But some say this case shows the military’s hard line on extremism is not absolute, that there is wiggle room in the policy for commanders to retain troops despite evidence of extremist activity — at least until their cases become public. Much of the social media activity cited by the investigation that led to Martin’s separation was already published on his accounts when his activity first came to his chain of command’s attention during the summer of 2019, Martin said during an interview. Advertisement Martin, now out of the Marine Corps, said he thought at the time that the Marines had given him a second chance, which they revoked because of the Union-Tribune story.