Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Thursday signed off on an independent commission's recommendations to remove from U.S. military facilities, "all names, symbols, displays, monuments, and paraphernalia that honor or commemorate the Confederacy." "The installations and facilities that our Department operates are more than vital national security assets.They are also powerful public symbols of our military, and of course, they are the places where our Service members and their families work and live." Austin wrote in a memo to senior officials on Friday.