Captain Honor Firing Dishonors Navy

The Navy has terminated the career of one of its most promising captains only because his sense of humor violated political correctness.

The U.S. Navy has terminated the career of one of its most promising captains -- not because of incompetence or battle inadequacy, but because his sense of humor violated political correctness.

Captain Owen Honors has been removed from command of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Enterprise and re-assigned to “administrative duties, ” which means his career is kaput. And after 50 years of services, the Enterprise is due for de-commissioning.

A solemn Admiral John Harvey lowered the boom on Honors after videos reached the public that were originally intended for in-crew showing on board the aircraft carrier. They were videotaped and narrated by Honors when he was executive officer, prior to being promoted to be the Enterprise’s captain.

If you ask me (no one is), the U.S. Navy can be as nutty as other branches of the military – in the U.S. or Canada. The Enterprise videos that have been shown are obviously tongue in cheek, good humored, slightly mischievous, lewd and irreverent. They are also guaranteed morale builders; one wonders at the stodgy thinking from above.

Protests over the firing of Capt. Honors exceed by far those who support it. Naval competence takes priority over showbiz judgment.  Or should, in war.

The videos show things like a couple of (presumably) naval women in a shower suggesting that if allotted shower time is three minutes per person, shouldn’t two in a shower be extended to six minutes?

The language is crude, but heck, these are sailors. And there’s a raunchy element which may not suit all tastes, but again, this is the navy.

It could be argued that Capt. Honors showed unusual initiative and imagination in these in-crew videos – now mostly four or five years old. He clearly has confidence and pizzazz, from all accounts ran a happy ship, and was popular and trusted.

That he was something of an offbeat character seems not to have affected his or the Enterprise’s performance. After all, 5,000 crew and Marines were his responsibility.

Like the loss to the military of Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal who was canned after Rolling Stone magazine quoted his staff members in Afghanistan poor-mouthing members of the Obama administration, so is Capt. Honors a loss to the navy.

McChrystal was a fighting soldier, and maybe the gang around President Barack Obama was uncomfortable with the way he was running the war, and wanted an excuse to bounce him – which they did. But his competence as a field commander was never in question.

Maybe there’s more to the Capt. Honors story than has been revealed – but that’s unlikely. It seems pure political incorrectness that did him in – jokes about gays and mocking naval quiffs and traditions are unacceptable today. Even lethal.

Frankly, I didn’t think the Enterprise videos and Captain Honors’ interviews and showbiz technique were very funny. Amusing and offbeat, yeah. But clever only in their irreverence and nerve.

It surely would have been wiser for the U.S. Navy to roll with this oddball officer’s morale boosting methodology than to pompously remove him from command and get all pious and goody-goody.

Heaven knows there’ve been enough raunchy violations in the U.S. Navy in the past which warranted disciplinary action – so perhaps Navy brass feels too vulnerable to be understanding.

Anyway, the message is categorical: The Navy is serious business and levity, misguided or not, is unacceptable – certainly for those who command aircraft carriers.

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