The white nationalist featured in an infamous, viral photograph from the 2017 Unite The Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, joined the U.S. military, HuffPost has learned, but was kicked out before he could attend basic training.

Peter Cytanovic, 24, was expelled from the Nevada National Guard in December after officials learned of his extremist ties through a Defense Department background check, authorities confirmed. His relatively swift dismissal from the National Guard appears to be a rare example of military officials taking proactive, decisive steps to keep an extremist out of the armed services.

On Aug. 11, 2017, Cytanovic was photographed holding a flaming tiki torch and screaming as he and other white nationalists marched in Charlottesville. The picture went viral and continues to haunt and shape Cytanovics life. His face of fury quickly became emblematic of the bloody and historic weekend , when a resurgent American white nationalist movement went mask off.

After publishing a series of stories about extremists in the military, HuffPost recently received a tip that Cytanovic described himself as a U.S. Officer Candidate at US Army on LinkedIn.

Although his name couldnt be found in a Defense Department database of military service members, a Peter Cytanovic VI was listed in a directory of recent enlistees published in a 2020 issue of Battle Born - The Quarterly Magazine of the Nevada National Guard .

A spokesman for the Nevada National Guard confirmed that Cytanovic enlisted on Nov. 22, 2019, but that his stint in the U.S. armed forces lasted only a little over a year and that he was ejected because of his affiliations.

Initial criminal and fingerprint checks found no record that would deny enlistment, Lt. Col. Mickey Kirschenbaum told HuffPost in a statement explaining how Cytanovic initially joined the U.S. military, which has regulations forbidding participation in extremist groups.

Because he had a four-year college degree, Cytanovic entered the Nevada National Guard as a Specialist E-4, the highest rank available to junior enlisted recruits. He started to attend monthly drills to prepare for Army Basic Combat Training. However, during routine in-processing, Mr. Cytanovic was not able to obtain a security clearance, Kirschenbaum said.

A Defense Department background check revealed that the FBI had opened an investigation into Cytanovic following his participation in the Charlottesville rally, Lt. Emerson Marcus, another spokesperson for the Nevada National Guard, told HuffPost.

Thats how the national guard learned of Cytanovics affiliations, Marcus said.

The FBI declined to comment on its investigation into Cytanovic, who was never charged with a crime in relation to the events in Charlottesville.

Pentagon spokesperson Candice Tresch said in an email that the Defense Department could not discuss specific cases, but noted that the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency searches federal, state, local, and vendor records as part of the background investigation process and also obtains information from the applicant, prior and current employers, co-workers, neighbors, and references.

The Nevada National Guard canceled Cytanovics orders for basic training on July 27, 2020, months before he was set to ship out. Months later, on December 17, he received a formal entry-level separation from the U.S. military.

Cytanovic who, before enlisting, gave interviews in which he expressed regret for attending the Charlottesville rally and claimed, not all that convincingly , to renounce white nationalism declined to comment on this story through a family member.

The Nevada National Guard does not tolerate racist, extremist ideology, Kirschenbaum said in his statement. The Nevada National Guard took action immediately after discovering Mr. Cytanovics affiliations.

But thats not always the case. After HuffPost published a series of stories in 2019 helping expose 11 U.S. servicemen as members of the white nationalist group Identity Evropa, only six were kicked out of the military. The other five are still in the armed services, underscoring both the vagaries of military codes prohibiting extremism and how enforcement of those codes is often left to the whims and discretion of individual commanders.

Moreover, theres evidence that even well-known white nationalists like Cytanovic can manage to join the military undetected.

Last month, HuffPost found that Shawn McCaffrey a prominent white nationalist podcaster and former member of Identity Evropa recently graduated from Air Force boot camp. (McCaffrey was also on the FBIs radar, HuffPost learned, but the agency declined to say whether it ever alerted the Air Force about his extremism.)

Scholars of extremism have long warned about the dangers of far-right extremists joining the military, where they receive training they can then use to inflict violence on civilians. After an angry far-right crowd stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 15% of those arrested for their role in the insurrection had some sort of military affiliation.

In February, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin issued a military-wide stand-down order, requiring commanders to have needed discussions about extremism with troops. Earlier this month, Austin wrote a memo outlining the Pentagons plans to improve the screening of military recruits for extremist beliefs.

A Defining Photograph