Navy probes carrier officer’s lewd
onboard videos
01.03.2011 8:42am EST
(Norfolk, Va.) Videos just coming to light show the
crew of a Navy aircraft carrier got an eyeful on shipboard TV: Gay slurs,
suggestive shower scenes and mimicked masturbation in clips made not by some
sailor run amok but by the ship’s second-most powerful officer.
The Navy said
Sunday it will investigate the “clearly inappropriate” videos shown through the
nuclear-powered ship’s closed-circuit television system as part of an onboard
movie night. The star of the videos, made in 2006 and 2007, is Capt. Owen
Honors, who now commands the USS Enterprise but was its executive officer – the
second in command – when the videos were made.
The Norfolk-based Enterprise was deployed in the Middle
East at the time the videos were made and is weeks from deploying again.
The Virginian-Pilot newspaper reported on the videos in its
Sunday editions and posted an edited version of one video on its website.
It’s not immediately known why the images are surfacing
now. The Virginian-Pilot quoted anonymous crew members who said they raised
concerns aboard the ship about the videos when they aired, but they were
brushed off.
It’s clear from the videos that Honors, who took over the
ship’s command in May, had already gotten complaints when some of them were
made. “Over the years I’ve gotten several complaints about inappropriate
material during these videos, never to me personally but, gutlessly, through
other channels,” he said in the introduction to the video posted by the
newspaper.
He goes on to use a derogatory term for gays and tells his
critics: “This evening, all of you bleeding hearts … why don’t you just go
ahead and hug yourselves for the next 20 minutes or so, because there’s a
really good chance you’re gonna be offended.”
Next comes a sequence of what appear to be outtakes in
which Honors and others curse, followed by clips in which he and others are
shown making hand motions that mimic masturbation.
Honors segues to the next segment by saying, “Finally let’s
get to my favorite topic … chicks in the shower.” Next are shown clips of pairs
of women and a pair of men pretending to shower together. No nudity is shown,
but the men’s and women’s bare shoulders imply they are nude.
Other clips in the video show a man in drag and a mock
rectal examination.
Navy Cmdr. Chris Sims said in a statement sent to The
Associated Press that the videos “were not acceptable then and are not
acceptable in today’s Navy.”
Executive officers and other leaders “are charged to lead
by example and are held accountable for setting the proper tone and upholding
the standards of honor, courage and commitment that we expect sailors to
exemplify,” he said.
Sims said U.S. Fleet Forces Command “has initiated an
investigation into the circumstances surrounding the production of these
videos.”
In a statement to the Virginian-Pilot on Friday, however,
the Navy said it had put a stop to videos with “inappropriate content” on the
Enterprise several years ago.
“It is unfortunate that copies of these videos remained
accessible to crewmembers, especially after leadership took action approximately
four years ago to ensure any future videos reflected the proper tone,” the Navy
said.
It also said the videos “were intended to be humorous skits
focusing the crew’s attention on specific issues such as port visits, traffic
safety, water conservation, ship cleanliness, etc.”
A phone listing for Honors was not immediately available.
He is a 1983 alumnus of the U.S. Naval Academy and was a naval aviator before
holding command. He attended the U.S. Naval Fighter Weapons School, also known
as Top Gun.
The newspaper reported that the videos were made during the
Enterprise’s two six-month deployments to the Middle East in 2006 and 2007.
Commissioned in 1961, the Enterprise is the world’s first
nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. It is scheduled to sail two more deployments
before it is decommissioned in 2013. It can carry a crew of more than 5,800.
The commanding officer of the Enterprise at the time the
videos were made, Lawrence Rice, was later promoted to the rank of the rear
admiral and had been assigned to the Norfolk-based U.S. Joint Forces Command,
but is no longer there, a spokeswoman said.
The video posted by the newspaper included clips of past
“movies” Honors had made – including several statements in which he holds his
higher-ups blameless for the material.
“As usual, the admiral and the captain have no idea about
the contents of the video or movie this evening, and they should not be held
accountable in any judicial setting,” Honors says.