CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that The Citadel removed the Confederate Naval Jack from its chapel. The flag is still in place at the college.

The top brass of the U.S. Marine Corps has ordered that all Confederate-related items be removed from Marines service bases worldwide, Military.com reports.

David Berger, Commandant General of the Marines, prioritized for "immediate execution" the banishment of objects representing the Confederacy in response to a congressional hearing on the rise of extremism in the military, according to Military.com.

A recent survey of active-duty troops by the independent Military Times found a significant rise in white supremacist and racist ideologies from 2018. In their responses, troops considered white supremacy a greater threat to national security than immigration or domestic terrorism with connections to Islam, the Military Times reported.

The types of items targeted for removal and restriction have yet to be determined according to Berger's spokesman, Maj. Eric Flanagan, Military.com reported.

The Confederate flag and other memorabilia will soon be removed from Marines service bases around the world.

Flanagan said many tasks for review by Headquarters Marine Corps staff were posted to a Twitter account for Commandant Gen. Berger on Friday, according to Military.com. The order to remove Confederate materials was not among them, USA Today confirmed.

Flanagan also said official policy decisions, changes or implementation plans will be published in appropriate orders or service-wide messages, Military.com reported.

The new rule is a progressive gesture for a branch of the Defense Department, which was uncommitted to banning representations of the Confederacy merely four years ago.

The 2015 mass-shooting of nine African American parishioners by a white attacker in South Carolina lead major retailers like Walmart and Amazon to remove Confederate flag merchandise from stock.

And in 2015, The Board of Visitors for The Citadel, South Carolina's historic military academy, requested permission from the South Carolina General Assembly to remove the Confederate Jack ensign from its chapel. But the determination was made that the flag met criteria as a war memorial, and under the South Carolina Heritage Act, the ensign could not be legally removed.

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Prohibiting Confederate symbols is just one part of Berger's forward-moving agenda. The Commander General also ordered leaders to find more combat roles for women, extend parental leave policies to same-sex couples, and consider year-long maternity leave for new mothers, according to Military.com.

Richard Kohn, a history professor who studies peace, war and defense at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill told Military.com that modernizing the Marine Corps is long overdue, but necessary.

"We have the need within the country to try and create as much unity as possible and to suppress white nationalism and racism within the ranks of the military because, every once in a while, it crops up and causes an issue," Kohn said.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Confederate flag banned from Marine bases worldwide