Wednesday, April 17, 2024
Through a Scope Backwards
The U.S. Navy recently released a photograph on social media showing a sailor firing his M-4 aboard a ship. No doubt some public relations officer thought the picture looked great—a fit and ready sailor shooting his rifle, with spent cartridges flying. A perfect picture for a recruitment catalog, except for one crucial detail: the rifle’s scope—which the sailor appears to be looking through—is mounted backwards, and its lens covers appear to be closed. A swift social media uproar arose over the bizarre and glaring error. Someone with actual military experience in the Navy evidently noticed what this photo said without words, because the picture was quickly deleted.
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Fuck. I'm reasonably scared now. Time to arm up.
ReplyDeleteOff Topic but WRSA blog has been 502 bad gateway since early this morning....
ReplyDeleteAn American Homestead called this as a protest photo, not incompetence.
ReplyDeleteNo one looks through a scope backwards and calls it good.
Not a sailor. O-5 or above wear scrambled egg caps.
ReplyDeleteThe American Mind does the media equivalent of using a backwards-mounted scope by calling the officer a sailor.
Mike G.
With his "Command-at-Sea" pin. I think someone pranked him.
DeleteI will bet the gun was set up that way to make it fit in the armory better, especially the optic being mounted backwards, then when the FT or Gunner's Mate was sent for the weapon he wasn't given time to make it fully ready since it was "just for a photo shoot, not for anything important"...
ReplyDeleteThe CO of a ship should never be handling small arms except maybe for qualification so he probably had no idea the setup was that wrong. If you aren't using the optic why remove the lens caps? Just spray and pray knowing you will hit the water eventually.
Still, just a sign how degraded our military has become.
You might have seen too many movies. You don't re-attach a scope and believe it to hold zero. Not any serious shooter anyway.
DeleteIf they pull one of those boys out it is likely for a security drill, and that is CQB time. Nobody is going to be shooting even 50 yards. It isn't a target rifle, and the Navy doesn't have riflemen...
DeleteChing Lee wept.
DeleteSailor? It’s an "O" grade, college indoctrinated, nautical executive not a bilge rat, grunt swabbie. Look at the scrambled eggs on his beanie
ReplyDeleteWell, it’s the Navy. Do thrre’s that….
ReplyDeleteTrue enough. We shot a single magazine of .22 through converted 1911's while in boot camp. The top 6 recruits in each 80 man company were permitted to shoot for a marksmanship ribbon with a single magazine of .45.
DeleteAfter that, the only people who touched weapons while on duty were gunner's mates. I outshot the GMs and requested to be on the ship's pistol team. I was denied. No one touches a weapon unless their duties require it. The rest of the time, all weapons are kept under lock and key. There was an institutional fear amongst Naval officers that the enlisted men would shoot them, given the chance.
That's probably correct, because so many of them were apple polishing, ring knocking assholes who didn't care who they had to screw over in order to be promoted.
My dad said the same of the ensign in charge when they blew a boiler on a destroyer bobbing off Cuba.
DeleteAll the boilermen made fine inquest statements on the same vein.
About a quarter of army officers I dealt with were the same, but Engineers were of a brighter background in my units.
Prior to them deleting the post even the Space Force was rolling in on them. The gent had several previous assignments as a weapons officer, so you'd think that he'd have a clue. Doh!
ReplyDeleteMatt
The Weapons officer manages the enlisted sailors who deal with the deck guns, CIWS, missiles, and the like on a surface ship. He is a department head who manages junior officers when the chiefs aren't managing them too. Weps doesn't run the guns, do set ups, or anything else hands-on. This was a screw up by the chief that actually runs the small arms locker.
DeleteVery few positions in the Navy outside of SEALS require officers to be proficient small arms handlers or even be familiar with setting one up.
Even more egregious is the O-5 has an Expert Medal in Rifle and another one in Pistol. Oops! Oopsie!
ReplyDeleteThe article states "He barely braces the buttstock with his shoulder, a recipe for missing the target and winding up with a black eye." For fuck sake... it's a M4 not a howitzer. btays
ReplyDeleteMissed the hand on shoulder previously. First time shooting?
ReplyDeleteSteve S6
he just has a little seamen on his back.
DeleteI just assume that the Marine/armsman? who handed him the rifle for the photo knew exactly what he was doing and hated his CO.
ReplyDelete"...because so many of them were apple polishing, ring knocking assholes who didn't care who they had to screw over in order to be promoted." payback can be a bitch. Can't say I went out of my way to harm officers , helped a few out on occasion, but had dreams of beating one co over the head with a battery wrench . Another ,I would not piss on if he was on fire to this day
ReplyDeleteNear as I can tell, there's not a turret on the other side. No rings, fixed mount, turrets are top and right. Can anybody tell what brand of scope that is? It's got cowitness capability and possibly night vision. Could be wrong. Some of the high end stuff is essentially a camera and micro monitor. Not much to adjust on the monitor.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgPmWopkVF4
ReplyDeleteThe money shot is at the end-“Generals shouldn’t walk around….”