Sometimes “ex” government employees (like military) are those who’ve been kicked out because of criminal infractions.
These numbnuts were recruiting those who’d been kicked out or were up on charges.
The Colorado shooter had been kicked out in the 1990s but it didn’t keep them from calling him a former soldier.
The NYC fashion designer was in the Coast Guard in the 1970s and that was mentioned in accounts of his “attack” (where more people were injure by police fire than his own).