Rant #415: New Year's Honors

Happy New Year!

I guess when you read the title of this rant, the first of 2011, you thought I was going to give out awards for the best of various items of the past year.

Well, guess again.

I am sure that you heard that the Navy is targeting a video that was released on the USS Enterprise which supposedly starred Capt. Owen Honors, USN, when he was the executive officer of the ship. He has since been promoted and is now the ship's commander.

The video, which was supposedly only broadcast over the ship's closed circuit system, shows Honors talking about a variety of topics, including homosexuality and, err, self pleasuring.

No nudity is shown in the video, but there are scenes of two women in a shower and also two men showering, fake stimulation, and other things.

The video was made in 2006 or 2007, so why is it coming to the surface now?

Evidently, some shipmates were turned off by the video then, and may have voiced some mild complaints, but they kind of fell to the wayside.

In the meantime, Honors was promoted to the top helm of the ship.

An investigation has been launched, looking into whether Honors was actually personally involved in the making of the video. I guess they have to be sure, because using various techniques, he could be in the video but may not have authorized it.

Sure, the topics discussed in the video aren't politically correct right now, and supposedly the video was made to shed a lighthearted spotlight on some topics that were important to the ship at the time.

My question is: during wartime, when did the creators of this video have the time to put this thing together?

Sure, it's not all weapons and machinery on board a ship. I guess you have to have a lighthearted way of looking at things when you are manning such a vessel.

But why put out a video? And if it was authorized by Honors, why did he give his OK?

And again, when did the video makers have time to do this?

An investigation is being launched, and all I can say is that 2011 has gotten off to a bang, hasn't it?