Now-Deleted Navy Photo Is So Bad Even the Space Force Called It Out

The U.S. Navy deleted an image of a ship commander shooting a rifle after social media users pointed out an embarrassing mistake.

“Cmdr. Cameron Yaste, the Commanding Officer of the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS John S. McCain (DDG 56), fires at the 'killer tomato' during a gun shoot,” read the description on the photo posted by the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service. “The ship is in US 7th Fleet conducting routine operations. 7th Fleet is the US Navy's largest forward-deployed numbered fleet, and routinely interacts and operates with Allies and partners in preserving a free and open Indo-Pacific Region.”

But critics were quick to highlight the fact that the scope was improperly installed, among other issues.

"This US Navy IG post is making the rounds. It's truly something else, man. That man is the captain of this vessel & a graduate of the Citadel," commented one X user. "For non-gun ppl, obvious things happening here are:

"1. That optic is backwards!

"2. Lens caps are on

"3. From his shoulder to his grip to his stance, he's holding the rifle like he has never in his life fired a rifle. You wouldn't even hold your grandpa's hunting rifle this way, much less an AR-pattern gun.

"4. Why is someone touching his shoulder while he is firing?!

"5. Why is he looking through the optic with his shades on?!

"Nobody involved in this spotted any of this. Not the captain, or social media team, or anyone involved in the photo shoot. It's completely, totally wild to me," the user continued.

"It would be like if, say, the Microsoft social media team were taking IG photos of an open floorplan office at HQ, and the engineer in the shot had his laptop upside down & was pretending to type on the screen & look at the keyboard. It's that bad.

"I'm trying not to over-index on this, but we pay the military a lot of tax money & we trust them to defend our civilization, so this extreme level of yikes from these people is mildly terrifying to me. God save us all, because this dude in this picture sure won't."

This US Navy IG post is making the rounds. It's truly something else, man. That man is the captain of this vessel & a graduate of the Citadel.

For non-gun ppl, obvious 🙀 things happening here are:
1. That optic is backwards!
2. Lens caps are on
3. From his shoulder to his grip… pic.twitter.com/Br4JfIpEHt
— jonstokes.(eth|com) (@jonst0kes) April 10, 2024

Space Force calls out the US Navy on 𝕏.

The Navy posted and deleted an image of the commander of the USS John McCain firing a rifle where the weapon's optics were on backwards and appeared to still have the cap covers on. pic.twitter.com/7zyE0c2O66
— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) April 10, 2024