[Richard]

I remember when we had some guys in Group who were reenactors in the WW2HRS, including the LSSAH ( http://www.lssah.com/kt2.html ). I was looking into joining, too, but - ironically - came down on orders for Bad Tölz (the pic in the link shows the SS-Junkerschule at Bad Tölz which later became Flint Kaserne, the HQs for SF in Germany), left and never joined.

The guys who joined the LSSAH reenactors studied the history, traditions, and tactics, and wore the uniforms and equipment when participating in reenactment gatherings. Some of them were of Nordic ancestry and some just interested in the history, but I never saw anybody sport any symbolic Nazi tattos of a swastika or siegrunen.

I did meet a number of former members of the WSS during my time at Tölz and some of our guys were avid memorabilia collectors, but nobody wanted to be seen as being associated with Nazi philosophical ideals. For my part, it was both interesting and informative to sit and talk history and tactics with men who had literally spent years fighting the Soviets on the harsh OstFront - which would have been our enemy and AO if the 'balloon' had ever 'gone up' for us then.

We had a team patch made which incorporated the image of a medevil teutonic hunting dagger (which was also used by the SS), replacing the image of the vertical knife of the SF SSI to symbolize our being stationed in the former Junkerschule - but the Siegrunen and Nazi eagle were replaced with the atomic energy symbol relative to our team's focus (atchd) to prevent any misperception of our intent.

I did see such Nazi symbols and tattos while growing up - they were being used by overtly racist groups and hardcore motorcycle gang members.

It amazes me that any member or organization of the US military would think it was OK to condone or sport such an image, or claim they did not understand any of the symbolism associated with it.

Anybody check those historically challenged scout snipers to ensure they don't have their blood type tattoed under their left armpit?

And so it goes...

Richard