Navy semen seaman unwelcomed in the age of post-DADT

♫♪♪In the navy
Yes, you can sail the seven seas
In the navy
Yes, you can put your mind at ease
In the navy
Come on now, people, make a stand
In the navy, in the navy
Can’t you see we need a hand♫♪♪

-The Village People

So apparently Navy Capt. Owen Honors has been relieved of his command. But why now? 4 years after the fact?

It is not clear why the videos are surfacing only now, or whether high-ranking Navy officials were aware of the videos earlier and decided to promote Honors to the USS Enterprise’s top job despite their content. But once the Virginian-Pilot newspaper reported on the videos Saturday and published an edited version on the Internet, the Navy moved quickly to condemn the videos and launch an investigation.

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The videos surfaced less than two weeks after President Obama signed legislation repealing the military’s longstanding ban on openly gay service members.

I don’t know what “gay slurs” were used in the video; and maybe the video was in “poor taste” (and maybe it was a “morale booster”/boredom reliever for most of those serving); and maybe it was an exercise of “poor judgment” (how can you not see the potential for the easily offended and political correctness posse to make a big stink of this?) and not fitting of an XO; but in a time of war, given the totality of the captain’s honorable service record, was relieving him of his command really the necessary, appropriate reprimand? Was this such a serious “lapse of good judgment” that his qualifications of leadership are now completely null and void?

“The Navy does not endorse or condone these kinds of actions,” Cmdr. Chris Sims, a Navy spokesman, said before the action against Honors was announced. “Those in command . . . 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.”

The Navy has traditionally moved faster than other U.S. military services to relieve officers of command when they are believed to have acted improperly. A spate of commanders have been disciplined in this way in the past year, for offenses ranging from sexual misconduct to running ships aground.

Have we lost honorable soldiers on account of DADT? Probably. Do we now stand to lose effective soldiers on account of its repeal? Looks like it.

Thomas Ricks:

As for gay slurs, I don’t know. Here’s a possible defense: What if he contends that he himself is gay — would that be kind of like Poles telling Polish jokes?

CJ:

Let’s be honest, the videos were not politically correct, but they contained messages of importance that every command must convey to their subordinates. I’ve heard from many people directly who were either on those deployments and saw the videos firsthand or viewed them later. Their response was that, for the first time ever, those messages were actually watched by Sailors on the ship.

Typically, military command messages are monotonous, cheesy, dry and boring. Not “or”, but “AND.”

The Navy has to the endure a different type of suckiness than land forces do when they deploy. By and large, they are confined the ship on which they are assigned. Unlike Soldiers and Marines, Sailor do not get to drive into town, move from camp to camp, etc. They are stuck in confined spaces with perhaps a tenth of the personal space that ground combat forces enjoy during their deployments. The mood gets pretty crabby and I’m sure the Capt Honors understood that and did a great job livening the mood on board the ship.

Of course some people found it offensive. As a Christian, I found it distasteful, but I also saw the humor in it and thought it was a brilliant stroke of genius. I’m a firm believer in the FACT that people CHOOSE to be offended. It’s their choice that they find anything offensive. I choose not to be offended by anything and it has enriched my life immensely. It also saves me a lot of stress.

The videos in question occured four years ago! Capt Honors was not even in command at the time, yet the Navy is only NOW relieving him because of the media hoopla. This isn’t about doing the right thing, it’s about appeasing the media and politically stupid among us. There’s a reason the videos were only confined to the 2006-2007 time period. The command had already dubbed the videos to not be in the keeping of the message the Navy was trying to convey and ended them. Yet, we’re rehashing this stupidity and ruining the career of a good Naval fighter because someone chose to be offended.