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When I heard that the Pentagon had updated its rules of conduct to root out extremism in the wake of the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol, I thought, it’s about time.

My mind raced back to my own Army experiences near the end of the Vietnam War era and the brief talk on color consciousness that our training company commander gave us.

“The Army,” he declared, “does not favor any color but red, white and blue.”

Good training restrained me from trying to remind him that “white” is a racial color, too.

After all, he was guided not only by good intentions but also military necessity. It was the late 1960s, after all. Racial and political tensions on the streets were turning up in the military.

Violent clashes at Camp Lejeune in 1969 and Travis Air Force Base in 1971, among other locations, prompted the Pentagon to take its deepest examination of race relations since President Harry Truman desegregated the military in 1948.

Interestingly, the worst of these conflicts tended to occur far from the front lines of combat. Closer to the action, as a wise old saying put it, “There are no bigots in foxholes.”

Yet it is the cordial camaraderie and heroic sacrifices that make me feel proud of my service — and infuriated about the service members and veterans who took up bear spray, flag poles, police shields and other weapons to beat up police and vandalize the Capitol on Jan. 6.

Of the more than 700 individuals charged by the Justice Department in connection with the Capitol breach, at least 81 are currently or former service members, according to a CBS News analysis.

That revelation led to a reckoning at the Pentagon over extremism in the ranks. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin issued a memorandum in February that directed commanding officers and supervisors at all levels to hold a one-day “stand down,” a pause in operations, to address the challenge of right-wing extremism in the military.

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