A soldier in the Florida National Guard who co-founded a murderous fascist group was chatting with a fellow white supremacist in the extremist "Iron March" online forum in 2016, when the guard member made a remarkable statement.

The guard member said he felt free to be a neo-Nazi in the U.S. Army.

"Are you worried at all about being found by your mates or someone, now being in the U.S. military?" he was asked. "You'll be straight f---ed surely."

To that, the soldier replied: "I was 100% open about everything with the friends I made at training. They know about it all. They love me too cause I'm a funny guy."

A large database containing this and many other Iron March chats was published in 2019 on the Ars Technica news site. A screenshot of the neo-Nazi guardsman's exchange is spotlighted in a previously unpublicized October 2020 Pentagon report to Congress that details the military's efforts to keep extremists, particularly fascists, out of the military.

The report, obtained by CQ Roll Call, paints a stark picture of white supremacist inroads in the U.S. military. And it reveals several steps the Pentagon is now reviewing to kick such people out and help keep them out -- from accessing an FBI database of extremist tattoos to improving security clearance questions.