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....
I wonder if some seaman didn’t do that on purpose. Kind of an Ensign Pulver thing (for those of you who remember the movie).
Rationalization about the scope mounted wrong is actually right makes no sense, and the guy obviously didn't know. If one checks out the position of the stock (not) on his shoulder, it's obvious he was just posing anyway.
My speculation is that the photo got modified for public release, and whoever made the edit, probably some photoshop nerd in the office of public affairs, didn’t know anything about firearms and pasted in a backwards scope. Maybe.
You nailed it.
I've used Photoshop for countless hours, the only way that could happen is if he did it deliberately.
was recently photographed shooting a 5.56×45mm M4 carbine with the optics installed backward ... and both end caps closed.
Installing it backward makes the target appear further away... and having both end caps closed makes the target invisible.
Prior to WWII our troops trained with broomsticks and drove cars labeled “tank”.
—
Later under B Clinton, they did the same thing, but without the cars.
Yeah, maybe so. There’s some kind of back story to this pic that explains it.
and having both end caps closed will indicate that the Navy is as clueless as they are.
1. Tall and reasonably photogenic
2. Service history of never risking anything, having any nonapproved opinions and never got into trouble.
3. Has no problem with DEI policies - even if they impinge on his unit's readiness and morale, would never dispute orders telling him/her/it to go to sea/deploying with unfit equipment, insufficient manning - including clearly unfit personnel, substandard training, unresolved mechanical issues.
4. Striving desperately to get ahead in rank.
Leaders like Halsey, Puller, Edson, McCauliff, Patton and many others would never be accepted today.
Good catch!
Th3 navy could,claim it is engaged in psyops by making the enemy think it is incompetent.
My first thought when I saw the photo was, "I wouldn't want to be that Chief Gunner's Mate (GMC) who was responsible for this..."
I have no doubt there was a very unpleasant one-way discussion with the CO/XO/CMC following this event in the Captain's quarters.
The terminology gets harder all the time.
But anyhow, if the services can't hit their recruiting targets by appealing to anti-patriotism, contempt for country, and sexual deviancy, it will become necessary to open the doors even wider.
Well, that certainly is in the FR tradition of not just speculation, but free form hallucinations.
The Navy posted a series of these photos, and the scope was mounted backwards in all of them. Do you think the photos were all “modified” before posting?
Its not like the Captain is ramming tankers or anything like that.
Even better to prevent unnecessary engagement
1. As a trainer of the Ship's Self Defense Forces for the Atlantic fleet, I was sent to a cruiser to inspect and test their SDF. When I fell them out on the fantail to inspect their M14 rifles, the sailors didn't know how they worked or how to present them for inspection. While I was wrestling with a young sailor to look at his rifle, the flash suppressor fell of his rifle (!) and fell into the sea. After this happened, I asked for a show of hands of how many of those men had handled their rifles before and none of them had. The Gunner's Mate handed them to them about 5 minutes before I got there, and they were very oily and that rifle I had tried to take was missing its entire Castle Nut.
2. I was called to investigate an incident that occurred on a minesweeper in the mid-Atlantic where a sailor was seriously wounded by brass fragments in his upper thighs and groin by an exploding .50 caliber cartridge. That sailor's life was saved by surgeons aboard a Soviet spy ship in the neighborhood. It turned out that the Gunner's Mate had screwed the barrel into the .50 most of the way into the receiver and mounted it on the pedestal and loaded it - but told a sailor to fire it. It was between 3/4 of an inch out of battery, and when the trigger was pushed, all that unsupported brass sprayed back and downward into the hapless sailor.
some E-4 armorer is in big trouble LOL
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