Pentagon bans confederate flags on military property
Military to reject divisive symbols; Jennifer Griffin reports.
Army National Guard units in some southern states have yet to comply with an order to turn over battle streamers connected to the Civil War-era, a new report claimed. Though at least one claims it has already ditched the items.
Units in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and West Virginia have so far not complied with an order to turn over Confederate battle streamers to the Army's Human Resources Command as the deadline to do so has passed, according to a report from Military.com.
The National Guard in Maryland, which was initially one of the states listed by the report as yet to return their streamers, told Fox News Digital that "the Maryland National Guard no longer possesses the battle streamers commemorating Confederate service formerly displayed on unit colors."
"These streamers were returned to the U.S. Army on March 21, 2023, well in advance of the mandated deadline," a spokesperson for the Maryland National Guard said. "As a professional military organization, we would never intentionally disregard legitimate directives from duly constituted authorities."
The Military.com report has since been corrected to reflect that Maryland returned the streamers.
The report comes after at least 48 National Guard units were directed in March to strip their guidons of Confederate streamers and turn them in to be preserved at the U.S. Army Center of Military History. That directive was the result of a decision by Congress to remove references to the Confederacy from military units and installations.
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Chief Warrant Officer 2 Joseph Lewis, commander of the 122nd Army Band, adds campaign streamers from World War II to the unit guidon during a ceremony June 23, 2021, at Rickenbacker Air National Guard Base in Columbus, Ohio. (Defense Visual Information Distribution Service)
Streamers attached to the top of unit flags are typically awarded to units for participation in conflicts or wars, with the guidon displaying the unit flag and streamers often being carried at the front of military formations.
The Army has collected 438 of the 491 streamers, according to the report, including those from states like Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina and Texas. But it is unclear why some units have yet to comply with the order ahead of the Sept. 1 deadline, the report said. It noted some units could already be displaying the streamers in their own museums, while other streamers were possibly lost or taken home by individual service members as collectibles.
Army Human Resources Command did not immediately respond to a Fox News request for comment.
U.S. Army Col. Michael Shields attaches a new battle streamer to the guidon during the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Teams redeployment ceremony at Fort Wainwright, Alaska. (Defense Department)
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Of the states that have yet to turn over their streamers, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi were full members of the Confederacy after seceding from the Union during the Civil War. West Virginia, which separated from Virginia in 1863, was a border state that remained in the union but did have some units join the Confederate cause.
The command team of the 122nd Army Band prepares to add campaign streamers from World War II to the unit guidon during a ceremony June 23, 2021, at Rickenbacker Air National Guard Base in Columbus, Ohio. (Defense Visual Information Distribution Service)
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The five states listed did not immediately respond to a Fox News request for comment.
Editors note: An earlier version of this story listed Maryland as one of the states that had yet to fully comply with the order to return confederate streamers, which a spokesperson for the Maryland National Guard denied in comments to Fox News Digital. The original Military.com story was later corrected to list Maryland as one of the states that had returned the streamers, a change that was reflected in this story.
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