West Virginia has fired three state employees and suspended 34 more after a photo surfaced showing a class of correctional officer trainees appearing to make a Nazi salute.

The photo, which the State Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety released with the employees’ faces blurred, shows about 30 uniformed trainees posing with their right arms raised, most of them with their hands also extended. The words “Hail Byrd!” appear at the top of the image.

The military affairs department said on Friday that one cadet in the basic training class and two correctional academy trainers — one of whom took the picture — had been fired. The other trainees in the photo have been suspended without pay.

Jeff S. Sandy, the head of the department, condemned the photo in a letter to Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation employees.