…copy of his Army retirement paperwork reviewed by Military.com reveals previously undisclosed details about Rhodes' career that show a soldier who served quietly and relatively unremarkably, despite the central role his military career plays in the fabric of the Oath Keepers. He was honorably separated from the Army after serving two years and seven months on active duty, leaving at the rank of specialist with a "temporary" physical disability, according to the document.
The Jan. 6 plot that his group hatched, as outlined in federal charges that have led to three guilty pleas from other Oath Keepers, leaned heavily on what they believed were elite military tactics. Militia members stored weapons across Northern Virginia, and "quick reaction force" teams were ready to storm the Capitol on Rhodes' orders. The court report referenced the Oath Keepers' use of a "stack" method, a military room-clearing formation that experts have pointed to as evidence of the Oath Keepers' inflated sense of capability.
Rhodes has pleaded not guilty to the sedition charges.
Over half of the Oath Keepers arrested that January -- including Rhodes -- had prior military service, something that Rhodes actively sought in public recruiting pitches that leaned on his own background.
"We need prior military, LEO, security professionals, skilled martial artists, emergency medical, communications, and intelligence personnel," wrote Rhodes in an archived blog post titled "Oath Keepers Deploying to DC to Protect Events, Speakers, & Attendees on Jan 5-6: Time to Stand!" posted two days before the attack on the Capitol.
"On your feet!" he wrote in November 2020 in a call to march on D.C. after the 2020 presidential election. "Stand up, hook up, check equipment ... and shuffle to the door my brothers and sisters," he added -- a reference to airborne military procedures, ones he experienced himself more than three decades ago. He signed off the blog post, in part, as both "Founder of Oath Keepers" and "U.S. Army Airborne disabled veteran."
Those messages were consistent with Rhodes' angle since founding the Oath Keepers in 2009. He used prior military service, including his own, as a rallying call to his members, actively recruiting veterans, requesting their own military records, and instilling a quasi-military culture in his acolytes by requiring militia members to take a reinterpreted version of the military oath of enlistment -- the result of which led many to the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Tasha Adams, Rhodes' estranged wife, said in an interview that, when she met Rhodes in 1991, five years after he was separated from the Army, he was assertive and intelligent, but unsatisfied with how short his military career was.
"He identified heavily [with the military] even then," she said. "He wasn't happy that he wasn't able to be a career military person still, even years later."
So far, six of the 11 January arrestees tied to the Oath Keepers plot have confirmed military service, consistent with the militia's propensity to recruit military and law enforcement veterans. Rhodes even requests a DD-214 -- an official document that gives a summary of a service member's time in uniform -- from potential recruits, according to the Oath Keepers' website.
Andrew Mines, a research fellow at The George Washington University's Program on Extremism who focuses on those with military experience at the Capitol insurrection, told Military.com "the legitimacy that he brings to the movement when he tries to claim the prestige of our military is definitely outsized."
