The Marines trolled the Navy on Instagram and it was awesome
This is the stuff that nightmares are made of.
For the Navy, Tuesday, April 9th, 2024 is a day that will live in infamy … at least for the commanding officer of the U.S.S. John McCain, and everybody who was involved in one of the more hilarious and embarrassing military bloopers since Fort Bragg (now Fort Liberty) got horny on Twitter (now X).
Now it’s the Navy’s turn to be memed into oblivion, and the Marines are leading the way.
In a now-deleted but archived gallery posted to the Defense Visual Information Distribution System, better known as DVIDS, Commander Cameron Yaste is shown taking a little break from being the commanding officer of the U.S.S. John McCain to get some trigger time on an M4 carbine. Unfortunately for him, his crew, and the entire United States Navy, his optic was on backward and the U.S. Navy posted one of the photos across their social media accounts, sealing their fate.
The now-deleted Instagram post had thousands of comments within the first few hours. Countless pages on social media expressed their shock, delight, and dismay at the image. The r/navy subreddit came together to attempt to explain what went wrong, console each other, and digitally cry. And of course, the memes started dropping immediately and Task and Purpose got into the mix, too. The Instagram page “dearmomimdead” was even nice enough to “fix” the image for the Navy.
The Marines, never ones to miss out on some fun at the Navy’s expense, posted a photo on Instagram the next day of a Marine from the 15th MEU aboard the USS Boxer firing an M27 Infantry Automatic Rifle equipped with an SCO — the same (or similar) model optic the Navy commander used, but with it facing the right direction. The caption? “Clear Sight Picture.” Of course, we can’t be certain the Marines were throwing shade at the Navy, but as the great philosopher Dollar Bill once said, “I am not uncertain.”
The comment section under the Marine photo did not disappoint. @mike_cassar wrote: “Whoever is running this page… promote ahead of peers.” We couldn’t agree more, Mike.
The National Guard, happy that people seem to have moved on from that time they used Nazi reenactors on a recruiting poster, posted their own photo of soldiers firing rifles with all the optics pointing in the right direction, and a very simple, straightforward caption: the side-eyes emoji.
On the surface (great Navy pun), it seems like a pretty normal day shooting on the guided missile destroyer besides his little chicken-wing elbow and the “g-money” grip that he appears to be holding onto for dear life as he shoots on 3-round burst. The Navy might get a little leeway (another great Navy pun. Can’t stop, won’t stop.) with the shooting mechanics because they’re the Navy, but one just can’t abide the optic facing the wrong way.
Just how the 1-8×28 magnification Trijicon VCOG Squad Common Optic (SCO) found its way onto the rifle in that orientation is a mystery. Many are placing the blame on the Gunner’s Mate who set the rifle up. Some even suggested that Marines on the ship set the rifle up for him. We even spent some time trying to figure out how this could happen.
Theoretically, it could have been on the 1x magnification setting the whole time he was shooting, but then the holdover points and subtensions (the little numbers) on the reticle would also be backward. Also, the magnification ring that is usually close to the shooter appears to be at the 12 o’clock position, indicating it may have been somewhat magnified. If it was magnified, maybe he didn’t notice things seemed further away if he was just dumping rounds into an empty ocean, but he was firing at a “killer tomato” target.
Perhaps it was a joke, but then why did they attempt to erase it from the internet? He could have meant to have the optic mounted backward to simulate the target being further away, but that just makes no sense and if that was the thinking behind it we have bigger issues. No matter how you try and rationalize this, it doesn’t work out.
Even if there were a logical explanation, the internet cares not. The Marines and National Guard weren’t the only ones to poke fun. The response on social media was swift and brutal as the sharks smelled blood in the water (“Another one”. -DJ Khaled), from miles away.
Echelon USA came in hot with this zinger.
Representative Mike Collins posted this to X:
The Naval Aviation Maintenance Program on Facebook had this meme posted that called out the chicken wing. We are going to assume they meant the sauces would complement the chicken wings and are not complimentary.
Where this will get really interesting is when the Army-Navy football game comes around in December. The rivalry is usually pretty entertaining even if you don’t care about the game and last year the Army fired the opening salvo. We are willing to bet they’re filling the magazine with backward optic memes and more to demoralize their opponent. Maybe the new PSYOP school will get a call.
Fortunately for all of us, the Navy is without equal on the open seas and they’ve been proving that all around the world, especially in the Red Sea where they’re knocking out Houthi drones, missiles, and boats without breaking a sweat. Hopefully, if an engagement calls for rifles, Marines will be there to help them out.
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