Deployment video causing heat for Enterprise Skipper

[exhelodrvr]

This is another failure of leadership. In this case it mirrors the failure in leadership we saw after Tailhook (and yes I was there) when the senior civilian and uniformed leadership of the Navy failed to stand up for their people. The correct answer here was that Capt Honor has a sustained track record of getting the job done and is the best person to lead his ship on a deployment that he has trained them for. To fire him over this five years later is chickenshit and it appears that his crew backs him up on this (at least many have appeared in support)

So, the message is loud and clear to you young folks. The Navy will gladly sack you if you cross the line. No, they won't tell you where that line is and it moves.

Aside from the posters here who seem to be well in line with the PC party line I cannot in good conscious recommend a career in Naval Air to anyone anymore. Do a tour, two if you can get a second flying and then go own your own destiny. Do not ever think you are more than one anonymous complaint from being terminated.

I've told my son something similar - recently commissioned through ROTC and just starting in Information Warfare.

 

[Pugs]

We're taught here at OCS that the reason that Tailhook took out so many high ranking figures is because the investigation itself was corrupt and people were trying the slip things under the rug. And when that was opened up, the shit really hit the fan. Supposedly, if people had just acknowledged their wrongdoing or whatever and accepted the idea that they needed to work toward a more professional environment, it would have turned out for the better. From the postings above, it sounds like we're getting taught a narrow viewpoint.

A topic worth a seperate thread for sure.

 

[HercDriver]

I can't stand when people throw the word PROFESSIONAL around in the military and act like we are supposed to act like bankers. Let me be very clear what professional means in my business. KILLING. It is either bombs on target, on time, first past, or the ability to clear the air of any air threat, by killing them. Everyday, I practice to be the most professional killer I can be. Everything else is just admin and fluff. There is no way in hell I want to hold those protecting and defending our country to the same standard as those who run our financial markets. To guys like MMX1, if you don't like the warrior ethos, then you get out. Don't stick around and continue to pussify my military. When the shit hits the fan with some Asian country, trying to flex their world muscles, I don't want a bunch of pussy, pc tools fighting next to me, I want killers.

I'm envious; sounds like you guys don't have to worry about fluff like leadership or managing $, you just get to kill stuff.

Bet those fitreps practically write themselves.

 

[The Chief]

Most bizarre leadership failure at the top in my 58 some years of Navy experience, direct and indirect, imho. We looked at the video last night and kept saying “...where is the beef ....” Most certainly not my taste but it represents standard fare our culture demands and sees on TV every single night. I believe that if reviewed by the Motion Picture Association of America would rate the video PG-13, clearly not rated as X as some with lessor integrity would have us believe.

The gibberish about “.... does not meet the higher standards of our military ....” sounds exactly like the reason most often give in support of DADT. I have a half dozen or so deployment videos from various squadrons, and they are all basically the same. I thought that argument had been discarded in the repeal of DADT. While I personally do not know if the “skits” about homosexuals was performed by straights posing as homosexuals or actually homosexuals on their “night out”, but I do believe I can see down the road 5 years or so when some XO will be skinned for banning “freedom of expression” by homosexuals embarking on the same type of behavior. Just my .02c and am so glad I voted with my feet some years ago.

 

[Flash]

After my Army Colonel boss saw it yesterday "That was just gay, confirms what I thought about you Navy guys. And why the fuck did he keep the evidence?" An Air Force guy asked "Where was the IG 4 years ago? He should have been gone long ago, never in the Air Force!" The Navy guys, we just laughed.

 

[MAKE VAPES]

"Support Captain Owen Honors - USS Enterprise" group on FB just crossed 21,000 folks. I don't think I'd like to be answering calls at the Virginia Pilot right now...

 

[coolhandlukesd]

MakeVapes, I seen that last night.


What if the public outcry for his support is numerous and deafening, could or would the USN reinstate his command?

 

[MasterBates]

It would never happen.. DC Navy is Beholden to Congress/SECNAV/SEDCEF/POTUS, and none of them are really beholden to the populace any more than one day every two years (not even that, not directly for SEC types)

 

[coolhandlukesd]

MB, that kind-of sucks big time...

 

[HercDriver]

MakeVapes, I seen that last night.


What if the public outcry for his support is numerous and deafening, could or would the USN reinstate his command?

Just like the Facebook page that got Saturday Night Live to ask Betty White to host a show?

 

[coolhandlukesd]

Just like the Facebook page that got Saturday Night Live to ask Betty White to host a show?

IMMHO, Sure why not. It could not hurt to try it, but those numbers on Facebook would have to get way much higher then it is right now.

 

[Lawman]

We can make umteen million videos of deployment "greatest hits" showing us cutting people in half with 30mm cannon fire or firing Flechette Rockets into groups of bad guys, but you say something dirty on a video that was never ment for broadcast that offends some spineless ***** and your worth throwing out of the military? Are you ****ing Serious!

Its the military... We arent God Damn Monks. This Warrior Monk bull**** has got to stop. Yes I swear, in the cockpit, in the hanger, in front of Enlisted Soldiers, and you know what... we get the god damn job done. Im a warfighter. I get paid to go out there and take lives. Those crew chiefs and Soldiers that go out there with me do it with the knowledge that them working to permit me to do my job means they had a hand in me killing people. Whatever video, joke, dirty scribblings on the porto****ter wall keeps morale up, Im for it.

Screw this special interest bull****. The guy is the Captain of a Carrier, thats not a great indicator that he sucks as an officer, and in a time where good Officers are leaving in droves because they can only not see their family for so many rotations before they say F it, getting rid of him is a damn crime.

 

[pilot_man]

I'm envious; sounds like you guys don't have to worry about fluff like leadership or managing $, you just get to kill stuff.

Bet those fitreps practically write themselves.

Dear Diary,
Since I'm supposed to be more PC and flamboyant in todays military I think I'll start writing in a diary. That's a pretty sweet thing to do isn't it. I think the first thing I'll write in this diary is a list with two sets of people in it. One list will include everyone I know that I would want to fight next to in a war. Those are the people who have a pair, and if they don't they at least act like it. Who stand for what America is and aren't so worried about the FEELINGS of people around them. This will be a list of trained killers. They will be more worried about executing their job to perfection than giving two shits about how it looks on paper. These people will realize that when you are stuck on a giant grey prison for 7.5 months, sometimes you'll want to vent some steam and relax.
The other list will be a list of those who I don't want to go to war with. These people are whiners. They get offended real easy and you have to be really careful what you say around them because you might hurt their fragile feelings. They are more worried about how they look on paper and how they are perceived in the politically correct business world. They see the branches of the military as a company like IBM, Wal-Mart or GM and members of the military should act just like the business professionals, all the time. If these people had their way, we would all get back from combat, sit around in our PJs and sing Kumbaya.
Well diary, I've found many for my list of warriors as well as a couple of the others too. I hope I don't find too many for my second list, because these people really urk me and I don't care for them as people very much.:icon_rage
V/r,
Pilot_man

 

[BACONATOR]

Nobody says to be PC, but know your audience. Anyone who's spent time as part of a 4-man crew in the D knows how dirty and utterly disgusting conversations can get. But it's different than putting out a video to 5000 different people. Everyone knows that SOMEONE out there in the vast masses is a member of the fun police and is going to complain about the slightest indiscretion. Shoot, even chatting with my guys (and gals), I'd know who I could make a raunchy joke with and who I couldn't. And that's just one division... a far cry from a ship of thousands...

It's a bit unbelievable if you make inappropriate comments and then claim you didn't think you were doing anything wrong.

 

[CAMike]

Actually I see two separate Navy's developing. The Warriors who get the missions accomplished and The Professionals who talk the walk. At least for the next 15 to 25 years or so when the inevitable New and Improved Naval Officer (NINO's) are just born that way. The problem is that during this phase your CO's are going to fall into one group or the other, and those fitreps that may have just written themselves at previous commands? May start biting at your ankles at your next command.

I hope there is more understanding between the two philosophies as we move forward but if a certain group of folks "try their cause" in the media first...well you get the point.