[Nuclear1]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2LN9ZtsXxA

Washington (CNN) -- The Navy has opened an investigation into how a series of raunchy videos, full of sexual innuendo and anti-gay remarks, were produced and shown to the crew of the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise while on deployment supporting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Navy spokesman Cmdr. Chris Sims said the videos, which were shown to the crew in 2006 and 2007, are "inappropriate."

Excerpts from the videos and descriptions of their content were first published Saturday by The Virginian-Pilot newspaper in Norfolk, Virginia.

The videos on the paper's website, reviewed by CNN, feature a man identified by two Navy officials and The Virginian-Pilot as Capt. Owen Honors, who at the time was the executive officer, or second-in-command, of the Enterprise. He recently took command of the carrier, winning one of the most coveted assignments in the U.S. Navy, which has only 11 aircraft carriers.

Honors is shown cursing along with other members of his staff in an attempt to demonstrate humor, according to videos. There are also anti-gay slurs, simulated sex acts, and what appear to be two female sailors in a shower together.

The investigation was ordered Friday by Adm. John Harvey, the four-star head of the Navy's Fleet Forces Command, after the videos were detailed in The Virginian-Pilot. The paper also posted a link to some of the material, but edited it so that expletives were censored and some identities of junior Navy crew were disguised.

The Navy issued a statement Saturday, saying in part "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 still not acceptable in today's Navy. The Navy does not endorse or condone these kinds of actions."

The statement also said, "U.S. Fleet Forces Command has initiated an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the production of these videos; however, it would be inappropriate to comment any further on the specifics of the investigation."

But the Saturday statement was an about-face from the initial military statement to the newspaper. In that statement, the Navy said the videos were "not created with the intent to offend anyone. 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."

Disgusting son of a *****.


In addition, a previous commander of the USS Enterprise had this to say...

[Shivan Hunter]

:/

[StarSlayer]

I'm not much interested in watching it but I assume he's not as talented or entertaining as the VAW-116 Sun Kings I take it.

[Titan]

I love the comments below that video 

[BloodEagle]

In other news, a sailor swears like a sailor.

--

I'd be interested in seeing the actual footage, rather than the hackneyed / flame-bait / typical-pseudo-journalistic rubbish of an edit from that link, before I form a solid opinion.

[NGTM-1R]

Captain relieved of command while investigation is ongoing.

On one hand, I'm not entirely sure anything grossly wrong has been done here. You get the Playboy Channel on the carrier too. You stick several thousand people who are thirty or less in giant metal box on water and something like this is inevitable.

On the other hand, it should not involve the XO. Ever.

[Dilmah G]

What the hell... They should throw him back into Annapolis and tell him to redo his Officer training again from square one.

I don't mind if the XO is a guy who likes being a clown, and you know what? I agree that this kind of stuff is going to happen on  a carrier and to some extent I condone it. But I also agree with NGTM-1R, this is the ****ing. executive. officer.

If he likes being a clown? Fine, that's probably a pre-req on a Naval vessel. But for the sake  of your commission and your integrity, don't do that **** on camera.

All these damn news people need to STFU and stop taking everything so damn seriously. I served on a Navy ship 30 years ago and we needed this kind of comic relief at times to boost morale in what is an otherwise very boring and stressful situation. Our XO was a nut at times, it was a part of his job. We are going to destroy ourselves if we try so hard to be politically correct ALL THE TIME.This video was not meant for prime time family viewing and should not be held to that standard.

This comment here on the video, I like, though. This isn't being appreciated in context. The poster's right, this wasn't meant for family viewing or anything remotely of the sort. The anti-gay slurs, though, are still in poor taste, in my opinion.

[Mikes]

Frankly... with the phrases and snips being used on the news,... I m beginning to wonder how weak the actual story behind all the circus really is.
Not sure what is more disgusting... indecent behavior on a carrier or the way the news sensationalize it.
The actual material that was shown was indeed pretty weak.... most of the actual accusations were done verbally ... which leaves to wonder... can they do that to anyone who says 4 letter words on camera? Is that too much of a stretch?

[karajorma]

I'd be interested in seeing the actual footage, rather than the hackneyed / flame-bait / typical-pseudo-journalistic rubbish of an edit from that link, before I form a solid opinion.

There are also...........simulated sex acts, and what appear to be two female sailors in a shower together.

Yeah, gotta make sure your opinion is firm.

[General Battuta]

if we have a little blackface to boost morale it's okay, people need to stop being so offendendableish

[StarSlayer]

if we have a little blackface to boost morale it's okay, people need to stop being so offendendableish

I understand the point he's making but the snarky part of me wants to know...


What do you mean, You People?

[General Battuta]

hey, man, why the ops gotta be black

[Klaustrophobia]

raunchy material on a navy ship.

how is this news?

[General Battuta]

now that they've started letting gay men into the army, isn't it time they start letting some straight men into the navy?

with apologies to the originator

[Mongoose]

IN THE NAAAAAAAAVYYYYYYY!!!

[Mika]

It is rather hard to tell from the text whether this is as "big" as the newspaper makes it to be.

It appears to me that the Navy was forced to start an investigation mainly due to the news. Whether the results of this will be interpreted as "Don't do that" or, as in 99.9% of the cases "You can do that, but don't get caught while doing it" remains to be seen. While the guy is high ranking, I would wait for the results of the investigation. But it is true that the higher echelon officers usually tend to keep a lower profile, probably just to avoid stuff like this.

The commander might still be darn good at his job. I wouldn't like to know what US population said about a sort of carrier landing "simulator" they rigged next to a pool during Vietnam War in an Officer Club had it been disclosed to general public back then. The story namely goes that rather high level officers tried it... and failed.

[Flipside]

To my mind, it's just sailors being...sailors. You go to any branch of the armed forces and they will have nicknames and even stereotypes for ALL the other sub-sections they work with, you'd find the same thing in any military.

I'm not quite certain how calling someone gay is actually an anti-gay stance though? I don't like intolerance of homosexuality, as many of you already know, but simply turning round and saying referring to someone as 'Gay' in that manner isn't really 'offensive' more like 'stereotyping', they aren't saying that these people are 'bad' for being gay, simply saying they are all gay, how that's taken is really up to the reciever, not the pitcher.

I suppose I can see the concern about it, but yes, it does seem that this only really became an issue because it became news, I wonder if they asked the opinion of those on the ship itself who were actually the target of these comments?

[Thaeris]

I've got to say, I just watched this, and I am disgusted by the lack of integrity on the part of the individuals responsible for the creation of the material. I'm also disgusted by the media involved in hyping up the information released to suit their own purposes. "We're not going to demonstrate any of the inappropriate or simulated sex material from the video, but we are going to show you this clip that has what are believed to be two female sailors in the shower." (Quote not exact) I also love the part about the Enterprise, and how it's "special" because of its reactor. It's special because it's archaic and outdated in comparison to the newer Nimitz-class. The Enterprise loses a lot of useful volume in its hull due to that old, outdated and oversized system. And of course, raunchy as it might have been, none of the connotation for what, how, and why in that video is there. Typical CNN.

Joke videos and mock training videos happen. This is special, as it shows a lack of discipline on behalf of the XO, but at some level, I'm not surprised at its existance. Furthermore, I guarantee you they've done much, much worse things in other places of the military in this vane. Does that make it OK? No. But, this is out of proportion.

[Nemesis6]

I love the comments below that video 

this captain is going to end up on FOXNEWS as a military pundit

Anyway, the video just seems weird, strange. I don't get it. Then again, I haven't seen the full video.

[Flipside]

I suppose you have to get into the Military attitude though, in many ways it's a different world. I think it needs to be held in mind that these are people who are responsible for keeping each other alive, if they genuinely felt anything beyond a kind of friendly 'clannish' rivalry between them, that wouldn't work. I'll agree that, if that Video were made while he was XO, he should not have got involved, but as for the actual content, it's all tongue in cheek not something I'd send home to my mother, but I think taking the opinions stated in there as factual is probably pushing the boat out a bit far.