Last October, some old tweets of a West Point cadet in a Che Guevara shirt sparked outrage across the country.
The soldier pictured, now 2nd Lt. Spenser Rapone, had been openly serving as an avowed communist supporting the downfall of the U.S. government.
Both the United States Military Academy and his current command, the 10th Mountain Division, launched investigations into his conduct.
Those inquires are finished, the Army said in a statement Tuesday ― but that is all they would say.
“Due to privacy act restrictions, we are limited in what information we can provide,” Lt. Col. Nina Hill, an Army spokeswoman, told reporters. “We can confirm, however, that the Army conducted a full investigation and that appropriate action was taken.”
The Army’s statement comes days after some media outlets reported that Rapone had received an other than honorable discharge from the Army.
The Army often invokes privacy concerns when dealing with information about junior ranking soldiers, though there is no blanket policy for the Defense Department.
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The Navy, on the other hand, readily releases full investigations into rank-and-file sailors when their cases have become infamous.
Take the story of Gas Turbine Systems Technician 3rd Class Peter Mims ― an E-4 ― whose disappearance sparked a massive man overboard search last year. Investigators found that he had been hiding in an engine room aboard the ship, the cruiser Shiloh, for a week.
For his part, Rapone became infamous in 2017 after his photos and tweets made the internet rounds.
In one, the graduating cadet is seen making a fist while displaying the underside of his cover, scrawled with “COMMUNISM WILL WIN,” at his commencement in 2016.
At the time, the Army confirmed that he had previously been an enlisted soldier and a member of the 75th Ranger Regiment, with one Afghanistan deployment, but that he had been “removed for standards.”
Officials also confirmed that, following his commissioning, he had failed out of Ranger school before being assigned to 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division.
But the service declined to disclose what investigators found, how Rapone had been disciplined, or even if he has been allowed to stay in the service.
“We now consider the matter closed,” Hill said.
Meghann Myers is the Pentagon bureau chief at Military Times. She covers operations, policy, personnel, leadership and other issues affecting service members.
