Mutiny in the making at Ft. Drum?

The left-leaning Mother Jones magazine’s fascinating cover story this month profiles a growing militia-style group on the right called Oath Keepers. The twist is that Oathkeepers are largely active-duty members of the military who are preparing to disobey their Commander-in-Chief.

The story features Lee Pray (not his real last name), a private based at Fort Drum:

In Pray’s estimate, it might not be long (months, perhaps a year) before President Obama finds some pretext—a pandemic, a natural disaster, a terror attack—to impose martial law, ban interstate travel, and begin detaining citizens en masse. One of his fellow Oath Keepers, a former infantryman, advised me to prepare a “bug out” bag with 39 items including gas masks, ammo, and water purification tablets, so that I’d be ready to go “when the shit hits the fan.”

When it does, Pray and his buddies plan to go AWOL and make their way to their “fortified bunker”—the home of one comrade’s parents in rural Idaho—where they’ve stocked survival gear, generators, food, and weapons. If it becomes necessary, they say, they will turn those guns against their fellow soldiers.

As the article points out, the Oath Keepers are closely linked to civilian right-wing groups from the Tea Party to Birthers to 912ers.

Aside from the intra-military implications of rank-and-file troops vowing to disobey – and take arms against – their highest commander, here’s what really interests me. If you read Oath Keepers’ list of orders they will not obey, they’re not much different from what a lot of people on the Left most feared during the Bush Administration.

Fort Drum folks out there: do you know any Oathkeepers? What do you think you’ve sworn an oath to – the Constitution? The Commander-in-Chief? Both? Are they vigilant, patriotic soldiers or a threat to chain of command so integral to a functioning military?