Ethan Phelan Melzer

Ethan Phelan Melzer was a soldier in the U.S. Army assigned to the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team based in Vicenza, Italy, and a member of both Atomwaffen Division and the Order of Nine Angles (O9A), who in 2020 transmitted sensitive military information about his unit's troop strength, locations, and vulnerabilities to an undercover FBI operative he believed was an O9A contact who would relay the information to ISIS for use in a lethal attack on Melzer's own platoon. He was convicted of terrorism-related charges and sentenced to 45 years in federal prison, one of the longest sentences imposed on an AWD-affiliated individual and the most significant case establishing O9A's practical connection to military penetration.¹

O9A Membership and AWD Connection

Melzer was an active member of the O9A's online community, participating in forums and channels associated with the organization's occultist accelerationist ideology. His specific O9A nexion was the RapeWaffen Division, a Telegram-based channel combining neo-Nazi accelerationist branding with O9A's doctrine that rape and murder are instruments of ideological warfare. Melzer used the alias "Etil Reggad" within the RapeWaffen Division channel, and described himself as having "already self-initiated" into O9A before joining. His simultaneous AWD affiliation reflected the degree to which O9A and AWD had merged into an overlapping ideological community following Tempel ov Blood's infiltration of AWD's leadership in 2017. O9A's Insight Roles doctrine explicitly instructs initiates to commit real criminal acts as a form of spiritual progression, and joining the military or law enforcement for purposes of sabotage or facilitated attack is a recognized category within that framework.¹

The 2020 Plot

In 2020, while deployed or preparing for deployment with the 173rd Airborne, Melzer made contact through O9A channels with an individual he believed was a fellow O9A member with connections to Islamic State operatives. That individual was an undercover FBI operative. Over the course of their communications, Melzer provided detailed information about his unit's personnel strength, planned movements, defensive vulnerabilities, and patrol schedules. The classified material included unit locations, personnel strength, troop movements, defensive capabilities, and satellite imagery. He characterized the planned attack in O9A terms as an Insight Role: a transgressive act generating spiritual advancement through the facilitation of mass death among fellow soldiers.

The stated purpose of providing this information was to enable ISIS to plan and execute an attack that would kill members of Melzer's platoon. The indictment described the planned operation as a "mascal" (mass casualty) event to be executed by a combination of O9A members and Al-Qaeda-affiliated operatives.²

Case Number and Court

The case was filed in the Southern District of New York as United States v. Melzer, 1:20-cr-00314-GHW. The presiding judge was U.S. District Judge Gregory H. Woods, an Obama appointee. The prosecution was handled by the SDNY National Security Unit.³

Charges in the Superseding Indictment

The grand jury returned a superseding indictment (S1 20 Cr. 314) on August 18, 2020 charging eight counts. The eight-count structure included: conspiracy to murder U.S. nationals abroad ([18 U.S.C. § 956]); attempting to murder U.S. service members (18 U.S.C. § 1114); providing and attempting to provide material support to terrorists (18 U.S.C. § 2339A); and illegal transmission of national defense information (18 U.S.C. § 793(d)). In October 2020, Judge Woods denied Melzer's initial motions, and a trial date was set for July 5, 2022, but Melzer pleaded guilty before trial.³

The superseding indictment designated two co-conspirators as CC-1 and CC-2. CC-1 was described in court filings as a UK-based O9A contact who communicated with Melzer via Telegram and who relayed Melzer's unit intelligence to CC-2. On May 17, 2020, CC-1 asked Melzer whether he had arrived in Turkey; when Melzer confirmed he was "getting ready to go," CC-1 responded that CC-2 "needs to know, he has plans... inshallah my brother, allahu akbar." No UK co-conspirator was publicly charged in an open-court proceeding as of 2026.²

Arrest and Guilty Plea

Melzer was arrested by the FBI in June 2020 before any attack could occur. Melzer pleaded guilty on June 24, 2022, to three of the eight superseding counts: (1) attempting to murder U.S. service members, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1114 and 2; (2) providing and attempting to provide material support to terrorists, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 2339A and 2; and (3) illegally transmitting national defense information, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 793(d) and 2. The material support count (§ 2339A) is significant because it did not require the government to designate a foreign terrorist organization as the beneficiary, only to prove Melzer knowingly provided support to someone he knew would use it to prepare or carry out an offense against U.S. nationals.¹

Sentencing

Judge Woods sentenced Melzer on March 6, 2023 to 45 years in federal prison, the maximum available on the three counts. At sentencing, Melzer stated he was "a traitor against the United States whose conduct was tantamount to treason." Judge Woods called his crimes "repugnant." The sentence was the heaviest imposed on any AWD or O9A-affiliated defendant. The case was cited by Europol and the CTC West Point in subsequent analyses of O9A's documented penetration of military institutions.⁴

Second Circuit Appeal

Melzer appealed the sentence. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed the 45-year sentence in a ruling filed in November 2024, docket 23-6247-cr.⁵