Zephyr Garrison: The Teen Behind East Coast Efforts to Rebrand the Base and FKD

Zephyr Garrison is a 17 year-old New Hampshire resident and an active neo-Nazi. He is currently a student at Inter-Lakes High School in Meredith, New Hampshire and he lives with his father, Paul, in a spacious lakeside house. Zephyr is part Hungarian and lived in Budapest for several years while his father acted as managing director for Coca-Cola in Hungary. Zephyr is a member of the neo-Nazi accelerationist group the Base and was a member of the adjacent group the Feuerkrieg Divison (FKD). Zephyr is attempting to keep Feuerkrieg Division alive in the Northeast United States; he has piloted a new group which is now called “Natural Order” that is largely made up of FKD and Base members. Zephyr Garrison is known as “Det.Som.Engang.Var” on social media and in neo-Nazi communications.

Zephyr Garrison dressed for prom at Inter-Lakes High School.

Zephyr Garrison wears a distinctive jean jacket while giving a Sieg Heil during a banner drop.

Zephyr Garrison wears a Mjolnir or Hammer of Thor necklace in a YouTube video. The Mjolnir is often appropriated by neo-Nazis and white supremacists.

Zephyr Garrison dressed for prom (left) and dressed for neo-Nazism (right).

The Base

Zephyr Garrison is a member of the Base, a neo-Nazi terror group founded in 2018 by Rinaldo Nazzaro AKA Norman Spear with the aim of creating paramilitary cells to violently form regional white ethnostates. In the middle of January 2020, a federal crackdown on the group led to the arrest of seven members, bringing the total number of arrests to eight. Three Base members were arrested in Maryland for planning an attack at a gun rights rally in Richmond; another three were arrested in Georgia for plotting to murder a couple they thought to be members of an antifascist group. A Wisconsin Base member was arrested for the vandalism of a synagogue in the January roundup and a New Jersey member was arrested two months prior for conspiring to vandalize synagogues.

Despite the wave of arrests, Zephyr Garrison became a full-fledged member of the Base in late January 2020. Rinaldo Nazzaro AKA “Roman” praised Zephyr for “still wanting to join after all that stuff went down,” referencing the arrests that occurred mere days before he joined. Zephyr joined the Base after the Feuerkrieg Divison (FKD) started to collapse in January 2020 with the capture of “Commander,” an Estonian teenager and the co-founder of the group. “Commander” was just 13 years old when visited by police in Estonia.

Zephyr Garrison AKA “Det.Som.Engang.Var” joins the Base’s chats in mid January 2020. Rinaldo Nazzaro AKA “Roman” praises him for joining days after the FBI cracked down on members of the Base.

Zephyr and other members of the Base hope for violence during the January 20, 2020 gun rally in Richmond, VA. 

Zephyr concealed his neo-Nazi activities behind the moniker “det som engang var” (often “det.som.engang.var” or “det.som.engang.var.2”). The name comes from an album by Norwegian black metal figure and neo-Nazi arsonist Louis Cachet AKA Varg Vikernes. Vikernes served prison time for several church arsons and a murder and plotted to bomb an anarcho-punk house located in Oslo, Norway. In 2013, Vikernes was arrested by French anti-terrorist police for planning a “major terrorist attack.” Holden Matthews, who torched three Louisiana churches in 2019, was a follower of Vikernes and attempted to copy his wave of church arsons.

Zephyr Garrison AKA “det.som.engang.var.2” shares accelerationist propaganda calling for synagogue arsons in the FKD Riot chat. 

As noted in our previous report on FKD, the group has many connections to the neo-Nazi terror group the Base. Two members of the Northeastern US cell, “ryanrrrr” and “Prometheus_88,” were also members of the Base. Zephyr flaunted his own involvement with the Base, telling other members of FKD that he has “indirect contact with several Base members” and hoped to hold a “pan organizational” meetup. FKD members expressed concern about meeting and working with members of other groups, which was forbidden by former FKD leader “Commander.” We have no indication that such a meetup ever occurred. However, we do know that Zephyr met with members of the Base on at least one occasion. On February 10th 2020, Zephyr announced that he would be attending a Trump rally with members of the Base in Manchester, New Hampshire, “to counter protest the commies.”

Zephyr AKA “det.som.engang.var.2” planned to attend Donald Trump’s Feb. 10th rally in Manchester, New Hampshire with other members of the Base.

Zephyr brags about his neo-Nazi connections in the FKD Riot chat. “IY” likely refers to “Iron Youth,” a smaller neo-Nazi accelerationist group that he claimed to be a member of at the time. Zephyr also writes in favor of a “hate camp,” the paramilitary training sessions members of the Base engaged in.

Feuerkrieg Division

Zephyr was active in the now defunct neo-Nazi accelerationist group Feuerkrieg Division (FKD), an international neo-Nazi formation similar to the Base and Atomwaffen Division, that has been linked to bombings and mass shooting plots. Zephyr was active until the arrest of Tyler Ashley Parker-Dipeppe AKA Azazel in February 2020. Tyler was one of the leaders of FKD at the time of his arrest as well as being a member of the Atomwaffen Division (AWD). We published an article detailing the membership and activity of FKD, and chat logs from the group have recently been made public by the independent media group Unicorn Riot. Within FKD chats, Zephyr advocated for in-person actions, meetups, and “concrete plans.” He organized several meetups for FKD members in the Northeast United States cell: On December 28th 2019, Zephyr set a meetup in a park in downtown Boston. Two other FKD members attended, “siegheil_88” AKA “Lugar” and “ryanrrrr,” only to be stopped and detained by plainclothes police. The trio pasted a whopping two posters after being released, which were provided by Zephyr and did not promote FKD. Zephyr also unsuccessfully organized a meetup at a park in New York. In addition to organizing meetups, Zephyr carried out a flyering with group-specific propaganda, a standard introduction and often a requirement for new recruits to FKD. Photos of his handiwork were uploaded to the group’s official Telegram channel on November 30th, showing that he had pasted several posters containing Swastikas and promoting FKD around downtown Concord, New Hampshire.

Zephyr Garrison AKA “det.som.engang.var.2” connects with other members of the Northeast US FKD cell on Riot and sets a meeting time and place. 

Commander calls Zephyr’s Boston meetup “a disappointment and a disaster” after the group was stopped by police. Dylan Daube AKA “a_lost_rhodesian” asks questions about the meetup.

Zephyr runs the “leagueofnationalists” Instagram account and uploaded pictures of the two posters FKD members managed to paste after the Boston meeting. This post is careful not to mention FKD by name.

Zephyr Garrison flyered downtown Concord, New Hampshire in November 2019 (Photo from antifascist researcher Subcomandante X).

League of Nationalists

Despite Commander’s general restrictions on cross-group involvement, we know that most neo-Nazis in FKD were also members of similar accelerationist groups like the Base and Atomwaffen. A part from FKD and the Base, Zephyr claimed membership in Iron Youth and Invictus Youth, two Siege inspired neo-Nazi groups with less notoriety than FKD. Iron Youth was created in August 2018 by a California teenager (later arrested) and followed the basic Siege-group formula of producing Nazi posters and videos showing members firing weapons. Zephyr also ran a white nationalist group of his own called “League of Nationalists” (LON) and admitted to “commanding” LON and running the Instagram page. The group appears to be international, boasting of active members in Romania and Italy, though most of the activity is limited to the Northeastern US. The group organizes on the gaming chat platform Discord, and hopes to attract new recruits through Instagram, which is filled with Siege themed propaganda and aesthetics.

Zephyr tells other members of FKD that he is the leader of League of Nationalists and also is a member of Iron Youth and Invictus Youth. Commander actively discouraged his members from joining other groups. 

Zephyr attempts to recruit members of his Telegram group “The Organization” for Iron Youth, another accelerationist group with similar tactics and aims. “The Organization” and Iron Youth would eventually morph into one.


Zephyr runs the Instagram page for “League of Nationalists” and shares photos of from flyerings.

In late September 2019, Zephyr and other members of his “League of Nationalists” put up posters advertising their group under the cover of night. Then, on Halloween night 2019, Zephyr put up posters with the slogan “It’s okay to be white” on a college campus near his home in Meredith, New Hampshire. On the same night and some 2500 miles away in Spokane, Washington, fellow FKD member “Nick” AKA “Berserker” posted flyers of the same slogan around his city. On November 9th 2019, Zephyr and a friend affiliated with Invictus Youth hung a poorly painted banner with the “It’s okay to be white” slogan from a highway overpass in New Hampshire. In a video of the action posted to Instagram, Zephyr can be seen fixing the banner to the overpass before posing in front of it and giving a “Sieg Heil.” Then, on November 16 2019, Zephyr Garrison traveled to Newark, New Jersey, and vandalized the Clinton Memorial AME Zion Church, the first Black church in Newark, with anti-Semitic stickers. Zephyr and another person also burned books and a printed picture of the Star of David. In a Telegram message, Zephyr recollected his New Jersey vandalism, when he “put a bunch of stickers all over a synagogue in NJ way back when.” We assume that he is referring to the Clinton Memorial church vandalism which he incorrectly calls a “synagogue.” In late December 2019, Zephyr and regional members from LON put racist and anti-Semitic propaganda up around a New Hampshire town.

Zephyr Garrison poses with one of the “League of Nationalists” posters in September 2019 and his online Nazi pals show their approval. 

On Halloween night, Zephyr taped “It’s okay to be white” posters at a college near his home in Meredith, New Hampshire. 

Zephyr poses in front of his crudely-made “It’s okay to be white” banner, wearing a Siege styled skull mask. Image brightness has been increased.

Zephyr Garrison wears a distinctive jean jacket while giving a Sieg Heil in front of his banner. 

Zephyr Garrison vandalized the Clinton Memorial AME Zion Church in Newark, New Jersey.

In Telegram chats for “The Organization,” Zephyr admits to vandalizing a “synagogue” in New Jersey.

After the arrest of Tyler Ashley “Azazel” Parker-Dipeppe, the Feuerkrieg Division seemed destined to fall completely fall a part. The group was reeling from the arrests of several key members, including the assumed arrest of former leader “Commander.” Tyler Ashley “Azazel” Parker-Dipeppe’s subsequent arrest, and the revelation that the group was heavily infiltrated by antifascists and law enforcement, seemed to be the final straw for many of the hanger-ons. Although FKD finally disbanded, some of the cells are still alive. One of the most organized cells of FKD was located in the Northeast US and many members of the cell migrated to a new group created by Zephyr Garrison that was organized on the messaging app Telegram. This new group, laughably named “The Organization,” had close to 20 members and many from FKD and the Base. Zephyr connected with other members of “The Organization” as “det.som.engang.var” or “det” and discussed plans for in-person meetups, hikes, and banner drops.

Zephyr Garrison AKA “det.som.engang.var” tells Grzegorz AKA Adam Hayes that he is attempting to fund a trip back home to Hungary. Zephyr is from Budapest, Hungary and lived there in his childhood. 

Zephyr Garrison AKA “det.som.engang.var” was a member of FKD before the group disbanded. After the arrest of Azazel (“Az”) Zephyr formed “The Organization” with other FKD members from the Northeast US. 

Zephyr Garrison AKA “det.som.engang.var” and his boys in “The Organization” were big fans of our report on the Feuerkrieg Division. You can read it here.

Zephyr Garrison AKA “det.som.engang.var” encourages members of “The Organization” to invite other Nazis in their area, calling the chat “a Wignat [white nationalist] Phone Book.”

Zephyr and other members of “The Organization” harass a college student.

Coronavirus and Guns

In the Telegram chat for “The Organization,” Zephyr hatched a plan to take advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic to further induce pandemonium. He pushed for members to remove toilet paper and hand soap from public bathrooms to “scare the shit out of consumers,” with the aim of spreading fear and disillusion. Zephyr sees a bigger opportunity with the COVID-19 pandemic, hoping to take over the small forested town of Sandwich, New Hampshire and turn it into a white nationalist haven. He discusses seizing the rental houses in the town and gathering other neo-Nazis so “that gov authority will have a hard time coming back to a small rural town full of Wignats.” Many far-right groups and individuals, especially accelerationist neo-Nazis, have openly discussed using the pandemic to accelerate their political goals. A Missouri Nazi named Timothy Wilson died after FBI agents attempted to arrest him. He intended to detonate a vehicle bomb outside a hospital, but agents supplied him with fake explosives. Wilson was affiliated with the National Socialist Movement (NSM) and was in communication with fellow would-be-mass-murderer Jarret William Smith, who was a member of FKD.

Zephyr Garrison AKA “det.som.engang.var” spins a tale for other members of “The Organization” that the brother of his girlfriend spilled insider info on the government’s plan to assert martial law during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Zephyr Garrison encourages his Nazi buds to steal soap and toilet paper in order to stir up panic. 

Zephyr Garrison hopes to take over the town of Sandwich, New Hampshire, and seize empty vacation homes. 

Zephyr Garrison AKA “det.som.engang.var” is trying to build a neo-Nazi community in the small town of Sandwich, New Hampshire.

Zephyr Garrison used his contacts within “The Organization” for the purpose of acquiring a gun. He tells other members of the Telegram chat that he has been unable to get a gun and only has a crossbow and several knives. Zephyr even offers to pay anyone willing to buy him a gun; it is not clear if any members have taken him up on this offer. In one photo uploaded to the Telegram chat, Zephyr showed the progress of his homemade shotgun project.

Zephyr Garrison tells other members of “The Organization” of his inability to obtain a gun, likely because he is under 18.

Zephyr offers members of “The Organization” money in exchange for a straw gun purchase. The straw purchase of firearms in illegal in the United States.

Zephyr shows members of “The Organization” his progress on a homemade shotgun.  

Natural Order

Zephyr organized a meetup with members of “The Organization” on March 22, 2020 in the town of Sandwich, New Hampshire (the town Zephyr hopes to seize). The meetup was meant to consist of hand-to-hand combat and knife exercises but after a handful of last-minute cancellations, no meeting ever materialized. Two days after the meeting was to be held, Zephyr announced that “The Organization” was rebranding to “Natural Order.” With this change, Zephyr and other core members of “The Organization” sought to build an “actual political organization,” and not just any, but “THE political organization of the East Coast.” Members of “The Organization” were automatically accepted as members of “Natural Order,” ideological restrictions were removed, and the geographical scope of the group was expanded to include all East coast states down to Florida.

Zephyr announces the launch of “Natural Order ” (1).

Zephyr announces the launch of “Natural Order ” (2).

In announcing the launch of “Natural Order,” Zephyr was careful to distance the group from previous failed projects like the Feuerkrieg Division. He assured his Nazi compatriots that “Natural Order will NOT be a generic (blank) waffen division.” However, as we have shown, “Natural Order” is the direct spawn of Feuerkrieg Division, just one corny rename removed. Zephyr Garrison is attempting to continue the mission of FKD and the Base by building an armed, regional body of neo-Nazis willing to execute violent, direct action against their undesired elements of society.

In April of 2020, Zephyr Garrison publicly announced “Natural Order” would be joining forces with “Iron Youth” as part of an effort to unify neo-Nazi accelerationist groups and lone wolves across the United States into a coordinated front. “Natural Order” would act as the regional organization for the East coast and Iron Youth would be responsible for the rest of the United States. With remnant members of the Base and Feuerkrieg Division, Zephyr Garrison is attempting to establish a new vanguardist front. We expect his efforts to be stunted following the upcoming series of articles profiling his new group’s members.

 

Email: eugeneantifa [at] protonmail [dot] com