I hope Navy Capt. Owen Honors, who produced profanity- and-slur-laden videos while second in command of the USS Enterprise, isn't being relieved of command of the ship for the wrong reason -- a reaction to public pressure based on our goody-two-shoes culture. But he is in trouble and might deserve to be:
Navy spokesman Cmdr. Chris Sims said the videos, which were shown to the crew of the Enterprise while on deployment supporting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2006 and 2007, are "inappropriate."
Honors is shown cursing along with other members of his staff in an attempt to demonstrate humor, according to the videos.
It's not so much the contents of the videos that's inapporpriate, it's that a senior officer made them. I know there is a certain school of good-cop/bad-cop authority. The good senior officer gives the troops someone to confide in and feel good about, which gives the commander a freer hand to be the bad cop. It sounds a little like this was an attempt at that, but it went too far. A military officer cannot keep the respect from his subordinates that he needs to lead if he is also trying to be the class clown.
