty Company? You had your chance to do this the easy way. Here’s what is going to happen now.

The BATTALION CSM gestures toward the two CID AGENTS. He pulls out a stack of papers — rights waivers, required for witness and subject interviews. One of the agents appears to mouth the word “sorry” as he stares intently at his feet.

BATTALION CSM

These two gentlemen are going to interview every single soldier in this goddamn company. Yes, you have a right not to speak to them. I don’t care. Every one of you will either sit with them in the COF or sign the sheet saying you refused to speak without a lawyer present. The good news is that Trial Defense Services is able to help those soldiers. The bad news for all of them is that TDS is out of the office until Tuesday, and you are under orders not to leave this company footprint until you and your lawyer complete an interview, hooah.

Absolutely nobody echoes the hooah. The COMPANY COMMANDER slinks into the COF. He probably was going to stay there all weekend sending emails anyways.

BATTALION CSM

But don’t any of you think that doing a one-and-done interview will get you out of this either. Every day this weekend, from 0600 to 1900, the XO will be leading the entire company in a “Hands Across America” police line through the Mott Lake training area — including the water. You will either find this Humvee or drown trying.

QUICK CUT to the COMPANY XO, who is sitting on the ground behind the formation hugging his knees and rocking back and forth, shaking with each successive sob. The crying grows gradually louder even after the camera cuts back to the BATTALION CSM.

BATTALION CSM

OK team, that’s all I have. I’ll be with you this weekend because I don’t like my family anyways. You have 30 minutes for chow; someone bring me a Popeye’s chicken sandwich from the Butner Road shopette. Stay Nasty!

Soldiers scatter and begin calling their families to relay the bad news.

FADE OUT

For years, military leaders have insisted that troops in need of mental health care should reach out without worrying it will adversely impact their professional path.

Yet despite these assurances, fears still exist within the ranks that seeking help could lead to their security clearance being denied or revoked, sinking a career in the process.

But Defense Department data obtained exclusively by Military Times reveals that is not the case, and that troops lose or are denied a security clearance due to psychological issues at a low rate, and far less often than other disqualifying categories.

The Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency, or DCSA, the body in charge of assessing candidates and processing clearances throughout the DOD, has 13 guidelines that can lead to a service member having their clearance denied or revoked.

Troops can lose or be denied a security clearance for either one of the 13 disqualifying guidelines, or for a combination of them.

Of the nearly 5.4 million security clearances that DCSA has adjudicated since 2012, just 1.8% involved psychological conditions, according to the agency.

And officials have denied or revoked DOD security clearances based solely on psychological conditions in just 68 cases since 2012, or 0.00115% of the time, according to DCSA.

A Military Times analysis from fiscal year 2019 to fiscal year 2023 also found that the psychological conditions disqualifier was not a top-cited guideline for yanking or denying a military member’s clearance.

In each of the past five fiscal years, psychological conditions were the seventh most cited in fiscal years 2019 and 2020, and the eighth most cited from 2021 to 2023, according to DCSA data.

By comparison, the data shows that disqualifiers involving drug or alcohol use and financial considerations were cited at a higher rate.

In other words, the data points to a critical point, according to agency officials and outside experts: seeking mental health assistance is not a significant driver of troops losing or being denied a clearance, despite such persistent fears in the ranks.

The agency has also analyzed nearly 100,000 cases going back to 2012 and found “no cases in which somebody, for simply seeking mental healthcare, failed to get or lost a clearance,” Dr. Michael Priester, chief psychologist for DCSA’s adjudications division, told Military Times in an interview.

“This is a pervasive myth,” he said of the idea that treating mental health will cost a clearance.

While leaders can stand before troops and assure them seeking mental health care won’t impact their clearance, Priester said his agency “actually has the hard brass-tacks data to prove that.”

“We’re really pleased to have that information to bring to the table,” he said.

Troops who disclose conditions like bipolar spectrum disorder, psychotic spectrum disorder and certain personality disorders are not automatically denied, according to Priester.

“Those are certainly conditions we would look more closely at because we wouldn’t want somebody…that had a psychotic spectrum disorder and had difficulties interpreting reality to be active in their clearance, certainly not without behavioral health treatment,” he said.

But a primary part of the agency’s assessment is less about the mental health diagnosis and more about whether a service member followed their provider’s treatment plan once they were diagnosed, Priester said.

Being honest about mental health history and adhering to a doctor’s treatment plan are critical in the clearance process, according to Daniel Meyer, a partner at the law firm Tully Rinckey who specializes in security clearance cases.

“You need to keep an eye on the central security concern, which is not your health,” Meyer told Military Times. “Security really isn’t concerned about your health, that’s your doctor’s job.”

Instead, DCSA wants to see that a treatment plan is followed after diagnosis, said Meyer, a former Defense Department senior official who led Inspector General efforts regarding civilian reprisals, whistleblowing and transparency matters.

“If you can’t follow the rules about something as important as your health, you’re not going to follow the rules on something as important as the handling of classified information,” he said.

Those mental health guidelines were revised in 2012, Meyer said, reflecting the normalization of mental health treatment in American society.

“By and large, most of this is [mitigable],” he said.

But while mental health treatment is not a leading reason cited for denying or revoking a clearance, Meyer still recommended that military clearance holders get a mental health assessment from an outside provider if they are undergoing treatment.

“Do not rely on a government doctor, because government doctors work for the government,” said Meyer, who regularly represents federal employees at all stages of the clearance process, from filling out the SF-86 form to adjudication.

“You need to have your own practitioner in addition to Army medicine, Navy medicine, Air Force medicine,” Meyer added. “You need to maintain your own files.”

‘You lied to us’

Several of the categories by which DCSA revokes or denies a clearance involve not only the infraction itself, but broader indications as to whether a holder can be trusted to follow the rules, according to the security clearance regulations and outside experts.

Running afoul of a category like drug use “raises questions about a person’s ability or willingness to comply with rules, laws and regulations,” the guidance states.

Entities like DCSA see truthfulness about past drug use as an indicator of more important qualities a clearance holder should have, and some past drug use is not the disqualifier it once was, Meyer said.

“Almost everybody who comes through with your average high school or college use of drugs is going to get clear, as long as they don’t lie about it,” according to Meyer.

That’s when things can get sticky.

“They bust you at some point, they ask the trick questions, you have to go on a polygraph or they interview your high school teacher who says they caught you under the stands at a football game smoking a doobie,” he said. “And now you’ve got an integrity issue. You lied to us.”

An omission suggests the prospective clearance holder can’t be trusted.

“They’re using the drug review process to assess not only your dependency on drugs, but also to assess your overall penchant for deceit,” he said. “Security would rather have a group of honest dullards working in the federal government than to have really high energy, exceptional-but-deceitful people.”

The sexual behavior DCSA guideline is another category where Meyer urges honesty, even if one’s consensual adult predilections may be awkward for a service member to disclose.

Like drug disclosure, it’s a realm where security adjudicators have liberalized along with the rest of society, even as concerns remain that someone’s proclivities could make them a blackmail target for foreign agents.

Meyer said he had multiple cases in recent years involving clearance holders with potentially embarrassing — but legal — sexual preferences and the clients ultimately received their clearance because they were forthright with security officers.

He also tells clients to be mindful of what they post online.

“I have a rule with my clients: I don’t want your junk online,” he said. “I don’t want a picture, even if it’s legal…Just get it off the internet, because not only can it be gathered by people who want to leverage you and get you to leak classified information, but it’s also placed in places that it could come up in another criminal investigation.”

A racy photo sent to another military member who is later investigated for an unrelated allegation could lead to authorities seizing their electronics and finding that image.

“There’s a lifestyle decision to make about how you communicate in this world,” Meyer said. “That means you’re going to start making decisions about your lifestyle when you’re anticipating a clearance or have a clearance. You’re going to have to pull back a bit and not put as much stuff up on Tinder or Grindr…In all these forums, the enemies of the state are out there watching them.”

Real-time finance

In an era of easy credit and instant gratification, the DCSA’s financial considerations category looks for “failure to live within one’s means, satisfy debts and meet financial obligations” as potential red flags for denying or revoking a clearance, according to the SEAD 4.

“An individual who is financially overextended is at greater risk of having to engage in illegal or otherwise questionable acts to generate funds,” the guidance states.

It is also the most-cited clearance guideline for each of the past five years, according to the data provided by DCSA.

That category has been overhauled in recent years via the implementation of the so-called “continuous vetting” program in 2021, which Meyer said may be why there are so many citations of that guideline in the DCSA data.

Instead of periodic checks on a clearance holder every few years, continuous vetting entails Defense Department personnel, and employees of dozens of other government agencies, having their names and personal identifiers continuously scanned through background check databases, with any new events sent straight to investigators.

If an employee comes under criminal investigation, or forecloses on a home, multiple agencies will ping DCSA with the news immediately. At the same time, DCSA software will automatically scan those databases for new information.

“If you go gambling and you win or lose more than $10,000, there’s a report that’s going to go to the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Network…and your security officer is going to get an email in a couple days that you won $10,001 at MGM Grand, and then you’re going to be explaining to the security officer whether there’s something in your finances that’s compromisable,” Meyer said.

To avoid getting flagged, Meyer said he tells his clients to limit their credit card debt to $12,000.

“If you’re in the intelligence community, you should carry no short-term debt, and you should pay off your credit cards every month,” Meyer advised. “The best credit-worthy clientele in the United States really should be our clearance holders.”

Adhere to the ‘samurai code’

Meyer said every clearance holder should read the guidelines for disqualifying behavior every year, because they are “the samurai code of the federal workforce.”

When it comes to military members, he said a service member’s security officer is in a conflicted role and that outside experts should be sought, and random internet forums avoided.

“The training stinks, and I say that as a former senior official who was in charge of training in the intelligence community,” Meyer said. “You get the automated training with slides and people just zone out and it doesn’t sink in.”

But for a junior military member, clearance is about more than human resources or PowerPoint training, he said.

“The bottom line is you have agreed to live by those 13 guidelines,” Meyer said. “Focus on those and then get outside advice on things you don’t understand.”

Correction: an earlier version of this article misstated which mental health conditions can disqualify a service member from a security clearance. There are no conditions that automatically disqualify a member, according to the DCSA.

The law increased the maximum annual amount of the aviation incentive from $35,000 for each additional year of service to $50,000 per year.

But nearly a year later, the Army and Navy still cannot use the larger bonuses because the Office of the Secretary of Defense is yet to update a policy document that controls pilot incentives, according to military spokespeople and documents obtained by Military Times.

Both services still await answers about exceptions to policy requests that would permit them to start paying the higher amount. (The Marine Corps acknowledged emailed questions from Military Times but did not respond before this story’s publication deadline.)

“The Department appreciates Congress’s actions to increase the maximum bonus amount allowed by law for aviation officer career specialties,” said Navy Cmdr. Nicole Schwegman, a Defense Department spokesperson, in an emailed statement. She noted that all branches independently determine how to pay bonuses (within DoD policy) as one of many tools used to meet their individual retention needs.

Schwegman, who did not provide an estimated timeline for the Pentagon to complete the bonus policy revision, added that branches “may request an exception to current policy to pay higher bonuses.”

The Air Force received such an exception and started doling out bigger bonuses in June, according to Air Force spokesperson Laurel Falls. The temporary authority lasts through September 2025, should the DoD policy update drag out.

The Army, meanwhile, wants to use the bigger bonuses but can’t, according to a bonus planning document obtained by Military Times. The branch wants to offer warrant officer pilots $250,000 in return for five years of service, and it has requested an exception to policy, according to the document.

Army Lt. Col. Andy Thaggard, spokesperson for the service’s aviation proponent, confirmed that the Army is “working with sister services to request a permanent increase within the [DoD policy document].”

Along with the Army, the Navy’s personnel command “has submitted an exception to policy request to raise the aviation bonus cap,” said Lt. Cmdr. Sean Brophy, a spokesperson for the Navy. He added that an “exception to policy request was submitted to OSD this month and is currently pending approval.”

It’s not clear why the Army and Navy’s respective exceptions to policy requests are languishing. Bureaucratic delays can have significant consequences. According to the document, the Army’s fiscal 2023 aviation bonuses went partially unused, which planners blamed on “late release” of the personnel message authorizing it.

For new Sergeant Major of the Army Michael Weimer, that means shaving religiously, according to comments he made in an August interview with Military.com. His remarks surprised some observers who hoped the former Delta Force operator may have a more lenient posture towards beards than his predecessors.

“If you have a requirement for modified grooming standards, we can have a real conversation. But if you don’t, you don’t have a requirement for modified grooming standards,” he told reporter Steve Beynon. “Back to the basics. Back to discipline. I shave seven days a week.” The NCO noted that he picked up this habit in 2015 because he realized that he didn’t want to shave on the weekends — “so for me, it’s about discipline.”

One anonymous soldier on Reddit took the message to heart, it appears, and was inspired to create an online game where motivated warriors can help the sergeant major of the Army, who “woke up undisciplined today,” get a fresh shave.

The “Beard Eraser” game, which only works on desktop devices, is simple.

Weimer, in his official portrait from his time as Army Special Operations Command’s top enlisted leader, appears fully bearded, and text at the top of the screen implores players to “help SMA Weimer become a better soldier and a better man by shaving off his beard.”

The cursor appears as a disposable razor, and holding down the left mouse button while carefully maneuvering the razor — since you probably don’t want to cut a man with two Purple Hearts and five valor awards, including three Bronze Stars — slowly removes his beard.

As the whiskers, imagined by the programmer as a distinguished salt-and-pepper beard of conservative length, disappear from Weimer’s face, the portrait slowly comes into focus.

Reached via Reddit, the soldier who created the game declined to speak with Army Times.

“Absolutely not ,” the Reddit user said via direct message. They added that “the code is in the public domain.” That means other warriors with programming skills can set up similar motivational games that allow them to imagine helping their own senior leaders remain disciplined.

Fellow Army Reddit users agree that the programmer should probably be careful who they talk to about the game.

“He’s definitely going to ask CID to track you down,” joked one. “Maybe the FBI.”

Once players fully remove Weimer’s facial hair, a dialogue box pops up at the top of the screen.

“Game Over! You lose,” the message says. “You made (1) mistake: joining the army. Please try again.”

By playing the movie on a federal base, some critics have questioned whether SOUTHCOM’s leadership is following a policy that requires troops to remain apolitical at work – as QAnon followers have spread false rumors about and bashed President Joe Biden’s administration – and to maintain a separation of church and state, considering the film’s heavy Christian narrative.

“What is the idea and the ideology behind putting this on a military installation? Is this some form of indoctrination into an ideology of extremism?” asks human trafficking and exploitation consultant Sunnetta “Sunny” Slaughter, referring to the anti-government QAnon tropes being doled out by the film’s main actor Jim Caviezel, while promoting the film. According to the Associated Press, Caviezel has denied QAnon ties yet spoke at a QAnon-organized convention in 2021 and espoused several of the theory’s talking points on conservative talk shows hosted by Steve Bannon and Charlie Kirk.

The free screenings were originally planned for Aug. 28 and Oct. 19. The emailed flyer from U.S. Army Garrison-Miami manager Joanne B. Fitzgerald, obtained by Military Times, invited all locally based personnel to attend. It said it was being shown “In support of SOUTHCOM’s mission to promote respect for human rights and combating trafficking in persons in Central and South America and the Caribbean.” The bottom of the invite also stated, “The showing of this film does not imply or constitute endorsement by the U.S. Army nor SOUTHCOM.”

After Military Times initially inquired about the film’s scheduled showings, SOUTHCOM nixed the event, explaining in an email to the base that the free screenings were canceled until further notice in order to “prevent the appearance of copyright infringement.” But the emailed missive, obtained by Military Times, added that “the film is currently available to view at local theaters, and personnel and their families who would like to see the film are encouraged to do so.

“The movie’s central theme and its connection to SOUTHCOM’s AOR and our Human Rights Office (HRO) Combatting Trafficking in Persons (CTIP) program are inescapable and will serve to raise awareness of the prevalence of trafficking in human persons and sexual abuse and exploitation within our area of responsibility,” it said.

And SOUTHCOM spokesman Jose Ruiz defended the initial planned screening, telling Military Times that the movie’s central theme of combatting human trafficking in Latin America intertwines with the command’s area of responsibility and its mission, which includes protecting human rights.

“The subject of the movie is something that’s of great concern to the command, in that it follows as part of its mission of countering transnational criminal organizations,” Ruiz said. “Because of the way these transnational criminal organizations exploit migrants — the hopes of migrants — in ways that end up being serious violations to their human rights, and unfortunately in some cases lead to the deaths of the migrants.”

“Sound of Freedom” is based on the work of Timothy Ballard, who claims he worked for the CIA and the Department of Homeland Security, before launching the controversial anti-child-sex-trafficking group, Operation Underground Railroad. The activist group stages and films “stings” to round up traffickers in developing countries, at the invitation of foreign law enforcement, according to the group’s site. But the organization has been publicly maligned for allegedly creating more media frenzy and attention for Ballard than solutions for the rescued victims.

In the film, actor Jim Caviezel’s character is a former CIA officer who quits his job after his bosses refuse to authorize rescuing a Honduran girl from a Colombian sex-trafficking cartel.

At a film screening in London, director Alejandro Monteverde denied that the movie had anything to do with QAnon ideology, a sweeping collection of unfounded and disproven theories that revolve around the concept that the U.S. government is run by a secret faction of pedophiles. QAnon adherents also embrace former President Donald Trump and the false narrative that the 2020 election was stolen.

Yet after the film’s release, Caviezel publicly touted QAnon-aligned conspiracy theories on conservative talk shows and events organized by QAnon groups, per videos posted by Media Matters’ Eric Hananoki. Widely known for his role as Jesus of Nazareth in Mel Gibson’s 2004 film “The Passion of the Christ,” Caviezel repeated the baseless QAnon claim that “liberal elites” are part of an elaborate scheme to kidnap children and harvest their blood for adrenochrome, a real chemical compound, to experience euphoria. (Scientists say that’s not what adrenochrome does, despite its mention in Hunter. S Thompson’s 1971 psychedelic classic, “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” as a way to get high.)

“Although the directors say they don’t support it, the fact that they have their main person constantly referencing and leaning to a particular ideology is concerning for the film, and for the context and conversation around the film,” said human trafficking expert Slaughter, of Caviezel’s frequent references to QAnon ideology. She’s also wary of the film’s heavy emphasis on victims’ gaining salvation through Christianity as well as rescue. Slaughter identifies as Christian but fears the focus on a single faith might alienate trafficking victims who don’t share the same beliefs.

This story was produced in partnership with Military Veterans in Journalism. Please send tips to MVJ-Tips@militarytimes.com.