A Marine staff sergeant has been kicked out of the corps after flying a white nationalist flag on "Confederate memorial day" in May, Task & Purpose reports.
Staff Sgt. Joseph Manning of the Marine Corps Engineer School at Camp Lejeune was charged with first-degree trespassing for flying the banner, which contained the initials for the white supremacist slogan "You will not replace us," across from the Alamance Courthouse in Graham, North Carolina.
Manning appeared to fly his banner in honor of a rally held by Alamance County Taking Back Alamance County, described as a "neo-Confederate group." Task & Purpose notes that slogan on the banner was coined by Marine vet Nathan Damigo, and adopted by the heavily-recruiting white nationalist group Identity Evropa last year.
News of Mannings's separation from the Marines came just over a month after the white supremacist rally held in Charlottesville, Virginia in August. In the aftermath, the report notes, the Department of Defense has moved to purge extremists from the military -- and "remind the public that the extremist ideology on display in Charlottesville is not only antithetical to the American values, but explicitly prohibited under branch regulations."