Several employees of the West Virginia Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation have been suspended after posing for a photo while giving a Nazi salute under the text “Hail Byrd!”

The picture, first published by WCHS-TV, features about 30 blurred faces and appears to have been recently taken for the state’s “Basic Training Class #18” — which ran from Oct. 21 to Nov. 27.

Republican Gov. Jim Justice condemned the photo in a statement to the Washington Post, and has “ordered the termination” of participants in the offensive picture.

“I condemn the photo of Basic Training Class #18 in the strongest possible terms,” Justice said.

Justice said he directed Secretary Jeff Sandy of the state Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety to “continue actively investigating.”

DMAPS, according to its website, provides “support, oversight and guidance to agencies” including the DCR.

Sandy said in a Wednesday letter to DCR employees that several employees had already been suspended.

“It is distasteful, hurtful, disturbing, highly insensitive and completely inappropriate,” Sandy said in the letter.

A DMAPS spokesperson said the “Hail Byrd” slogan referred to someone involved with the basic training class, the Washington Post reported.

Local outlets had previously theorized, according to Huffington Post, that the words honored the late US Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.) — who had been a member of the Ku Klux Klan before later denouncing the hate group.