To the surprise of probably no one, on Tuesday the Navy announced that Captain Owen Honors had been removed from command of the USS Enterprise in the wake of the furor caused by articles in the media over videos he apparently produced and starred in while serving as the Executive Officer in 2006 and 2007. I find the situation disturbing on many levels. First off the timing bothers me. If this happened several years ago why were the videos leaked to the press now? Had some of the crew members filed a complaint when the videos first came out and were ignored? Is it simply a matter of someone not liking Captain Honors and trying to bring him down?
One might say why am I not screaming: “Off with his head!” “Kick him out of the Navy!” Simple. Saturday Night Live type skits were fairly common during my time on active duty and I understand the tradition continues today. They are stress busters and morale boosters and are usually put together and performed by the junior members of an organization. Typically nothing was off limits and the intent was to make people laugh not to offend any person or group.
The Navy has announced it’s conducting an investigation but from the preliminary reports, it seems to me, if he’s guilty of anything it is simply forgetting what may have been acceptable behavior when he was a junior officer is not acceptable in an Executive Officer, reportedly his position when the videos were filmed. By hosting and appearing in the videos, he left himself open to misintrepretation of his intent and motives. For those not familiar with military culture they might think the jokes were a reflection of beliefs and opinions instead of seeing a series of sketches meant to increase morale and bring laughter to a group of men and woman fighting a never ending war 24/7. The stress and hard work necessary to operate in this envirnoment are unimaginable to those who have not experienced it.
I watched one of the videos in question on You Tube today. Several thoughts came to mind. First I need to do a disclaimer, I’m a big fan of humor. I grew up watching Bob Hope, Jack Benny, Red Skelton, Johnny Carsen and Bill Cosby. I also liked Richard Pryor and today am a big fan of Chris Rock. The humor of the first five was generally G rated but Pryor and Rock have been known to get pretty raunchy at times. That said it is worth noting that there is a fine line between being funny and being offensive; even professional comics struggle with this. Jokes one person or group might find funny, others find offensive.
I thought Terry McMillan’s book “Waiting to Exhale” was hilarious, my brother found it offensive and said it wrongly put African American men in a derogatory light. I replied the book simply told some “date from Hell” stories from a female perspective and did not intend to paint all males in a bad light. We have agreed to disagree and he still refuses to read any of her books or see any movies based on them. He’s not the only male to feel that way. Oprah even did a show about it.
The video I watched did have a lot of raunchy jokes to include numerous gay references with Captain Honors himself the butt of the jokes. I did not get the sense he was being deliberately offensive to gays. I was reminded of a Saturday Night Live sketch Al Gore did when he was running for President. In a spoof of the show “The Bachelor”, Gore was sitting apparently unclothed in a hot tub surrounded by unclothed potential Vice Presidential running mates. Gore was handing out roses to the various contendors. I don’t remember anyone complaining that he was anti-gay in the days following the skit or asking for NBC to apologize for showing it.
Did Captain Honors show poor judgement? Yes. In my opinion as a senior leader you are no longer one of the boys or girls. You are an authority figure and have to maintain distance from those you command in order to maintain good order and discipline. It’s a lesson all leaders learn as they move up the chain of command. Some may say “Oh Come On!!!”
Here’s where I’m coming from. Early in my career I was the only female present at a “Wetting Down Party”. The purpose was to celebrate the promotions of a number of the junior officers in the command. Since I was the only female in that organization, I had no problems being present. The guys treated me like a treasured younger sister. Some of the guys had secretly hired some “professional” women to attend and do some exotic dancing. Trying to be a good sport, instead leaving in a huff, I stood up and asked who was going to dance for me. I got the expected laughs and good natured ribbing from the guys but was surprised when the commanding officer got up and started to dance for me and stripped down to his underwear; embarassed I quickly departed. I was embarassed because he was the Boss. If it had been one of my peers I would probably have laughed and thrown something at him and threatened to call his mother. The next work day a number of the junior officers said the commanding officer had better not try to discipline them or correct their behavior in the future because he would be a hypocrit.
That incident stood out in my mind when I first heard about this recent incident. I think Captain Honors made the same kind of error in judgement. Does that mean his career should be over? In my opionion, no; from all accounts his past achievements have been exceptional…but once something hits the court of public opinion…
Think I’ll end here. As always my views are my own.
