‘XO Movie Night’ videos are out … all of them
March 4th, 2011 | Admirals Carriers Enterprise Fleet Forces Command Investigation JAGMAN leadership Navy Navy secretary Officers Personnel Video | Posted by Bill McMichael
As you probably know by now, Adm. John Harvey of Fleet Forces Command on Thursday unveiled the results of his investigation into the controversial “XO Movie Night” video skits aired on the carrier Enterprise from 2005 to 2007, recommending that secretarial letters of censure be issued to two admirals and two of the carrier’s former executive officers — including Capt. Owen Honors, who as XO played a primary role in most of the questionable productions.
If you haven’t read about the findings yet, here’s our short version. For those with a LOT of time on their hands, and perhaps curious about the 22 previously unleaked/unreleased videos containing what Harvey decided was objectionable material, go here. (Warning: Make sure you’re on a computer with a lot of juice and some volume control …)
Firing Honors, pro and con, Week 2
January 10th, 2011 | Blogs Carriers Fleet Forces Command leadership Life at Sea Morale Navy Officers Personnel | Posted by Bill McMichael
Adm. John Harvey learned about the controversial, four-year-old shipboard videos co-produced by Capt. Owen Honors on Dec. 31 — the day before they were published for the first time outside the skin of the carrier Enterprise — and “immediately ordered an investigation,” he says in a Jan. 7 post on his command blog.
Harvey also says he reviewed the videotapes published online by Norfolk’s Virginian-Pilot newspaper that weekend and then made his controversial decision to fire Honors, who’d graduated from executive officer — his position when the sometimes-racy, meant-to-be-humorous short films were produced — to become the 49-year-old carrier’s commanding officer. Honors was canned barely a week before the carrier deploys Jan. 13, possibly for the final time.
“When I did view those videos, I took action – just as I would have had I seen them four years ago,” Harvey wrote.
Those weighing in on Harvey’s decision seem to fall into two distinct camps. 1: Honors was a great leader who motivated his hard-working, much-deployed crew with humor they could relate to, the content wasn’t any edgier than what is broadcast every day on cable TV and his dismissal is a gutless reaction to outside media pressure. 2: XOs and COs are supposed to behave like grown-ups; Honors created a poor command climate that denigrated at least some crew members; and like it or not, today’s naval leaders must be cognizant of the image they project, here and abroad.
One Honors supporter’s view: “How dare anyone act as if those silly videos compromise the Navy,” wrote a civilian identifying herself as Dani MarieBernadette D’Angelo. “They are what they are, a means of blowing off steam for our sons and daughters who are so far from home and in dangerous situations. … the only reason that they have become a problem now is because the Navy wants to bow to the politically correct agenda. Captain Honors lives by a set of core values that anyone would be proud of.”
Another: “Leaders lead by example,” Anonymous wrote. ” CAPT Honors produced a funny, over the top, and professional [sic] filmed movie which was not to be taken seriously. You talk to his sailors; CAPT Honors was all business, a role model, and one hell of a Navy Officer. He is the guy you want fighting your ship in battle.”
Others say Honors set a poor example for others to follow. “What those individuals have missed is, to my mind, the TRULY grievous act that CAPT Honors committed: setting a negative, hostile command environment for the crew of ENTERPRISE when he was XO,” wrote James. “He mocked anyone who objected to his unacceptable behavior. He erased ANY personal credibility that he had when it came to dealing with issues of sexual harassment. It was even implied that filing a grievance would do no good — he was `above’ their control. That, more than anything, is what makes his behavior so damaging and toxic.”
Added SubIconoclast: “The line between ‘bold’ and ‘reckless’ can shift depending on whether we are at war or in peace, and senior officers must recognize that even units employed in war WILL be evaluated against peacetime standards when they appear in the national media of a nation which is generally at peace.
“Today’s combat leaders simply have to meet both standards; complaining about it won’t change the fundamental facts of the situation. CAPT Honors knew that – he just made the mistake of assuming that he could get away with skipping the `Washington Post’ test before recording videos and broadcasting them to thousands. That doesn’t make him a bad American but it does diminish his ability to command effectively.”
Both camps generally express a common thread: Go after the senior leaders who knew of the videos and didn’t react decisively four years ago. Some of those leaders are the subject of our story in this week’s Navy Times.
Support for Capt. Honors
January 3rd, 2011 | Aviation Carriers Facebook Fleet Forces Command leadership Life at Sea Morale Movies Navy Officers Video | Posted by Bill McMichael
The Navy didn’t mince words in its official reaction to Capt. Owen Honors’ role in the creation of what are viewed by many as overly suggestive or inappropriate videos — meant to be humorous — that were broadcast aboard the carrier Enterprise during his run as XO back in 2006-2007. “Those in command … are held accountable for setting the proper tone and upholding the standards of honor, courage and commitment that we expect sailors to exemplify,” said Cmdr. Chris Sims, spokesman for U.S. Fleet Forces Command.
You won’t find any such criticism on a Facebook page, “We Support Captain O.P. Honors!”, established on Jan. 1 — the same day the story was broken by Norfolk’s Virginian-Pilot newspaper — that describes itself as a “Support Group for a great Executive Officer and his extraordinarily funny XO Movie Night Skits.” It’s growing by the minute, with 1,230 members as of 12 noon EST Monday and nearly 600 posts, nearly all praising Honors, who now commands the ship as it prepares to deploy, and dismissing the videos as harmless fun meant to lighten the stress of shipboard life. Here are some examples:
“I used to be a sailor aboard the USS Enterprise and served while Capt Honors was both a XO and a CO,” one woman wrote. “I was aboard the ship while the videos under question were being filmed and watched them myself. The way the videos were reported to the world as `raunchy’ and `lewd’ is completely unrepresentative of the good-natured humor behind them. Capt Honors’ videos were always a highlight of the week.”
“I served with then-CDR Honors during the 2006 Deployment and know him to be an honorable man,” wrote one man. “The XO made the videos to address real shipboard issues in a comedic fashion. The crew always looked forward to them. Do not sacrifice this officer on the altar of political correctness.”
In the Tell Us What You Really Think Department, 0ne woman really let fly. “I pretty much hated EVERYTHING about being on the Enterprise EXCEPT for the people I worked with, and XO MOVIE NIGHT!,” she wrote. “Way to GO Capt. Honors! F*** EVERYONE ELSE that finds that s*** offensive….let them get back to their Lifetime Original Movies.”
The videos — you can see an edited version here — have generated national attention, with broadcast stories on every network. The videos include scenes of simulated same-sex showers and masturbation and a reference by one of Honors’ “alternate personalities” — a video trick — to another as “fag SWO boy,” leading some commentators to call the videos lewd, sexist and homophobic. Others raise questions about Honors’ leadership style. Sims said Fleet Forces has launched an investigation into the production of the videos.
What do you think?
Ho ho hooyah!
December 15th, 2010 | leadership Navy | Posted by David Larter
It’s that time of year again, and the top brass are issuing their holiday greetings.
Top marks, as usual, go to MCPON Rick West with yet another creative video put out on his Facebook page. You can view it here. He seems to enjoy putting out goofy videos to get his message across.
CNO Adm. Gary Roughead issued his own message:
Thank you for your dedicated service and the great work you continue to do. Because of you, our nation can celebrate this holiday season knowing the world’s most powerful Navy is on watch around the world.
To follow MCPON and CNO: A big thank you and happy holidays to our sailors from the staff here at Navy Times!
The fate of LCS, cont’d.
October 14th, 2010 | leadership Ships | Posted by Phil Ewing
Galrahn's read of the tea leaves indicates the Navy's strategy will take it more toward big, old-style ships (left) than the newer, smaller LCS (right). // MC2 Ashley Van Dien / Navy
Galrahn has been reading a lot of news stories and think-tank studies and such lately, and he has come to this conclusion: The strategic winds are blowing such that the Navy’s littoral combat ship won’t survive the next infamous Pentagon budgetary rock-drill known as POM 12. That rock-drill will be keyed off a CNA study that calls for the Navy to essentially hedge its bets on a strategy that favors big, legacy warships instead of LCS, Galrahn writes, which is why it might go away. He has a very thoughtful, highly detailed explanation here.
Is it true? Will it happen? Who knows? Naval shipbuilding is a truth-free netherworld where you throw ducks at balloons and nothing is as it seems. Officials talk in ciphers when they talk at all, but usually they just explain that they can’t explain because the budget process is “ongoing.” (“What’s your favorite coffee variety at Starbucks, admiral?” “I’m not going to get into that because that’s in the POM.”) So instead we have a reality vacuum where Galrahn’s theory is just as valid as my theory that the Navy is going to replace LCS with giant, missile-wielding, semi-submersible rubber duckies.
Still, an LCS cancellation in a forthcoming budget cycle would represent a titanic concession of failure; cost the Navy what the progress it has made with the LCS ships and equipment; and potentially imperil the billions of dollars the Navy planned to spend after the down-select that’s just around the corner. (Just. Around. The. Corner.) It could, however, give proponents of the National Patrol Frigate just the chance they’ve been waiting for, even if Galrahn doesn’t think the Navy will go that route.
Which is fine, because my rubber ducky concept represents a technologically mature, consumer off-the-shelf capability that makes a fun squeaky noise.
Talking the talk, or, The dessert that nobody wants
October 13th, 2010 | leadership Washington | Posted by Phil Ewing
These sailors on the mess decks of the carrier Enterprise were probably glad to take an active role in ice cream cone consumption operations, rather than have the Navy explore options for an automated system. // MC3 Jeffry Willadsen / Navy
Last year, not long after Navy Secretary Ray Mabus began his job, he invited a group of journalists to the Pentagon for an introductory chat. He was still trying to get his bearings in the nonstop party called the Puzzle Palace, and described a steep learning curve with all the unfamiliar acronyms and technical terms and such. I asked him if he’d learned how to say “and oh by the way” yet, but he smiled and shook his head. That’s how new he was.
Fast forward to today, when Mabus gave a defense of his far-reaching energy-conservation and alternative fuel usage goals at the Reagan Center in Washington. Today’s bio-fuels are expensive, he acknowledged, but he remains confident that new technology and reliable demand from the Navy Department will soon make their costs competitive:
“There are some that say, ‘It’s just too hard. Don’t do this. We’re gonna be stuck with fossil fuels,’” he said. “Well, if we buy that argument, it’s going to become a self-fulfulling prophecy and that’s exactly what’s going to hapen. I’ve learned an expression in the military: It’s going to become a self-licking ice cream cone. But it’s one we can avoid.”
A classic! Now he’s definitely speaking the language.
You’ve come a long way, female service members
October 7th, 2010 | leadership Washington | Posted by Phil Ewing
CNN's Kyra Phillips hosted top military commanders this week at a women's power forum in Washington. // Lt. Laura Stegherr / Navy
Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Gen. Ann Dunwoody, commanding general of Army Materiel Command; and National Defense University president Vice Adm. Ann Rondeau all appeared with CNN anchor Kyra Phillips this week in Washington to talk about the advances that women have made in the military services. For example, Dunwoody proved that men no longer hold a monopoly on the ability to speak in jargon, buzzwords and Pentagon techno-phrases:
“We are in an asymmetrical environment without front and rear boundaries,” Dunwoody said of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. “Every soldier is in danger. What’s so good about the military is that we continue review those [policies]. The doors continue to open, and policies continue to change to capture the talent of men and women in uniform. All in battle are making sacrifices, and we can never forget that.”
Dunwoody’s answer clearly shows that she has reviewed today’s DoD lexicon from soup to nuts, gotten input from key stakeholders, and moved forward to make a commitment to leverage her resources to achieve broad-spectrum mastery of the full range of idea-delivery tactics, techniques and procedures, in keeping with today’s best practices. And she proves you don’t need to be a man for that.
The flag officer billet even SecNav couldn’t create
October 6th, 2010 | leadership | Posted by Phil Ewing
Wherever he goes, whether making speeches on beautiful Treasure Island, or meeting with high-powered Belgian defense officials, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus doesn’t mind letting people know that he comes from a place called Mississippi. In fact, one of the colleges he’s attended also is located there, a school called “Old Mississippi,” which he also is not above mentioning to people. But even Mabus, with his 900,000 active-duty and civilian Navy Department employees, and his $170 billion budget, couldn’t get the outcome he supported in the latest major controversy at his alma mater.
Ole Miss officials and students have evidently rejected the idea of making Rebel Alliance fleet commander Adm. Ackbar the school’s new mascot — they’ve narrowed it down to three baffling choices, none of which has anything to do with any of the Star Wars movies, for some reason. (Even the terrible prequels.) But Mabus was on Team Ackbar, his spokeswoman told Scoop Deck earlier this year, and no wonder: As Navy secretary, Ackbar might’ve ultimately reported to him.
Did a SEAL submarine McChrystal?
September 23rd, 2010 | leadership SEALs | Posted by Phil Ewing
"OK, we're set -- if any of the pirates are still alive at the end of this, we'll call their operational practices 'outmoded' and say, 'why're you guys still stuck in an 18th century Mercantilist mindset?' Got it?" "Hoo yah!" // MCC Kathryn Whittenberger / Navy
A Pentagon probe has cleared retired Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal and his former senior aides of having uttered the ungentlemanly remarks that brought down his career, reports say. So who did make them, or at least some of them? A Navy SEAL officer, according to the New York Times:
The Army review has been turned over to a higher-level inquiry by the Pentagon’s inspector general, because the matter involves not only a four-star general but several subordinates outside the Army. The Army report, which has not been released, points some blame at a midlevel Navy special warfare officer who served as an aide to General McChrystal, according to Army, Pentagon and other military officials. But that officer was never interviewed by the Army’s investigators, and so was blamed based on the comments of others. The officer has told Navy officials that he did not make the offending comments, according to Pentagon officials.
The Army report, if accurate, would be the latest evidence that Rolling Stone hasn’t been exactly forthright in its description of the aides who made the “bite me” and “clown” comments. The magazine has called them “the general’s closest and most senior advisers,” but according to Army Times’ own Sean Naylor, who is pretty wired in the spooky world of special operations, the quotes came from “his most junior staff — men who “make tea, keep the principal on time and carry bags — who had no reason to believe their words would end up in print.”
At least it’s a new idea for the next recruiting campaign: “Navy SEALs: We can take out a four-star general without firing a shot.”
Help the Navy be more efficient!
August 26th, 2010 | leadership Washington | Posted by Phil Ewing
Would it be more efficient if the fleet only had one kind of cheesecake topping? // MC2 Michael Russell / Navy
Listen up, shipmates! Defense Secretary Robert Gates needs YOU to come up with suggestions for how to make this party we call the Defense Department run more efficiently. We need to show all those graybeards over on Capitol Hill there’s no reason for any debilitating budget cuts! But there’s money in it for you — you could win up to a thousand bucks from Uncle Sam!
To get you started, here are a few suggestions from your pals here at Scoop Deck:
- Try to keep costs below $500 per toilet seat, and, if possible, below $400.
- Impose a 65 mile per hour speed limit on fighter jets and helicopters, to help save fuel. And do these carriers need so many arresting wires?
- Instead of firing $1 million Block IV Tactical Tomahawk missiles at terrorist hideouts, send a team of Seabee carpenters to just disassemble them by hand.
- Round up and pulp all copies of the old Blue Ribbon Panel Soup-To-Nuts Review and use them to print a new report on the Blue Ribbon Panel Soup-To-Nuts Review Pulping Initiative.
- Impose a “musical homeports” program, in which aircraft carriers move to randomly assigned coastal cities every 18 months.
- Limit the number of coffee mugs that submariners are permitted to bounce into the water.
Don’t worry! As civilians in the private sector, we’re not eligible for that thousand bucks! Feel free to submit these ideas as your own, and be sure to share your own suggestions in the comments!