28 Time July 19/July 26, 2021
The crackle of handheld radios
broke the morning stillness. Sound carries
in the country, and on the rural outskirts
of Arab, Ala., curious neighbors stepped
onto their porches, craning their necks to
see what was going on. Some thought the
police had found an escaped inmate who
had been a leading story on the local news.
But even from afar, there was no mistak-
ing the outsize yellow letters on the uni-
formed figures entering the single-story
house at the end of the two-lane road: fBi.
The word spread quickly. Claudia
Schultz was walking out of her jewelry
shop on the town’s small main street
when another store owner told her Joshua
James had been arrested. Schultz was in-
credulous. “Josh? You mean our Josh?”
In Arab, a town of 8,380 in northeastern
Alabama, much of the community knew
James, 34, as a soft-spoken, God- fearing
family man with three young kids who
ran his own pressure-washing business.
Those who knew him better considered
him a local hero—an Army combat vet-
eran and Purple Heart recipient who got
choked up when he talked to local teen-
agers about enlisting in the U.S. military.
But the federal agents who showed up
on James’ doorstep on March 9 described
a very different man: an extremist who
had not just broken the law but also car-
ried out an assault on the same govern-
ment he had sworn to defend as a soldier.
For weeks, James had helped plan an
operation to disrupt the certification on
Jan. 6 of President Joe Biden’s electoral
victory, investigators say, by coordinat-
ing and recruiting others to travel to
Washington with paramilitary gear, in-
cluding guns, tactical vests, helmets and
radio equipment. A federal conspiracy in-
dictment contends James and at least 15
other members of the Oath Keepers, an
anti government militia, had organized,
equipped and trained ahead of the siege
that left five dead and dozens more in-
jured. James was among the throngs of
supporters of defeated President Donald
Trump who rammed their way into the
seat of American democracy. “Get out of
my Capitol,” James allegedly shouted at
riot officers. “This is my f-cking building!”
For many, reconciling the war hero and
family man with the Jan. 6 insurrection-
ist is not easy. Federal prosecutors have
described the Capitol rioters as a fringe
group of violent extremists, conspiracy
theorists and madmen. The man pre-
siding over James’ case professed baffle-
ment. “Mr. James, I’ve got to tell you, I’m
not sure of why anyone in your position,
given the life that you’ve led, would do
this,” D.C. District Judge Amit Mehta told
him at an April hearing.
If James’ decision to leave his family
to join an attack on the U.S. Capitol is a
mystery, there are clues to what drove
him. After his service, and rehabilitation
from his injuries, he struggled to rebuild
his life. In that, he was not alone. Of the
more than 500 people arrested in connec-
tion with the Jan. 6 riot, at least 1 in 10
was a current or former member of the
U.S. military, according to a George Wash-
ington University analysis. Many had
served in the protracted post-9/11 con-
flicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, returning
home to a country that paid them lip ser-
vice but moved on without much notice
to the wars they had fought.
Over time, James found community in
the Oath Keepers, which used the famil-
iar terminology and camaraderie of mili-
tary life to mobilize vets in support of a
variety of right-wing causes. In doing so,
prosecutors allege, its members miscast
criminality as patriotism. The commu-
nications between James and other vet-
erans on Jan. 6 were full of phrases like
save the Republic and defend America,
according to court filings. Many claimed
they had been betrayed by U.S. politi-
cians who were the true enemies of the
state. The insurrectionists’ grievances
were so strong, prosecutors allege, that
they took the law into their own hands.But this view has found strong sup-
port across the country. In Arab, where
American and Confederate flags com-
pete for space on some front porches with
make america greaT again banners,
more than two dozen residents described
the events of Jan. 6 to TIME as a legitimate
protest over an election they wrongly be-
lieved to have been fraudulent. Yes, it got
out of hand, they say. But many saw James
as a man motivated by love of country, ex-
ercising First Amendment rights, who was
ensnared in a politicized witch hunt. “I
quite frankly believe him to be an Ameri-
can hero,” says Rachel Ann Halligan, who
lives close to the Jameses in Arab. “The
corruption and fraud that is being per-
petrated by our government is absurd.”
This account is based on interviews
with more than two dozen friends, neigh-
bors and community members in Arab;
people who knew James through his mili-
tary service and business dealings; his ar-
chived social media posts; and a review of
FBI and federal prosecutors’ legal filings.
James’ guilt or innocence will be de-
termined at trial. Federal prosecutors will
present evidence that he violated multi-
ple laws in an insurrection against the
country he had sworn to defend.
But the forces that fed James’ alleged
insurrection may be too deep-rooted to
be resolved by the trials. In many com-
munities like Arab, the radical path James
took on Jan. 6 seems patriotic rather than
criminal; for some, the law itself seems al-
most a sideshow. “Everyone has the right
to stand up for what they believe,” says
Ramsay Vandergriff, a 38-year-old elec-
trician. “It could easily have been me. It
could easily be any of us.”“I’m a normal dude,” James tells
the camera in a video posted to his wife
Audrey’s TikTok account in early June.
He plants kisses on her cheek and turns
back to the grill as she films them in their
yard. “Just a normal man,” she repeats,
punctuating her words with exasperated
sighs. “A Purple Heart recipient, veteran,
grilling dinner for his family.” Audrey tells
her new followers that she can’t reveal
much more; since posting about James’
arrest and her family’s ordeal, she has
gained a sympathetic audience of more
than 18,000 on the social app. But the
video pans out to show the ankle monitor
that has tracked James’ movements sinceIn manycommunities likeArab, James’actions on Jan. 6seem normal, notdelusionalNation