1988-1989: Future Oklahoma City Bombers Join Army

Terry Nichols, a 33-year-old Michigan native described as “aimless” by his wife, joins the US Army in Detroit. During basic training at Fort Benning, Georgia, Nichols meets fellow recruits Timothy McVeigh (see Bad link: a198788okcmcveighguns), who joined the Army in Buffalo, New York, and Arizona native Michael Fortier. All three share an interest in survivalism and a hatred of the government, particularly Nichols and McVeigh; unit member Robin Littleton later recalls, “Terry and Tim in boot camp went together like magnets.” The three are members of what the Army calls a “Cohort” unit, which generally keeps soldiers together in the same unit from boot camp all the way through final deployment. All three are sent to an infantry division in Fort Riley, Kansas, where they are finally separated into different companies. In the spring of 1989, Nichols leaves the Army due to family hardship, but his friendship with McVeigh and Fortier persists. [New York Times, 5/4/1995; Nicole Nichols, 2003]
McVeigh Continues Army Career, Described as 'Strange,' 'Racist,' but 'Perfect Soldier' - McVeigh does not leave the Army so quickly. He achieves the rank of sergeant and becomes something of a “model soldier.” However, few get to know him well; only his closest friends, such as Nichols, know of his passion for firearms, his deep-seated racism, or his hatred for the government. This information will not become public knowledge until much later. It is in the Army that McVeigh and Nichols become enamored of the novel The Turner Diaries (see 1978), which depicts a United States racially “cleansed” of minorities and other “undesirables.” Friends and fellow soldiers will describe him as a man who attempts to be the “perfect soldier,” but who becomes increasingly isolated during his Army career; the New York Times will describe him as “retreating into a spit-and-polish persona that did not admit nights away from the barracks or close friendships, even though he was in a ‘Cohort’ unit that kept nearly all the personnel together from basic training through discharge.” His friends and colleagues will recall him as being “strange and uncommunicative” and “coldly robotic,” who often gives the least desirable assignments to African-American subordinates, calling them “inferior” and using racial slurs. An infantryman who serves with McVeigh, Marion “Fritz” Curnutte, later recalls: “He played the military 24 hours a day, seven days a week. All of us thought it was silly. When they’d call for down time, we’d rest, and he’d throw on a ruck sack and walk around the post with it.” A fellow soldier, Todd Regier, will call McVeigh an exemplary soldier: “As far as soldiering, he never did anything wrong. He was always on time. He never got into trouble. He was perfect. I thought he would stay in the Army all his life. He was always volunteering for stuff that the rest of us wouldn’t want to do, guard duties, classes on the weekend.” McVeigh also subscribes to survivalist magazines and other right-wing publications, and keeps an arsenal of weapons in his home (see Bad link: a089192mcveighleave). Regier later tells a reporter: “He was real different. Kind of cold. He wasn’t enemies with anyone. He was kind of almost like a robot. He never had a date when I knew him in the Army. I never saw him at a club. I never saw him drinking. He never had good friends. He was a robot. Everything was for a purpose.” [New York Times, 5/4/1995; Nicole Nichols, 2003] McVeigh is promoted to sergeant faster than his colleagues; this is when he begins assigning the undesirable tasks to the four or five black specialists in the group, tasks that would normally be performed by privates. “It was well known, pretty much throughout the platoon, that he was making the black specialists do that work,” Regier will recall. “He was a racist. When he talked he’d mention those words, like n_gger. You pretty much knew he was a racist.” The black soldiers complain to a company commander, earning McVeigh a reprimand. Sergeant Anthony Thigpen later confirms Regier’s account, adding that McVeigh generally refuses to socialize with African-Americans, and only reluctantly takes part in company functions that include non-whites. Captain Terry Guild later says McVeigh’s entire company has problems with racial polarization, “[a]nd his platoon had some of the most serious race problems. It was pretty bad.” In late 1990, McVeigh signs a four-year reenlistment agreement with the Army. [New York Times, 5/4/1995]
McVeigh Goes on to Serve in Persian Gulf War - McVeigh will serve two tours of duty in the Persian Gulf War, serving honorably and winning medals for his service (see March 1991). Nichols and McVeigh will later be convicted of planning and executing the Oklahoma City bombing (see April 19, 1995).