Montana National Guard Recruiting Poster Features German WWII Soldiers

The Montana National Guard is in hot water after a recruiting poster went viral for very wrong reasons.

A recruiting poster for the Montana National Guard recently surfaced that appeared to show multiple German WWII soldiers in the background.

The German soldiers appear to be from the early days of WWII against the Soviet Union, judging from the gear and clothing. However, an exact time frame and location of the background soldiers is unknown.

You can see the absurd poster below, and let me know your thoughts at David.Hookstead@outkick.com.

Montana National Guard reacts to poster appearing to feature German WWII soldiers.

While the poster was circulating on social media, there had been no confirmation that it was absolutely real. That's no longer the case. The Montana National Guard acknowledged the poster's existence in a Tuesday statement provided to OutKick.

"Montana National Guard leadership recently became aware of a Montana Army National Guard recruiting poster that includes a small background image that appears to show members of the German Army. As soon as we became aware of the issue, we directed the vendor to remove the poster immediately. While the poster was intended to highlight Montana’s tradition of multi-generation service, the background image does not represent our history or values. Montana National Guard leadership is putting in place an approval system to ensure nothing like this happens again, and we regret and apologize for this serious mistake," the Montana National Guard told OutKick.

The poster is real, and correctly described as a "serious mistake."

Montana National Guard recruiting ad featured WWII German soldiers. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

This is an absolutely crazy mistake for the Montana National Guard to make.

There is a perfect context to use WWII German soldiers in a marketing or recruiting campaign. The correct photos for that would be photos of Germans surrendering or getting shellacked in combat by American soldiers.

If that was on a poster, I'd be giving it my stamp of approval. America's victory in WWII is this country's greatest military achievement. Having Germans with their hands up would be elite-level recruiting material.

However, that's not what the recruiting material featured. It simply had German soldiers marching into combat in the background. How does something like this happen? How does nobody take a look at the gear and uniforms and not immediately recognize them as German?

I'm a huge military nerd, but I could show that picture to anyone who has seen "Band of Brothers" and they would immediately know the men in the background are German - not American heroes.

Montana National Guard recruiting material features German WWII soldiers. (Photo by Three Lions/Getty Images)

It's an unacceptable mistake, but to the Montana National Guard's credit, the organization isn't deflecting or running from it. It took responsibility and apologized. It's a good start. Now, don't ever let Nazis appear on recruiting material again. Let me know what you think at David.Hookstead@outkick.com.