Chain of Command
Raunchy, demeaning videos appropriately got a captain canned, but what of his superiors?
It took a public airing of dirty laundry before the Navy took a top officer’s unprofessional conduct seriously enough to affect his career.
Why? That’s the question the Navy has yet to answer as it continues to investigate the incredibly poor judgment of an officer and his rise, nevertheless, into positions of ever more responsibility.
This week, the Navy relieved Capt. Owen Honors of his command of the Norfolk-based aircraft carrier U.S.S. Enterprise for making raunchy videos that demeaned women and homosexuals for the entertainment of the crew during his stint as the ship’s executive officer.
He served in that capacity from July 2005 to September 2007. After that, Honors was given command of a warship in Italy and, last year, of the Enterprise — though his superior officers knew about the videos. According to the Navy, they told him to stop making them early in 2007.
Last weekend, The Virginian-Pilot newspaper in Norfolk made the videos public and reported that one sailor had sent a complaint about them to the Navy Inspector General last week.
Other sailors told the newspaper that crew members who voiced concerns about the videos in 2006 and 2007 had been brushed off.
The videos, which were broadcast weekly then and continued to be available on the ship’s computers, apparently were quite popular.
Honors has many defenders, among them current and former crew members who say his over-the-top productions relieved some of the monotony of long tours at sea. After all, as executive officer, he was responsible for crew morale.
Yes, and discipline and maintaining good order among a crew made up largely of 18- and 19-year-olds.
His judgment in making crude videos that demean people for the amusement of others, setting the bar for acceptable behavior so low that it might actually encourage harassment, clearly undermined his leadership and justified his loss of command.
Now the Navy must determine how he could have gained it in the first place, and hold accountable all whose benign tolerance made it possible — as far up the chain of command as the evidence goes.
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