
A Navy Commander who captained the USS John McCain, a destroyer bristling with missiles, has been demoted from his command after bringing disrepute onto the Navy with a bizarre photo of himself with a rifle.
Cameron Yaste lost his command on August 30 and may be demoted further to the rank of Naval Officer after his superiors said his actions had cost confidence in his command ability. It all came down to a photo Yaste published that showed him holding a rifle with the sighting scope mounted backward—a mistake so bad it cannot even be called a rookie error.
For the time being, Capt. Allison Christy is taking over command of the John McCain. Christy is the deputy commodore of Destroyer Squadron 21. Right now, that unit is in the Gulf of Oman as part of the USS Abraham Lincoln Strike Group.
Capt Christy is a “trans woman,” and has spoken about LGBTQ issues in military service before.
It is unclear whether Yaste will be able to recover his reputation after the publication of the photo with the backward scope. The Navy said the specific reason for his demotion was “loss of confidence in his ability to command.” But the Navy is being coy, and will not list specific reasons for the demotion, and does not make specific reference to the rifle incident. It is possible that there are unknown personnel details behind this decision to demote Yaste.
The offending photo was posted in April by the Navy’s social media staff. It depicts Yaste in profile on the deck of his ship, aiming the gun. To the untrained eye it looks like any other stock military photograph, but those who know anything about firearms instantly saw Yaste’s blunder. Of course, the Navy deleted the post, but as they say, the internet is forever, and it had already been widely circulated.
The Navy’s response to the uproar was to delete the original post featuring Yaste, stating, “Thank you for pointing out our rifle scope error in the previous post. Picture has been removed until EMI (extra military instruction) is completed,” according to Newsweek.
The Marine Corps, the Navy’s “rival” branch, made great hay with the image, sharing it with the caption “Clear Sight Picture.”