Navy commander loses carrier job over anti-gay videos
A Commander of the USS Enterprise aircraft carrier was permanently relieved of command for producing and broadcasting a series of lewd anti-gay videos to his crew according to the Virginian-Pilot:
Adm. John C. Harvey announced today that he has permanently relieved Capt. Owen Honors as commanding officer of the aircraft carrier Enterprise for showing "exceptionally poor judgment" in producing and broadcasting a series of raunchy videos to his crew in 2006 and 2007.
The paper reports that:
The offending videos became public this weekend, proving an embarrassment to the Pentagon.
The videos, released by The Virginian-Pilot and PilotOnline.com on Saturday and Monday, feature Honors using gay slurs, pantomiming masturbation and staging suggestive shower scenes. They were played on the shipwide television system during weekly movie nights when Honors was executive officer, or second in command, of the Enterprise. Honors has since become commander of the ship.
Over the weekend, the Navy at first downplayed the videos as "humorous skits," then called them "not acceptable" and said they were under investigation.
The videos' existence was not news to Navy higher-ups. In a statement to The Virginian-Pilot on Friday, the Navy said its leadership had put a stop to videos with "inappropriate content" on the Enterprise about four years ago.
Tagged: anti-gay, Capt. Owen Honors, USS Enterprise