Yeah, I don't think when my brother was in the Air Force was he ever actually issued a firearm at any point including multiple "combat zone" deployments. The nature of his job and the chance of ever actually needing to fire at the enemy, it would just be something that's a pain in the ass to carry around. I imagine the Navy is quite the same, I mean really how often does a Captain need to be firing at the enemy?

I do wonder if that optic is really backwards, I suppose it doesn't matter if the caps are on. Oh and I always shoot with sunglasses if I'm outside. Don't really give a shit what someone says, I can see and I wear glasses anyway.

It still looks really awkward to my less trained eye but I have still shot a decent handful of guns. Probably for the reasons you state. He just looks uncomfortable. I'd guess because he's not a gun guy, hasn't shot much or at all, and they wanted him for a photo op. What's the point of showing a Captain shooting a rifle anyway? Shouldn't I really be interested at his competence at his actual job? I mean "hey this guy hasn't ever crashed into a bridge" would be more relevant than whether or not he can fire a rifle.