USS Enterprise Video Scandal: Navy Commander Revealed As Mastermind Behind Raunchy Videos

[Tx4obama]

Source: Huffington Post

Owen Honors, Captain of the Norfolk-based USS Enterprise, was revealed as the producer of a series of "raunchy" videos made aboard the Navy carrier several years ago in a report released by the Virginian-Pilot on Saturday.

Filmed in 2006 and 2007 when Honors was the Enterprises's executive officer, the clips were reportedly shown to 6,000 sailers and U.S. Marines on the ship as part of what was called "XO Movie Night."

The Pilot reports:

In one scene, two female Navy sailors stand in a shower stall aboard the aircraft carrier, pretending to wash each other. They joke about how they should get six minutes under the water instead of the mandated three.

In other skits, sailors parade in drag, use anti-gay slurs, and simulate masturbation and a rectal exam. Another scene implies that an officer is having sex in his stateroom with a donkey.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/01/uss-enterprise-video-scandal_n_803263.html

---

An additional article w/video here: http://hamptonroads.com/2010/12/raunchy-videos-starring-enterprise-skipper-come-light
Edited to add - the video is also on the HuffPo link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/01/uss-enterprise-video-scandal_n_803263.html

[postulater]

1. Here we go again. Kirk vs. Picard.

Definitely not Picard on this one. Kirk ? maybe.

[krispos42]

2. Only if the woman sailors had green skins!

:D

[postulater]

3. Just finished watching the newest one two minutes ago.

This is the first post that came up when I opened up DU.

The green-skinned one was pretty ..... well, pretty.

[naaman fletcher]

4. Got a link?

Please?

[postulater]

22. Sorry, my daughter has a dvd.

[SoapBox]

5. I think a better title for this article is...

..."Anti-gay, sexual videos shot with government equipment were masterminded by, and starred, aircraft carrier commander."

I watched the video here:

http://hamptonroads.tv/hrtv.php?id=46530391&cid=omc

[Tx4obama]

7. Sailors In Drag, Women Showering: Creator Of Raunchy Videos Made On U.S. Carrier Revealed

"Sailors In Drag, Women Showering: Creator Of Raunchy Videos Made On U.S. Carrier Revealed"
is what it says on the front page of Huffington Post
a different title than what is on the article when you click the link.

p.s. Looks like Obama will have one more Bush mess to clean up when he gets back from Hawaii :(

[Ozymanithrax]

6. Well, at least President Bush wasn't lookig for WMD in that rectal exam. n/t

[Tx4obama]

8. Bush's 'Mission Accomplished. banner was strung across the deck of the US Abraham Lincoln

and not the USS Enterprise.
Just in case anyone was wondering or had forgotten.

[jmowreader]

9. This isn't about that stupid banner

Bush was in the White House when these videos were made.

Just like his daddy was in the White House during the Tailhook Scandal.

Not so obvious question: Why is it, when the Navy decides to do something like this, there's always a Republican in the White House?

[Tx4obama]

10. I know it is not about the stupid banner....

but I looked it up it see if it was on the USS Enterprise and it was not, so I thought I'd post that in case anyone else was wondering ;)

And yes, it does seem like all the disgusting things happen when a republican is in the White House.

[Ian David]

12. Tailhook happened on Clinton's watch.

But IIRC, it had been going on for years, and it was just during Clinton's watch that it came to light and got shut-down.

Tailhook scandal
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tailhook_scandal

[Ilsa]

13. 1991 was Bush 41's watch. My best friend

was a navy pilot and she had been assaulted at Tailhook on several occasions, but never by a gauntlet. (She actually counterattacked on pilot who accosted her.) Alot of it came to light before the 1992 election, including the assault on the Admiral's Aide. I remember reading it and I wrote my senators about it. It had to get talked to death and the Bush admin did nothing about it. You are right: The Clinton Administration stopped it.

Years before, I dated a navy pilot who shared a house with other pilots. I saw pics from their trip to Tailhook. Pretty raunchy behavior was commonplace.

[SpiralHawk]

11. "I definitely rememberize that. Smirk." - xCommander AWOL (R)

[Crowman1979]

14. And gays will ruin the military how?

Well after this video the response from all the generals will be:

<crickets>

[defendandprotect]

15. Rise of the right and its perversions ......

[The Doctor.]

26. Just how certain are you that these were all 'righties'?

Seems to me that freedom of expression isn't something too many liberals get bent out of shape over.

These were all adults? They all consented?

So the worst offense was gay slurs? Well, that's something we can also hold against 'The Kids in the Hall'.

[defendandprotect]

32. You're saying liberal commanders run the military? Smut for everyone?

"Freedom of expression"? "They all consented"?

"Kids in the Hall"?

You seem to be fairly certain that top down organizing of smut video in the

military and pushing it the crew on movie night is a good thing?

[Thor_MN]

16. I recall a novel that had a video of a women demonstrating a "Navy Shower" as a plot item

In response to a fresh water generator being out, an enterprising (no pun intended) officer gets a B starlet to film a video of getting wet, turning off the shower and getting all soaped up - only turning the shower back to rinse off. She then turns to the camera and says "Now that's a Navy Shower, Boys." The officer's superiors were not happy, but water use was reduced.

I think that someone turned an idea from a book into real life and then expanded into personal prejudices and fetishes.

[petronius]

25. That was my first thought, too - one of those brain-candy military thrillers,

but I can't recall the title or author (it's been decades).

Reading the article, the thing that jumps out at me most is the comment about "gutless" complaints - that alone makes me conclude that this guy is a really bad leader...

[Thor_MN]

47. It may have been Stephen Coonts, one of the Jake Grafton series

I'm sure I have it in a box in my basement... but who has time to go look...

[formercia]

17. Conduct unbecoming an Officer. n/t

[Tx4obama]

35. +1000 n/t

[high density]

18. If nothing else they should be able to lock him up indefinitely for copyright infringement

for using the THX theme, "We Built This City," and others.

[lobodons]

19. Why are people so weirded out by sex?

The XO was just trying to release some stress within the crew. The gay slurrs are disturbing, but the videos in theory are a good idea. Sex is a good thing not a bad thing.

[whathehell]

23. People can be "weirded out"

by sex under certain conditions...To say that "sex is a good thing not a bad thing" ignores all the possible scenarios under which it can happen.


Exploitative and/or non-consensual sex is "a bad thing" in my book and I believe in that of most people here.

[defendandprotect]

33. That's probably the way the Pope thought about ...

his crew of pedophiles ... ???

[Shipwack]

20. Three minute showers? Hmph!

I always knew the carrier sailors were coddled prima donnas. In the submarine force we call that a "Hollywood" shower because it is the sort of lavishness you'd only find in a motion picture.

;)

As for the officer and the donkey, neither unbelievable nor surprising. I'd just wonder who was giving and who was receiving.

[47of74]

21. Navy hasn't learned an F-ing thing from Tailhook

[Schema Thing]

24. I predict a run on blue Swoveralls

[PacerLJ35]

27. Hmmmmm, not too concerned about it now that I've watched the video

Seriously...

Was it perhaps inappropriate coming from the command? Maybe.

Was it worthy of some huge scandalous controversy and front page of CNN? No. It's not any worse than any of the sexual innuendo I can watch on prime time TV these days. And I've watched dozens of comedy acts, some by very liberal folks, that use various "offensive" terms.

I think the "anti-gay" slurs were intended to mock some of the frat-boy antics of the fighter pilot community. The shower scenes was simply an attempt at humor concerning Navy life aboard a ship...the XO coming in and timing people to ensure they don't take too long a shower.

There's far greater issues than this video. Seriously, the things we worry about. We used to have a beer over the debrief when we flew with students...that's now banned because ONE guy wrote someone and complained about it. Thanks for sucking the fun out of life. I've got a funny-sounding last name...people like to poke fun of it all the time, it doesn't bother me. I can tell when people are being mean-spirited and when they are just making light of it.

[Vidar]

28. More power to 'em as long as they all had fun.

[Tx4obama]

29. Update: USS Enterprise Video Scandal Spurring Navy To Probe Racy Clips

01/02/11 - 03:22 PM

SNIP

The Navy said it plans to investigate the videos, which it called "clearly inappropriate."

SNIP

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."

SNIP

Commanding officers and enlisted chiefs "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," Sims said in the statement.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/02/uss-enterprise-video-scandal_n_803344.html

[Tx4obama]

30. Full text of statement released by the Navy- below

Here's full text of the statement released by the Navy in response to the initial story published by the Virginian-Pilot:

The videos created onboard USS Enterprise in 2006-2007 and written about in The Virginian-Pilot article on Saturday, January 1, 2011, are clearly inappropriate. Production of videos, like the ones produced four to five years ago on USS Enterprise and now being written about in The Virginian-Pilot, were not acceptable then and are not acceptable in today's Navy. The Navy does not endorse or condone these kinds of actions. Those in command, Commanding Officers, Executive Officers, and Command Master Chiefs (the command triad) 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. U.S. Fleet Forces Command has initiated an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the production of these videos.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/01/uss-enterprise-video-scandal_n_803263.html

[bluescribbler]

31. No excuse

That officer should be relieved of command and stripped of his rank. He's just too damn stupid to lead men.

[Nitram]

34. XO videos

Officers are not "one of the guys", and trying to play that role is a major mistake. This guy stepped way over the line.

[sabra]

36. Navy: Officer's Videos "Clearly Inappropriate"

Source: CBS News/AP

Capt. Owen Honors, Now Commander of USS Enterprise, Made Videos Containing Lewd, Suggestive Material; Investigation Underway

(CBS/AP) 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.

Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/01/03/national/main7208474.shtml?tag=stack

[Moonwalk]

37. Why inappropriate? They were heterosexual right? Er...except for that mock lesbian scene--

---in the shower. But that's okay because the "real man" officer who made the video likes those kind of scenes. :sarcasm:

[gratuitous]

38. After reading the Spy magazine article many years ago

I think the title was "Can Clinton make the Navy any gayer?" or something like that. My understanding is that being cooped up on a ship for months on end on patrol is a goddammed boring existence. It's not like we're meeting Gen. Tojo's fleet for control of the Pacific every other month. To break up the routine and the monotony, crews engage in all sorts of diversions to pass the time, like the ceremony for crossing the equator and the one for crossing the international date line, and the one for surviving another goddammed boring day on board a ship.

All that to say that the existence of this particular video, or any videos of a racy nature, doesn't surprise me in the least. As anyone who's read my posts knows, I'm not gung-ho on the military (no shit, Sherlock), but down time screwing around like this doesn't faze me in the least. Yeah, it memorializes some poor judgment (probably), but is hardly grounds for the shock, shock! that will be evinced by the popular media.

[Taverner]

39. Of course our triad of wars is also most "Clearly Inappropriate"

[hedgehog]

40. Inappropiate Navy videos and teenage sexting, compare and contrast.

Oh wait - let me go first - how about the fact that MY TAXES DON"T GO TO PAY FOR TEENAGE SEXTING, AND THEY WENT TO BUY ALL THE PRODUCTION EQUIPMENT AND SALARIES TO PRODUCE XO MOVIE NIGHT!

[Safetykitten]

41. We really need to get a sense of humor. Humorless puritanical liberals are not in great demand.

I watched the video. Big fucking deal. It was funny, I laughed.

But the bigger picture is this. It was meant as comedy in a situation that we as civilians do not have a window into. We really need to start cutting some slack to situations like this; a comedy show that the military does as fun for them and helps morale I assume.

Liberals as we are, we have to stop being so touchy. There was no sexual abuse, forced sex or other rule being broken.

If this was on SNL,and considering the comedy they are writing now it is not far fetched, it would not even be an issue.

[Tx4obama]

42. It's the U.S. Navy, not SNL

The behavior was 'unbecoming of an officer'.
Taxpayer paid equipment was used to make the videos.
The videos were offensive to gays and to women.
Folks aboard ship complained and their complaints were ignored.
Owen Honors has been promoted and is now in charge of the USS Enterprise - he should be relieved of duty immediately.

[lordcommander]

43. [phone] nt.

[Tx4obama]

44. Updates

Experts: Capt. Owen Honors' Navy Career Is Over
Excerpt:

The naval career of Capt. Owen Honors, who apparently produced, broadcast and even starred in raunchy and homophobic videos made aboard a nuclear aircraft carrier, will be over in a matter of days, according to military experts.

"He's done. His career is over," Stephen Saltzburg, the general counsel of the National Institute of Military Justice and a law professor at George Washington University, told AOL News in a phone interview today. "This is just bad judgment -- horribly bad judgment."

SNIP

http://www.aolnews.com/2011/01/03/experts-capt-owen-honors-navy-career-is-over-after-raunchy-vi/


Navy's quick condemnation of Capt. Owen Honors wins praise of gay rights groups

The Navy on Monday moved quickly to pledge an investigation into videos in which a senior officer can be seen using anti-gay slurs and mimicking masturbation, while a prominent gay rights group praised the military's condemnation of the videos.

Capt. Owen Honors, who commands the Norfolk-based USS Enterprise, starred in the videos that were aired on the aircraft carrier's closed-circuit television system in 2006 and 2007 when he was the ship's second-in-command. In recent days, the videos have made Honors an unfortunate Internet sensation.

"What we see here is, unfortunately, a 49-year-old Navy captain acting like a 19-year-old fraternity boy," said Aubrey Sarvis, executive director of the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, which has advocated for gay service members. "There is no place for that type of frat-house behavior."

SNIP

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/02/AR2011010201160.html?hpid=topnews

[hedgehog]

45. If his career is over, what about the guy who was his superior officer

while he was making the videos, not to mention the board that promoted him ?

[Tx4obama]

46. Update: Navy to relieve officer during inquiry over lewd videos

See jefferson_dem's new post in LBN on link below

Navy to relieve officer during inquiry over lewd videos
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4681926