The commander of a U.S. Navy destroyer has been relieved of duty four months into the warship’s Middle East deployment after he was ridiculed for being seen in a photo firing a rifle with a reverse-mounted scope.
The image in question showed Commander Cameron Yaste shooting an AR-platform rifle with what appeared to be a Trijicon VCOG scope atop it.
As AWR Hawkins of Breitbart News and many others pointed out, the scope was mounted backwards. That meant the commander had no sight picture whatsoever as he fired the weapon.
Hawkins further noted users of X also commented how the photo did not make sense because someone appeared to be steadying the commander from behind as he fired a rifle typically chambered for a .22 caliber round.
🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦 https://t.co/49MWgID8BY
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) April 10, 2024
The Navy was quickly lambasted on social media and the photo was pulled, confirmed courtesy of a posting to X: “Thank you for pointing out our rifle scope error in the previous post. Picture has been removed until EMI is completed!”
The Navy Times reports Cmdr. Yaste was removed on Friday.
The Navy said Cmdr. Yaste was relieved of duty “due to a loss of confidence in his ability to command the guided-missile destroyer” that’s currently deployed in the Gulf of Oman. The statement didn’t elaborate further.
Cmdr. Yaste has been temporarily reassigned to Naval Surface Group Northwest.
AP reports destroyer USS John S. McCain is now commanded by Capt. Allison Christy, deputy commodore of Destroyer Squadron 21, which is part of the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group that’s also in the Gulf of Oman.
File/Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS John S. McCain (DDG 56) underway in 2003. (Wikipedia/U.S. Navy/Mate 3rd Class Todd Frantom)
The USS John S. McCain is unique in that it is named after three naval officers from the same family.
John S. McCain Sr. was an admiral and a Navy aircraft carrier commander in World War II. John S. McCain Jr. was an influential Navy admiral during the Vietnam War era. John S. McCain III was a naval aviator who was a prisoner of war in North Vietnam and went on to become a U.S. senator from Arizona and a Republican presidential candidate.
The Pentagon sent the U.S. Navy carriers to the Middle East to be in position should Israel need help repelling an attack by Iran or other countries, if such a thing happens, military officials said.
The Roosevelt is the flagship of a strike group that has recently included three Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, $2 billion vessels designed to shield carriers from attacks by air, sea and land.
