Breaking: Navy FIRES Anti-Gay, Raunchy Videos Navy Captain

The U.S. Navy has just announced the firing of Owen P. Honors, the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise Captain whose raunchy, anti-gay videos from 2006 and 2007 took the Internet by storm the past few days, just weeks before his crew is scheduled to head to the war in Afghanistan.

Via the Washington Post:

“While Capt. Honors’s performance as commanding officer of the USS Enterprise has been without incident, his profound lack of good judgment and professionalism while previously serving as executive officer on Enterprise calls into question his character and completely undermines his credibility to serve effectively in command,” said Adm. John C. Harvey Jr., commander of U.S. Fleet Forces Command.

“Harvey will lead a broader investigation into whether other senior Navy officials knew about the four-year-old videos, which aired on the ship’s closed-circuit television, and why they failed to take disciplinary action against Honors. The probe is likely to focus on whether Rear Adm. Lawrence Rice, who was captain of the ship in 2007, and his immediate commander, now-retired Rear Adm. Raymond A. Spicer, had seen the videos or received complaints about them.

“In the frequently profane videos, Honors is seen pantomiming masturbation and peering into the shower stalls at pairs of male and female sailors who are depicted showering together as part of a send-up of the ship’s water conservation efforts. Although Honors uses an anti-gay slur on several occasions, the videos don’t appear to have been intended to demean gays and are mostly juvenile in nature.

“The line is pretty clear: If sexual innuendo is involved it is out of bounds,” said retired Vice Adm. John Morgan, who commanded the USS Enterprise Carrier Strike Group in 2001 and 2002. “What bothers me is that Capt. Honors’s behavior set a standard that allowed for sexual innuendo.”

“In firing Honors, senior Navy officials concluded that the videos had made it impossible for him to lead or discipline his subordinates. Many current and former Navy officers were particularly offended by the dismissive tone he seemed to take toward sailors who had relayed concerns about his previous videos.

“Over the years, I’ve gotten several complaints about inappropriate material during these videos – never to me personally, but gutlessly through other channels,” Honors said in one of the videos. “This evening, all of you bleeding hearts – and you, fag SWO boy – why don’t you just go ahead and hug yourselves for the next 20 minutes or so, because there is a really good chance you’re going to be offended tonight.” SWO is the Navy acronym for Surface Warfare Officer, the large branch of the Navy dedicated to overseeing the service’s fleet of ships.”

Last night, CNN host and conservative columnist Kathleen Parker said of Honors’ videos and the environment they fostered, “That’s not just offensive, it’s hostile. That’s a hostile environment. If you’re a woman and you see–we didn’t show nearly what was in that film. There’s much worse scenes. That’s hostile. You don’t feel safe in that environment.”

Honors was temporarily relieved while the investigation ensued. That didn’t take long.