Navy commander relieved of duty after embarrassing photo

[d_marsh]

Navy commander relieved of duty after embarrassing photo​

September 04, 2024 Timothy Frudd

The United States Navy relieved USS John McCain Cmdr. Cameron Yaste from his position as commander of the U.S. Navy destroyer after the military branch was mocked on social media for sharing a picture of Yaste improperly holding a rifle with the scope mounted backward.
In a Friday press release, the Navy announced, “The commanding officer of USS John S. McCain was relieved Aug. 30 due to a loss of confidence in his ability to command the guided-missile destroyer.”

The press release noted that Yaste was relieved of his duties by Rear Adm. Christopher Alexander, who is the commander of the Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group.

“Yaste reported to assume the role as John S. McCain’s commanding officer in October 2023,” the Navy added in Friday’s press release. “He has now been temporarily reassigned to Naval Surface Group Northwest.”

Friday’s press release also announced that Capt. Allison Christy, who is the deputy commodore of Destroyer Squadron 21, had “temporarily assumed command of the destroyer.” According to Fox News, Destroyer Squadron 21 is part of the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group, which is currently deployed alongside the USS John McCain in the Gulf of Oman.

Fox News reported that the USS John McCain is responsible for protecting the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier in the Middle East as the United States continues to have aircraft carriers deployed in the region to provide support to Israel in the event of an Iranian attack.
In April, the Navy was heavily criticized and mocked on social media for posting an embarrassing picture of Yaste holding a military rifle with its Trijicon VCOG scope mounted backward as he aimed at a target balloon off the Navy destroyer. The Navy captioned the photo, “From engaging in practice gun shoots, conducting maintenance, testing fuel purity and participating in sea and anchor details, the #USNavy is always ready to serve and protect.”

The Navy’s post featuring Yaste was quickly deleted after social media users slammed the Navy for the rifle scope error. In a later post, the Navy wrote, “Thank you for pointing out our rifle scope error in the previous post. Picture has been removed until EMI (extra military instruction) is completed.”

In contrast to the Navy’s embarrassing photo of Yaste holding a rifle with the scope mounted backward, the U.S. Marines shared a picture in April of a Marine firing a rifle with the scope mounted correctly alongside the caption, “Clear Sight Picture.”


https://americanmilitarynews.com/20...er-relieved-of-duty-after-embarrassing-photo/

 

[Patchouli]

I saw that in the news. Also thought I saw something else as to a different reason why he was relieved of his post. Forget what it was, but it definitely wasn’t that. Or maybe it was someone else, it was Navy.

 

[Amish Heart]

American Homestead on Youtube just did a thing on this that I saw yesterday. He said it was a protest photo, for sure. Also showed the guy/girl who took his place. DEI thingy

 

[teeceetx]

We're toast in the next war.

 

[Mountain trapper]

Why do people like this feel the need to post things on the internet? Especially someone who should know better. It's no big deal to me, but apparently his superiors thought it was.

 

[Bacpacker]

Why would you mount a scope backwards?
Wasn't the Mc Cain damaged in a ship to ship Collison a few years ago?
Given the disgrace it was named after it should be renamed or removed from service

 

[Hardcalibres]

Embarrassing photos are common in the military.

They usually involve someone who probably shouldn't be showing off with a weapon, being setup to look dumb.

Sometimes the setup is a protest against PR photos.

Sometimes those photos get out into the world of the internet.

 

[DrHenley]

Why would you mount a scope backwards?
Wasn't the Mc Cain damaged in a ship to ship Collison a few years ago?
Given the disgrace it was named after it should be renamed or removed from service

Not to make excuses, he should have known better, but I'm sure he didn't put the scope on there himself. Someone on the PR crew who truly was clueless threw it on there as a prop and handed it to him. It has a quick release mount so they didn't even need any tools to put it on there. He just grabbed the gun from then and threw it up. It's a Trijicon 1-8x28 VCOG. If it was set to 1x you wouldn't notice the difference looking through it.
https://www.trijicon.com/products/product-family/trijicon-vcog-VC18

 

[Richbo69]

Why would you mount a scope backwards?
Wasn't the Mc Cain damaged in a ship to ship Collison a few years ago?
Given the disgrace it was named after it should be renamed or removed from service

Yea, well in the McCain’s defense, I believe the navigator was looking through the wrong end of his binoculars. He thought the other ship was farther away…..lol

 

[Haertig]

You don't relieve someone of duty for something like that.

If - as DrHenley commented - you would not notice any difference looking through this scope the wrong way if it was set to 1x, I would not fault the officer in the picture for being handed an obvious prop for a photo shoot and not inspecting it carefully.

Relieving him of duty - for this picture alone - would be ludicrous. Saying confidence was lost in him ... I lost confidence in the people that relieved him of duty. Providing of course, that this "internet report" is accurate. Which it probably isn't.

 

[d_marsh]

Why would you mount a scope backwards?
Wasn't the Mc Cain damaged in a ship to ship Collison a few years ago?
Given the disgrace it was named after it should be renamed or removed from service

Rumor has it that much of the crew didn't like the Cap'n and this was their FU to him. Sounds exactly like something that would happen.

 

[DrHenley]

Rumor has it that much of the crew didn't like the Cap'n and this was their FU to him. Sounds exactly like something that would happen.

So he got "fragged." Figuratively speaking.

 

[Peanut]

I’ve seen several things done in retribution to Jr officers who unfairly treated a guy in their dept or division(navy). If they caused issues for guys in other departments it got serious. The normal attention getter was their cover or hat over the side of the ship in the middle of the night. An officer’s hat was about $125, they had to buy it.

Officer’s Country had the wardroom, officer bunk rooms. They were required to hang their hat on a hook outside their door in the passageway. So the duty watch or any one looking for them would know they were inside sleeping. At sea most officers and crew were asleep between midnight and 0600.

If a guy(s) needed to send the a message… they’d go through the passageway and swipe the hat then tossed it overboard. I knew one guy who’s job took him to OC in the middle of the night. For $25 he’d swipe anyone’s hat and toss it.

I’ve never seen anything directed at a CO or XO. He must have po a lot of guys.

The funniest one… friends were on a train in france coming back to the ship, late night, liberty call and drunk. A Jg who’d caused problems gets on, also drunk but still a butthead. He passes out, oops! At their stop my buddies paid for his ticket all the way to Italy. Another 50Miles with a customs check, at least they left him his wallet.