Exclusive-Pennsylvania candidate Mastriano posed in Confederate uniform
at Army War College
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[August 27, 2022]
By Phil Stewart and Jarrett Renshaw
PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) -Three years before
retiring from the U.S. Army in 2017, Donald Trump-backed Pennsylvania
gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano posed in Confederate uniform for
a faculty photo at the Army War College, according to a copy of the
photo obtained by Reuters.
The previously unreported photo, released by the War College to Reuters
after a request under the Freedom of Information Act, showed Mastriano
in a 2013-14 portrait for the Department of Military Strategy, Plans,
and Operations, where he worked.
Faculty at the time had been given the option of dressing as a
historical figure, people familiar with the photo said. At least 15 of
the 21 faculty in the photo opted to appear in regular attire. Although
one man wears a trench coat and sunglasses and another carries an
aviator's helmet, Mastriano is the only one wearing a Confederate
uniform.
Mastriano did not immediately respond to requests for comment made by
email and phone. A Reuters reporter attended a Mastriano event on
Wednesday to seek comment, but the candidate did not make himself
available for questions.
Displays of Confederate symbols can be seen as insensitive to those who
view them as painful reminders of racial oppression and the Civil War
that saw 11 rebelling Confederate states fight to keep Black people
enslaved.
The U.S. military issued a de facto ban on displaying the Confederate
flag and has sought to remove segregationist symbols from bases and
academic institutions following the murder in May 2020 of George Floyd,
a Black man whose killing by a white police officer in Minneapolis
triggered protests worldwide.
After Reuters made its formal request for the photo, it was removed from
the War College wall where it had hung alongside other annual portraits
of faculty groups.
The Army War College (AWC), a premier military higher education
institution in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, told Reuters a team had reviewed
all art, text, and other images displayed at Carlisle Barracks in 2020,
but missed the faculty photo.
"The faculty photo did not get the team's attention; the photo has since
been removed because it does not meet AWC values," the college said in a
statement.
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Retired Army colonel Doug Mastriano, a
Republican state senator from Pennsylvania who is running for
governor, poses at left in a Confederate uniform in a 2013-14
faculty photo at the U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center in
Carlisle, Pennsylvania, U.S. April 9, 2014. The photo was released
by the Army War College to Reuters on August 26, 2022 under the
Freedom of Information Act. Mastriano retired from the Army in 2017.
Army War College/Handout via REUTER
Asked about the War College photo, a spokesperson at U.S. Army
headquarters said: "The Army supports commanders who remove symbols
or images that do not comport with Army values."
Confederate symbols and dress have been embraced by white
supremacists in the United States, and monuments and flags honoring
the Confederacy have been removed from many public areas in recent
years.
Pennsylvania plays an outsized role in U.S. politics as a so-called
swing state in presidential elections, and Republican Mastriano, who
has embraced Trump's stolen election lies, is trailing his
Democratic opponent in the governor's race ahead of the November
ballot.
It is unclear how the photo might be viewed in Pennsylvania, which
played a critical role in the Civil War. More than 33,000 soldiers
from Pennsylvania died fighting for the Union, and the state was the
site of the Battle of Gettysburg, the conflict's bloodiest battle,
which ended with a Union victory and inspired President Abraham
Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.
Mastriano's district, Pennsylvania's 33rd, includes Gettysburg.
Many Americans continue to participate in Civil War battle
re-enactments, wearing uniforms from both sides in an effort to
preserve U.S. history.
Jenna Ellis, a senior adviser to Mastriano's campaign and former
Trump lawyer, said the media was having a "melt down" because
Mastriano once posed as a civil war historical figure for a photo.
"And? He has a Ph.D in HISTORY," Ellis wrote on Twitter. "The left
wants to erase history. @dougmastriano wants us to learn from it. I
invite @Reuters to go on a Gettysburg tour with Doug. You'll learn a
lot!"
(Reporting by Phil Stewart and Jarrett Renshaw; Editing by Heather
Timmons and Daniel Wallis)
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