Detachment 201

The militarization of corporate executives is another step into a future of fascism

On June 13, the U.S. Army quietly launched a new initiative called Detachment 201, an elite Reserve unit composed not of seasoned officers or soldiers, but of corporate tech executives who are being handed the rank of colonel.

That’s right. Tech bros are joining the military and being issued real uniforms, real insignias, and real salutes. No basic training. No boot camp. No deployments. A membership in the upper echelon of Silicon Valley is all you need to get an officer’s commission.

The Army claims the initiative is “designed to fuse cutting-edge tech expertise with military innovation.” But behind that carefully curated language lies something darker: the line between private corporate power and military force is rapidly disappearing.

So far, four high-profile execs are now legitimately cosplaying GI Joe:

Shyam Sankar, Chief Technology Officer of Palantir Technologies, a surveillance contractor co-founded by Peter Thiel. Palantir builds AI and facial recognition systems for the U.S. government. Its contracts under the Trump administration allowed the collection of sensitive data on Americans across federal agencies. In other words, Palantir specializes in spying. And now, their CTO wears the rank of colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves.

Andrew Bosworth, Chief Technology Officer of Meta, which controls Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Threads. This month, Meta announced a multi-billion-dollar investment in Scale AI, as it races to catch up in the generative AI space, potentially to delve deeper into our personal lives with algorithmic precision. Now their CTO is also a colonel.

Kevin Weil, Chief Product Officer of OpenAI, the company that owns and operates ChatGPT and was co-founded by Elon Musk and Sam Altman. An executive from one of the world’s most powerful AI platforms is now also a military officer.

Bob McGrew, former Chief Research Officer at OpenAI, now an advisor at Thinking Machines Lab. Add another tech-bro with insider access to the ranks.

And this is just the beginning. The Army is already seeing applications from hundreds of other executives eager to swap Patagonia vests for combat fatigues, dreaming of a real-world Call of Duty experience, minus the risk, of course.

So what does all this mean?

It’s difficult to say for sure, but at a time when the military is increasingly politicized, it’s hard to ignore the implications of putting powerful billionaires at the helm. Especially billionaires whose companies are reaping the benefits of government contracts.

Take OpenAI, for example. One of ChatGPT’s core ethical guardrails is that it shouldn’t be used to harm people. But the U.S. Army is, by its very nature, a lethal force. Are we training AI to help track and kill? If so, who decides the targets? And are there safeguards against targeting Americans?

Where’s the oversight and coordination? Even the Army admits it doesn’t yet know what projects these new insta-colonels will be assigned to. That kind of ambiguity is rare in military circles; if nothing else, the military is notorious for mission planning and coordination, and the lack of such planning raises serious red flags. Are they being honest about the mission? Is the mission really related to national defense or for corporate gain? If these companies are profiting from government contracts while their executives are wearing the uniform, that’s not patriotism. That’s a conflict of interest dressed up in camouflage.

Historically, only a few civilians have been called into military service, and that generally happened during wartime. These civilians served full-time with clearly defined roles. Detachment 201, however, does not offer such clarity. It’s a peacetime recruitment, which has never occurred in our history.

While the idea of militarized tech elites has been floating around for over a year, its acceleration under the Trump administration raises additional concerns. Trump has already shown his appetite for deploying ICE agents to patrol U.S. streets as paramilitary forces; they terrorize civilians and disrupt peaceful communities. Now imagine those same forces enhanced by real-time surveillance and target-optimizing AI algorithms.

Fascism doesn’t happen overnight. It gradually takes hold through unrestrained corporate influence, militarized rhetoric, and the gradual loss of civilian oversight of the military. A key aspect of fascism is the rise of corporate leaders to positions of government power, allowing them to suppress dissent, gut worker protections, and accumulate unlimited wealth and influence. When these corporate leaders don military uniforms as high-ranking officers, it greatly facilitates the corporate takeover of America.

America, beware. The merging of Silicon Valley and the Pentagon isn’t innovation. It’s a warning shot.

Originally published on the Frontline Progressive, June 26, 2025