US Navy warship commander mocked for holding assault rifle with scope the wrong way

• The US Navy was criticized for posting a photo of an officer firing a rifle with the scope backward.

• Cmdr. Cameron Yaste had been firing at a naval target balloon, the Navy said.

• The Navy acknowledged the error and removed the picture.

The US Navy has been slammed on social media for posting a photo of a sailor holding an assault rifle with its scope on backward.

In an image posted to Instagram, which has since been deleted, Cmdr. Cameron Yaste, the captain of the USS John S. McCain, was aiming the weapon, with the scope's lens cap still attached, at an unseen target.

The caption accompanying the photo read: "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."

A press release from the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service said the captain had been firing at a "killer tomato," a Navy term for a target balloon.

Viewers were quick to point out his mistake.

One X user wrote: "US Navy just killing it on Instagram" alongside laughing and crying emojis.

Another said: "U.S. Navy's Cameron Yaste (left pic) thinks he's gonna dazzle 18-year-olds into joining navy with cool photoshoot on board ship but forgot that his scope's mounted backward."

Mike Collins, a Republican congressman from Georgia, also weighed in on the photo, posting a photo on X, formerly Twitter, of a pistol with its barrel back-to-front.

"Navy's newly issued sidearm," he joked in the caption.

The US Navy said in a statement: "Thank you for pointing out our rifle scope error in the previous post. Picture has been removed until EMI is completed!"

EMI, or "extra military instruction," is defined by the US Navy as instruction in a "military duty in which an individual is deficient" to correct the deficiency.

"It is a bona fide training technique to be used for improving the efficiency of an individual within a command or unit through the correction of some deficiency in that individual's performance of duty," the Navy says.

According to Yaste's official biography, he graduated from the Naval Post Graduate School with a master's degree in astronautics before going on to serve aboard ships such as the USS Bataan and the USS Hopper.

The biography said he's also won multiple awards, including the Defense Meritorious Service Medal.

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