In the wake of Charlie Kirk’s death, at least eight service members have been suspended from their jobs or investigated over comments made on social media about his killing, service officials confirmed to Task & Purpose.
In all, Task & Purpose tracked dozens of military members from the Army, Air Force, Navy and Marines whose social media posts on Kirk were being collected by several major conservative accounts and a number of smaller military-focused ones in the wake of Kirk’s death on Sept. 10 at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah.
As of Wednesday, at least five Army officers and an Air Force senior master sergeant have been suspended from their jobs after allegedly posting about the death of Kirk on social media. An Army Reserve major is also under investigation.
Last week, a Marine officer was relieved of his recruiting duties and placed under investigation for allegedly sharing a meme on Instagram that mocked Kirk’s death.
An Army official confirmed to Task & Purpose that Army Col. Amy Neiman, Col. Scott Stephens, Lt. Col. Christopher Ladnier, Maj. Guillermo Muniz, and Capt. Andra McCray were suspended from their current roles pending review of social media statements.
Nieman is a senior JAG officer with the 101st Airborne at Fort Campbell. Stephens and Muniz are, respectively, assigned to the Army’s Detroit Arsenal and 22nd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. It was unclear where the other two officers were assigned, though McCray’s social media identified him as a Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear officer in Pennsylvania.
The Army Reserve confirmed that Maj. Bryan Bintliff is under investigation for his alleged social media posts. His duty status has not changed.
The Air Force confirmed it removed Senior Master Sgt. Adam Antonioli from his leadership position at Hurlburt Field, Florida.
Task & Purpose attempted to contact all of the suspended service members. Some could not be reached, while others declined to comment.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth indicated the day after Kirk’s killing that Pentagon officials would be monitoring and reacting to social media posts.
“We are tracking all these very closely — and will address, immediately. Completely unacceptable,” Hegseth posted on X on Sept. 11.
Collection of crowd-sourced posts
At least one X account, @deptbuilding01, appears to have been created in recent days to serve as a growing list of service members accused of criticizing Kirk. The posts even reached some of social media’s most-followed conservative activist accounts, including X’s LibsOfTikTok.
Army veteran Sam Shoemate is one of the X users who have been highlighting troops’ comments about Kirk’s death.
“I can’t speak for the overall effort,” Shoemate, a former intelligence officer, told Task & Purpose. “I’m not involved in most of it. I’m only concerned with senior leadership who feel the need to write vile garbage despite SECWAR [the Secretary of War] telling them not to. Counterproductive leadership has been my focus for years, and it will continue to be.”
Pentagon officials from Hegseth down have indicated that troops can expect their online statements to be reviewed. Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell vowed that the military has “zero tolerance” for any service members or Defense Department civilians who “celebrate or mock the assassination of a fellow American.”
‘Vigilante culture’
But others worry that a campaign targeting service members for online speech will hurt the military.
“This kind of vigilante culture war activity is terribly damaging,” said Kori Schake, head of the defense policy team at the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute think tank in Washington, D.C. “It’s going to drive talented people out of our military and politicize those who remain.”
“I propose that anyone advocating for forcing out people who’ve volunteered to defend our country should have to replace them,” she added.
Under Secretary of the Air Force Matthew Lohmeier appeared to take direct interest in the case of Antonioli. Lohmeier vowed on X to “take swift action” and subsequently posted that he had “asked our senior military leaders to read the member his rights, and place him and his entire chain of command under investigation,” earning praise from Hegseth.
At least one senior commander warned his troops that their social media posts were under scrutiny. Col. Patrick Dierig, commander of the 1st Special Operations Wing, sent an email to his airmen on Saturday warning that what they say publicly can undermine the public’s trust in their unit and its mission.
“I expect each of you to uphold the highest standard of professionalism, on and off duty, in words, deeds, and actions,” Dierig wrote. “That standard is not optional.”
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This is not the first time that troops have faced possible consequences for what they’ve said in public. Lohmeier, for example, was relieved as commander of 11th Space Warning Squadron in 2021 after saying on a podcast that the military’s diversity and anti-extremism training at the time were rooted in Marxism.
The Uniform Code of Military Justice limits what troops can say publicly, including using contemptuous words against the president and other U.S. government officials, retired Marine Lt. Col. Colby Vokey, who is now a civilian attorney who represents service members. The military also has the option of charging troops for conduct that is unbecoming an officer and prejudicial to good order and discipline.
But service members still have First Amendment rights under the Constitution, so the military may run into difficulties trying to discipline troops for their alleged comments about Kirk, Vokey told Task & Purpose.
“I just think it would have to be found to be unconstitutional to charge anyone in violation of any of those articles for making comments about Charlie Kirk, Vokey said.
However, military leaders can relieve troops from their positions for their comments on social media, Vokey said.
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