Posted on 04/12/2024 4:21:51 AM PDT by MtnClimber
Just in the last two days we have reported on major issues with the U.S. military, ranging from delays in every major Navy shipbuilding program, U.S. Navy Facing Major Shipbuilding Delays While China’s Navy Expansion Accelerates, to problems with military recruiting: Army Invites Retirees as Old as 70 to Return to Active Duty in Attempt to Fix Recruiting Woes.
And this is just the tip of the iceberg, and all of you are likely well aware of the deteriorating state of our military under Joe Biden.
But through all this, and the other foibles of today’s DEI/CRT-centric military, we always sort of assumed a basic competence in, you know, the mission, i.e., shooting weapons.
Well, not any more.
From ZeroHedge: “We’re Going To Lose A Major War”: US Navy Deletes Photo Of Ship Commander Shooting Rifle With Backwards Scope:
Cmdr. Cameron Yaste, the Commanding Officer of the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS John S. McCain (DDG 56), was recently photographed shooting a 5.56×45mm M4 carbine with the optics installed backward.
The now-deleted image and press release on the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service website featured Yaste shooting the M4 with the Trijicon VCOG scope installed backward while pointed at a giant target balloon.
Here’s what the press release said before it was deleted:
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” [i.e. a sea-deployed practice target] during a gun shoot. 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....
In defense of the Navy (note some sarcasm here), most uninformed people would believe that the big end of a scope would always be the forward end and the little end would be at the eye. Given that the Navy is trying to attract just about anyone, the marketing people might have thought that the scope should look “normal” to most people, i.e. the clueless. If they put it on the correct way, many of these clueless people that are targets for the Navy promo would think that the scope was on backwards.
LOL...you're assuming the barrel is pointed down range. The photo doesn't reveal WHERE the barrel is pointed. The target might actually be a white, CIS, unvaccinated, Conservative Christian (he/him) male standing on a nearby USN vessel.
I also have to ask...why is there a hand on his shoulder?
We are so screwed.
Deleting something from the internet is like trying to remove pee from a swimming pool.
Makes sense on the USS john mcain.
China and Russia giggled at this. Meanwhile they both don’t have problems building their ships.
Notice the hand on the shooters shoulder......
It’s amazing how wrong you always are.
How do you mount it backwards? Is is made so you CAN mount it backwards?
I am sure that has symbolism in DEI world.
You must not use firearms much Yes, you can most definitely install anything that goes on any old picatinny rail backward
Our descent into reprobate madness is the result, along with concurrent evil.
The lens cap is also on and he’s using a chicken wing grip. Dude has never trained with a rifle in his life.
Maybe related to the spate of Navy ships running into each other.
I’m reassured by his confident stance, and the guiding hand on his shoulder.
It is a picatinny rail mount. You have to put it on in the right direction. In general this is what a picatinny rail scope mount looks like. His scope has the mount built in, but you have to mount it on the rail in the correct direction.
Did the rifle just miracle itself into the Captain’s hands with scope on backwards, or did he draw it from the weapons locker, where it was in the keeping of the master at arms, and one or more gunner’s mates, whose job in the Navy is to maintain in a functioning condition the very limited selection of small arms issued to Navy ships?
Perhaps the explanation is not incompetence at a core job function. Perhaps it was a joke that got out of hand. Perhaps a gunner’s mate solemnly handed the rifle to “Old Man” while inwardly laughing his/her/xher a@@ off because the scope was on backwards.
Perhaps.
I wonder if he's laughing now.
There is an image of a US ship out there with rusting sides. The captain hadn’t had people painting it.
Perhaps the Captain is channelling Bill Clinton. Recall when the world’s most famous draft dodger stood in a tower on the Korean DMZ and held his binoculars backwards?
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