Marine Commandant Orders Removal of Confederate Flags from All Bases

Marine Corps Commandant Gen. David Berger has ordered the removal of all Confederate paraphernalia from Marine bases across the globe.

Gen. Berger sent a directive to senior staff outlining a list of initiatives he is “prioritizing for immediate execution,” Military.com reported.

The commandant’s memo did not specify what types of Confederate paraphernalia he wanted to be removed and banned, nor did he issue a timeline to comply with the order. It is not exactly clear what Confederate items the commandant was referring to. For instance, there are no Marine bases named after Confederate generals. The U.S. Army has ten such facilities, but no other service, including the Marines, are named after former Confederates.

“Last week, the Commandant of the Marine Corps directed specific tasks be reviewed or addressed by Headquarters Marine Corps staff,” Berger’s spokesman, Maj. Eric Flanagan said. “Many of the tasks were published on Twitter Friday. Other tasks not published previously are mostly administrative matters.”

Flanagan added that details about the matter would come at a later date.

The commandant also called for a series of other progressive policies, including finding more ways to include women in combat roles and ordered the Corps to look into instituting a yearlong maternity leave for female Marines. Berger also called for parental leave policies for same-sex partners.

Military.com noted that several Marines have been punished or booted from the service over accusations of racist social media posts, and the Pentagon is pressing the services to track extremism in the ranks.

Last year, for instance, Lance Cpl. Mason Mead was kicked out of the service for several racist posts including one where he was seen in blackface.

Follow Warner Todd Huston on Facebook at: facebook.com/Warner.Todd.Huston.