Commander Cameron Yaste of the USS John McCain, a guided-missile destroyer tasked with protecting the San Diego-based aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, has been relieved of duty.
Yaste was removed from his position on Friday and faces a demotion to Naval Officer, according to Newsweek.
He has been temporarily replaced by Capt. Allison Christy, the deputy commodore of Destroyer Squadron 21, which is currently operating as part of the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group in the Gulf of Oman.
Christy was one of the speakers on the panel “LGBT Experiences in the Forward Deployed Navy: 10 Years After Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” back in 2021.
The “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) policy, repealed under the Obama administration in 2011, allowed LGBTQ+ service members to serve openly in the military without fear of losing their jobs.
Commander Cameron Yaste’s career took a nosedive after a photograph emerged showing him firing a rifle with the scope mounted backward.
The Navy’s official statement cited a “loss of confidence in his ability to command” as the reason for Yaste’s dismissal from his position as the commanding officer of the USS John McCain, currently deployed in the volatile Gulf of Oman, according to AP.
However, the statement notably omitted any specific details regarding the reasons behind this decision, leading some to speculate that it might be related to his embarrassing rifle blunder.
The controversy began in April when the Navy’s social media team posted an image of Commander Yaste in a firing stance, gripping a rifle with a scope inexplicably mounted backward.
The Navy eventually deleted the post, but not before it was widely shared and ridiculed.
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 wasted no time on the Navy’s mistake of sharing a photo on its social media channels. The image, showing a Marine properly firing a weapon aboard the USS Boxer, was captioned with a pointed “Clear Sight Picture,” clearly aimed at highlighting the Navy’s gaffe.
Editor’s Note: Please note that Commander Yaste’s photo has been updated. The initial image posted did not accurately reflect Commander Yaste, and we have since corrected this.
