Doesn't sound like a witch hunt at all to me. It sounds like the man, in a position of authority, not only made inappropriate comments and gestures, but videotaped them and broadcast them over the ship's CC TV. The Navy looked the other way until someone, likely someone who was offended by the acts, procured a copy and leaked it to the press. Now the Navy is forced to do what it probably should have done a long time ago.

I'll never understand the 'boys will be boys' attitude that many people have towards the military; a rationale used to excuse all kinds of inappropriate behavior, from the blatent abuse of prisoners to the Tailhook scandal. Service to one's country goes not grant the right to act in these ways.

Exactly my sentiments, well said :up:

I thought some of the comments on the video link were interesting. It really is a conundrum. On the one hand it isn't just political correctness - a senior officer really must be held to a higher standard. On the other, just who determines what that standard is a point in question. As mentioned there, CDR Honors apparently did much to boost the morale of his crew during a tough period, and morale is the XO's job. He also has an exemplary record of command, both at that time and since.

As always, I'm obviously of two minds on this, and it will be interesting to see how it plays out.

This is hardly prisoner abuse or "Tailhook".
"I'll never understand", easy answer to that is to serve for a few years in any service for pretty much any nation.

Speaking as a serviceman this is just part of the life.
Relax, chill out, the military is different to civilian life.
We do have different standards and values.

To my eyes this video is a bunch of shipmates having a laugh entertaining their shipmates.

Unfortuantly this officer will probably end up in alot of trouble, IMO thats a shame because a sense of humour is one of the prime requirements of any serviceman. If you can't have a laugh or shrug of something that offends you, how on earth would you cope on operations?

Really who do you want to defend you? A collection of PC touchy feely hug the world types.

I remember the days when our armed forced had real problems to deal with.:shifty:

+1
:up:

Yeah, see I don't buy the whole 'it's in the culture' argument. I also don't believe that requiring military personnel to excercise the discipline and forethought as to not engage in this type of behavior while on active duty makes them poor soldiers, or touchy feely hug the world types. Furthermore, since I do live in a western liberal democratic republic, where the military arm is answerable to the civilians, I see outrage over this behavior as perfectly normal, reasonable and acceptable.

:up:

You may be right but he had to know when he was making the video that it might come back to haunt him some day and now it has.

Sounds to me like he has either upset somebody or there is somebody waiting to be slotted in.

I do recognise the fact that officers in senior positions must lead by example but that video was probably no more offensive than the one made at the last SS Meet :DL

You're right Takeda, in a western liberal democracy the military is answerable to the people and they do have the right to be outraged.

But as I said before there is a different culture in the military. Pity people can't understand that. This really is not unusual humour in any service.From operating along side numerous other nations and various services including USAF and USN I have seen first hand that it is much the same world wide.

I would be interested to hear what other serving and ex military think about this.


Food for thought,

The Three Detatchment Rules

1: No cameras
2: No drinking and dialing
3: Always have the party in someone else's room.

I didn't see anything wrong with the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InBXu-iY7cw

Maybe someone's offended the Cdr. only gave the 2 boys in the shower 5 minutes, and said nothing to the guy/girl in the shower.

...Maybe it was 'little XO'

:oops:

What video? We didn't make a video at the last SS meet... :hmmm:

...and that's why I locked the door at my cabin.:haha: