Now, this is embarrassing.
As if humiliating the US Navy commander wasn’t bad enough, the Marine Corps jumped in to add fuel to the fire.
From the New York Post:
A commanding officer of the USS John S. McCain, an Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer, was mocked online after he was photographed holding an assault weapon with its scope mounted backward as he took aim at a target known as a “killer tomato.”
Cmdr. Cameron Yaste “observes the live-fire exercise event. The ship is in U.S. 7th Fleet conducting routine operations,” read a caption posted by Defense Visual Information Distribution Service alongside an image of him holding up the weapon with the Trijicon VCOG scope installed backward while pointed at a large target balloon.
Once the mistake was realized, the Navy deleted the photo posted on Instagram.
As former special forces operator and commentator Tim Kennedy put it, it’s not that the commander put the scope on wrong—mistakes happen. The real issues are the mistakes that followed.
“It’s not that one dude put a scope on backwards. It’s that one dude put a scope on backwards, a dude with a camera took a picture of a dude that put a scope on backwards, the person that took that picture sent that photo to the PAO office, the PAO office sent it to the person that does social media. And that person posted it. There were probably 10 people in the Navy that saw this photo and thought it was a good idea to post it,” Kennedy wrote.
It’s not that one dude put a scope on backwards. It’s that one dude put a scope on backwards, a dude with a camera took a picture of a dude that put a scope on backwards, the person that took that picture sent that photo to the PAO office, the PAO office sent it to the person… pic.twitter.com/UW2Dt4PoNS
— Tim Kennedy (@TimKennedyMMA) April 10, 2024
Well, the Marine Corps is having a field day.
Not long after the embarrassing Navy photo was deleted, the US Marines official Twitter account posted an image of a Marine on a Navy vessel doing similar training correctly.
Clear Sight Picture#Marines assigned to the @15thMEUOfficial conduct a live-fire deck shoot aboard the @usnavy amphibious assault ship USS Boxer, April 6.
The 15th MEU is currently embarked aboard the Boxer Amphibious Ready Group conducting routine operations.#BlueGreenTeam pic.twitter.com/NJqe4mLdmh
— U.S. Marines (@USMC) April 10, 2024
A couple things to note, Cmdr. Yaste is a high-ranking officer who knows the last time he took part in an exercise like that. I don’t know how often the Navy requires this training for its higher ups but to me it appears he’s doing grunt he doesn’t have to do.
Second, where the heck are the NCOs?
Why would you let your Commander look like that? Especially if there are PR people around.
Look, I may have been a low-level NCO once upon a time, but I would never let my lieutenant look stupid. Why? Because I was scared to death of what the senior NCOs would do to me if they found out I was the reason our LT looked foolish.
An NCO should have pulled the Commander a side nonchalantly, gone around the corner, and fixed it.
It’s not hard to say, “That’s awesome, sir. Can you come here for a second? I want to show you something.” Then, go around the corner and fix it.
But that didn’t happen.
