US Army soldier gets 45 years for neo-Nazi plot to ambush his own paratrooper unit

A former US Army private from Kentucky who was devoted to a violent extremist group seeking to erode or destroy Western civilization was sentenced to a maximum of 45 years in prison for plotting a murderous terrorist attack on his paratrooper unit.

Ethan Melzer’s hands trembled as the judge said he deserved the maximum because of the lasting harm he caused by sharing US military secrets with other followers of a radical violent group known as the Order of Nine Angles, or 09A, and other terrorist groups.

US District Judge Gregory H. Woods rejected the 24-year-old’s claim to be a remorseful, reformed man, saying it was more likely he was “playing another role” in pursuit of leniency just as he had “played soldier” so he could conspire to try to murder fellow paratroopers, The Times of Israel reports.

Melzer’s lawyers had asked that he get no more than 15 years behind bars. He pleaded guilty last June to trying to murder service members, supporting terrorists and illegally transmitting defense information.

Authorities said Melzer joined the military to infiltrate its ranks on behalf of a group espousing neo-Nazi, antisemitic and Satanic beliefs. They said the group tells members to subvert the military from within by infiltrating it to gain training, commit acts of violence and identify like-minded individuals.

Prosecutors said in court papers that Melzer planned to join co-conspirators he met online to carry out a “jihadi attack” that would cause a “mass casualty” event that would provoke the United States into engaging in a foreign war, “causing mass bloodshed and terrible harm to the very country he had sworn to protect.”