Update, 1/3/2011: Capt. Owen Honors who commands the USS Enterprise and produced the controversial videos while second in command aboard the aircraft carrier, has been relieved of his command while the Navy investigates the incident. Updated story here.
USS Enterprise
The U.S. Navy has launched an investigation into a how a series of raunchy, and often anti-gay, videos were produced and then shown to a crew of nearly 6,000 sailors aboard the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise while on deployment supporting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The videos, produced four to five years ago but just now publicly released, were apparently produced for the crew’s entertainment, according to the The Virginian-Pilot newspaper, which first reported on them this weekend.
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.
Captain Owen Honors appeared in the videos in 2006 and 2007 while he was the second-ranking officer on the Enterprise, the newspaper reported. He took over as the ship’s commander in May last year.
Capt. Owen Honors
According to The Virginian-Pilot, at least a dozen videos were produced, all filmed and edited using government equipment. In one video, Honors acknowledges some crew members thought the videos were offensive.
“Over the years I’ve gotten several complaints about inappropriate materials in these videos, never to me personally but, gutlessness, through other channels,” said Honors, who appears on camera as himself, and as his aviator and SWO “alter-personality.”
“This evening, all of you bleeding hearts, and you, fag SWO-boy… why don’t just go ahead and hug yourself for the next 20 minutes or so, because there’s a really good chance you’re gonna be offended,” he said.
(“SWO” — or Surface Warfare Officers — are those who crew the ship, but are not fighter pilots or aviators.)
In one segment of the video, Honors is filmed repeatedly uses the word “fuck.” In another segment, he and others simulate masturbation to the song “Spank.” Throughout the video, Honors refers to the SWO’s as “fags.” Watch here:
Initially, the Navy issued a statement to the Virginia-Pilot on Friday that the videos “were not created with the intent to offend anyone,” and called them “humorous skits focusing the crew’s attention on specific issues such as port visits, traffic safety, water conservation, ship cleanliness.”
But on Saturday, after the video was released, the Navy issued another statement, which read, “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.”
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interesting
Don’t you get kicked out of middle school for this kind of maturity? I would like to think a lot better for the people who are serving our country.
Horrid, but….USS ENTERPRISE!!!! EEEE! <3
If Family Guy did this, nobody would find it out of the ordinary. The XO was doing exactly what Seth MacFarlane does: provide humor of limited intellectual value that is offensive to many different groups in order to entertain a large group of people who keep people who have to deal with a very dull routine from getting too bored. The majority of the female sailors on the Enterprise are in support of him, I’m sure that when DADT’s death is done, we’ll find that the majority of the gay sailors are too.
Wait…you probably heard that the Enterprise has a holodeck that can be used to entertain practically everybody and didn’t realize that it was only Star Trek.
Really? They’re off to Iraq/Afghanistan but some still feel the need to be assholes and be so close minded.
IT’S THE “closeted military QUEENS” THAT WILL HINDER THIS MOVEMENT THE MOST !!
sMh
Dishonorable discharge is in order.
I HOPE THEY HAVE GAY GENETIC CHILDREN TO TEACH THEM HOW TO LOVE GAY
This is about as dumb as a person can get. This is why I say everyone who serves in the military is not automatically a hero. These people have shamed their ship, crew, and the Navy. And who was the ringleader of these videos? The future Captain, no less.
people are assholes, I hope these anti gay asswipes get raped!! don't they have anything better to do with their fucking time?! GO TO FUCKING HELL!!
should have been thrown out
I agree that this is a horrible thing that they have produced, but I think as the LGBT community we should take the high road and show them that we are better than that.
Hmmm so the first problem after the repeal of DADT was caused by straight people.
I agree that this is a horrible thing that they have produced, but I think as the LGBT community we should take the high road and show them that we are better than that. I do however, believe that with good men and women loosing their jobs because they are Gay that these men should loose theirs for this.
Good move!
@ Brian ^ exactally
I wonder how many good men he threw out in his time. I’m X-Navy and spent over 4 years at sea. I’m so glad that they are taking this seriously! Our brothers & Sisters on that ship don’t need to put up with it! Good Going Navy!
It’s a new world – welcome
wow that was a really stupid thing to do dumb xo guess he ran his carreer aground
I don't think that he specifically set out to be anti-gay. This is just thoughtless immaturity, and he's just the kind of person who grew up thinking that calling someone a "fag" is funny. It's good that he's no longer in a position of power, but let's leave it at that and not call for him to "be raped" or "burn in hell."