Army Lieutenant Col. Andrew Rhodes, the commander of the 1st Battalion, 8th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Regimental Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division at Fort Carson, is under preliminary inquiry after allegedly telling troops that “white people are the problem,” according to an Army spokesperson.
“The command is aware of an event involving one of our battalion commanders, we are conducting a preliminary inquiry to gather more information,” a spokesperson told Breitbart News in an email on Wednesday, adding “It would be inappropriate to provide any further details in order to protect the integrity of the inquiry.”
According to an eyewitness source, after soldiers in the battalion received a quarterly Equal Opportunity (EO) brief by an EO representative, Rhodes made additional remarks.
Rhodes allegedly told soldiers that EO and SHARP (Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention) were very important to him, that he would take every accusation very seriously, and that he believed there was only a .01% false accusation rate.
He then allegedly said “white people are the problem” and that white people correcting white people is the way to fix the culture in the military, and that soldiers could not depend on minorities to correct the majority.
The source told Breitbart News: “I agree with some of the statements but I believe it sets a dangerous standard for abusing the already broken Army programs,” adding:
I agreed that some of the culture in the Army needs to change, [but I] didn’t agree with how he singled out that white people are the issue and need to fix ourselves. [It] sounds like he’s only going after one group of people. And saying you will believe everyone sets a dangerous standard. For example, if I don’t like Sgt. Joe, I can just go make a report against him. It may come out with no results but that guy is still known for my complaint against him, and the battalion commander will back him/her all the way.
The source clarified the broken Army programs are SHARP and EO programs: “They have their need in the Army of course — just abused sometimes.”
The source also said others thought Rhodes’ statements were “a bit much and a blanket statement for a very broad subject.”
The source said Rhodes spoke to small groups at a time and that he made similar remarks to other groups throughout the day.
Rhodes’s alleged remarks first came to light after Instagram account TerminalCWO highlighted them on June 8, and then Human Events’s Jack Posobiec reported on them.
TerminalCWO posted a private message from someone attempting to explain Rhodes’s remarks. It said:
I know the [battalion commander] today said, ‘if you’re a white male you are part of the problem’. Understand that what he meant is that if you aren’t working to solve the problem of SHARP or EO, you are part of the problem. Complacency is the issue. That’s why he immediately follow [sic] the comment with the example of making a correction in private. If you or your soldiers have any questions about what was said today please have them come talk to me or SFC [redacted]. Make sure this gets down to the lowest level.
Responses can be seen that say, “I mean that’s racist but we’ll just ignore that I guess,” and “To [sic] late he is a racist to white people in my eyes.”
Another person claimed Rhodes rambled about how if soldiers did not like “how woke the army is getting then get the f*ck out of it.”
TerminalCWO posted the messages along with its own caption: “I hope you’re not white or ever accused of anything while you’re in his command. You’re already guilty, and you didn’t even know it!”
Rhodes ran a Twitter account, first reported by Posobiec, where he described himself as: “US Army infantry LTC. Fervent anti-racist & anti-sexist. Trying my best. He/him. Colorado Springs, CO.” The account has since been deleted.
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