The USS Enterprise leaves Norfolk, Virginia, today and sets sail for the Arabian Sea to support troops in Afghanistan — without lewd film enthusiast Capt. Owen Honors. Instead it’s Capt. Dee L. Mewbourne at the helm. Mewbourne already has his work cut out for him, battling upset crew members with access to email, like machinist mate John Krzemien who tells the Associated Press that “morale has definitely taken a hit” since Owens’ forced exit. “They took the one captain that could rally this much support and replaced him because of civilian opinions. None of us think it’s right.” So that won’t make things under a new commander awkward or anything. [photo via]
Cam
“””They took the one captain that could rally this much support and replaced him because of civilian opinions.””
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Yes, and that would be because the U.S. is not a country controlled by a military dictatorship. The military is controlled by the civillian government and is tasked with defending the way of life of America and America’s interests. Not in defending the way of life of the military.
It was civilian opinion that desegregated the military, allowed women in, and pushed through a DADT repeal too…will he be complaining about that next?
Bill
Uh, the article says “with” and the article says “without”; I suspect the title is wrong.
Bill
Uh, the title says “with” and the article says “without”; I suspect the title is wrong.
Skeptical Cicada
Joining the military does not entitle you to spew racial, religious, gender, or sexual epithets with impunity. Disapproval of the slurs is not a “civilian opinion;” it is simple decency.
Jaroslaw
Cam dear, you know I love you, but you’re jumping on the high road too quick on this one. The public is about as fickle on most things as a four year old child. No one is suggesting that we become a military dictatorship. The soldier simply means until you’ve served on a ship, you can’t possibly know what it is like. Please let’s not go anywhere else with that. I’m not saying nor have I ever said slurs of any kind are A-okay. Another thing I hate about “public opinion” – how come we don’t all have health insurance? The majority of the public is consistently for that.If so many things are simply a matter of public outcry, the USA should be a very different place. Don’t you ever wonder how things like this Capt. Honors thing happen so quickly and other things people have been working on for years don’t even budge? I for one am very skeptical that “public opinion” had much to do with it. There must be more to this story.
DR
These sailors are the ones who know best how morale will be affected. Great job, anonymous snitches, way to make sure the one thing we swore wouldn’t happen, a smack to morale with the DADT repeal, happened over 5 year old videos.
These anonymous cowards painting GLB soldiers to be a bunch of delicate flowers has just set us back. Way to go.
ajax
He was not removed because of civilian opinion. Honors was removed because his leaders assessed Honors’s performance and found that it was unprofessional and showed poor judgement.
If those leaders did not remove Honors and his continued poor judgement led to the death of troops, the blood of those troops would have been on Honors’s leaders’ hands.
The decision was harsh and correct.
Cam
@Jaroslaw: said…
”
Cam dear, you know I love you, but you’re jumping on the high road too quick on this one. The public is about as fickle on most things as a four year old child. No one is suggesting that we become a military dictatorship. The soldier simply means until you’ve served on a ship, you can’t possibly know what it is like. Please let’s not go anywhere else with that. I’m not saying nor have I ever said slurs of any kind are A-okay. ”
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Trust me…um…dear…. 😉 I get what you’re saying, but the issue the person was making is that civilian opinion caused this to happen which was wrong. My response is that, no, the military is run by a civilian govt. for the protection of civilians and must also abide by the laws of the country except where specifically negated. If he doesn’t want civilian opinion to effect what happens in the military then he should be serving in a military for a country where civilian opinion doesn’t matter.
But the remaining fact is, the guy was diciplined by the military for a breach of what it saw was it’s own professionalism. if he’s got an issue he should complain to his higher ups. Although I have a feeling he’s going to be washing dishes for the forseeable future.
DR
@ajax:
He was clearly removed because of civilian opinion. These videos went out of production five years ago at the request of his commanders. He continued to serve with distinction until two weeks ago.
He became a sacrificial lamb in someone’s agenda because someone went public with stuff which was handled internally.
scott ny'er
I think it’s overly dramatic to think that he’s the ONLY one who can lead this sub. You man all those other captains who’ve lead subs over the years wouldn’t be a good commander? Or that there aren’t good commanders in waiting.
These dudes need to stop whining and follow orders. They’ll get used to the new morale. Long story short, Honors screwed up. Don’t do something stupid and maybe it won’t bite you in the ass.
One other thought: maybe there are people on this ship who don’t speak up about Honor’s and his “funny” videos because they don’t want to go against the tide. And yet, are affected by the videos or think they are not good for the ship. Just like when one sees someone being picked on in grade school, thinks it’s wrong but doesn’t say anything.
scott ny'er
At the center, I just saw an photo exhibit of GBLT people who no longer serve the Armed Forces because of DADT. One soldier was discharged because they went through his emails and found out he was gay.
So, if the Armed forces can easily go thru a soldier’s email, why would a soldier openly express his disgust with Honor’s antics.
Also, Honors may have stopped the videos but what makes you think he doesn’t do other stuff on the ship during the last 5 years that are just as stupid and offensive.
ajax
@DR:
DR – Civilian opinion also says we should not be fighing a war in Afghanistan. I don’t see any rapid end to that war.
Regardless of Honors’s performance, his clear inability to distinguish between mature and immature decisions presents a potential danger to everyone in his command.
This is not a gay issue. If he’d made those videos using animals instead of people, the decision to do so would have just as poor.
DR
@scott ny’er:
To suggest that everything will be just fine with a new commanding officer coming in at the last second when the prior officer was dismissed as a PR stunt is naive at best. We’re not talking about bringing in a new store manager at the local mall two weeks before the store opens, we’re talking about a ship setting off to go to war.
@ajax:
Not according to the men and women who served under him. Not according to all the awards and commendations he’s received. Nothing in his record indicates he is unfit for command; the only ones claiming such are a bunch of civilians.
Jaroslaw
#8 what is this ‘um’ for? I’m being respectiful…I know you read the rest of my post. So why doesn’t civilian/public outcry affect other things which are much more important? Is the public for the war in Afghanistan, as another suggested? I don’t think they ever have been in favor of it.
Was the public really in favor of the war in Iraq? What did the public think after they found out GWB lied about the intelligence which was supposedly was the rational for going in the first place?
It is hard to understand why the upper brass knew about it five years ago and did nothing but ask him to stop and now he is fired. But I will tell a story – a very good friend of mine was one of the first women in the 70’s picked for some equality project at Ford Motor Co. They made the pace so fast, no one could keep up, esp. not women with little experience in that area. But the government was happy, a step had been ostensibly been taken for “equality.” Some of the men got phony discipline over discriminating against women and for a very long time business went on as usual. And the point is, whatever things look like on the surface may not be what the real deal is and you’ll never know it. And again, business went on as usual.
scott ny'er
@DR: PR stunt? What are you talking about? I like how you just ignored what I said about all the other experienced commanders that might be taking over the ship.
Also how you ignored that maybe there is something more to this that is not being publicized. And that it could be something negative in Honor’s past. You’re stuck on how he’s a scapegoat but maybe, just maybe, he did something more than the videos.
And as others have said, the video decision was a very poor one. In war time, it may not be a good idea to have someone who can’t make good decisions on a smaller scale (in some people’s minds, not mine) compared to a larger scale, say in the midst of combat fire.
Jaroslaw
Oh, and maybe it doesn’t matter, but then the company got to say “gee we gave the women a chance and they couldn’t keep up” as well. Who is going to bitch about it and lose their job?
DR
@scott ny’er:
It’s you who is ignoring the relevant evidence and basking in supposition and guesswork. All I’ve stated are facts anyone can readily find.
Fact is, it’s disruptive to have another commander take over the ship right before deployment. That’s coming right from the sailors themselves. You can go on and on and on about how there may be other qualified candidates, but you’re ignoring what the sailors have to say. That’s all that matters in the end.
The rest of your post is, as far as I’m concerned, utter nonsense and ignores the numerous sailors who have publicly come out in support of Honors and agree the videos do not represent his accomplishments. You’ve ignored the fact that he was well-liked, well-respected, and is decorated both in and out of combat. The fact you believe that because he made a few juvenile videos years ago which a majority of the sailors (including the gay and female ones) enjoyed makes him a poor commander just by virtue of those videos tells me you’re buying into the same sense of entitled victimhood as the cowards who won’t even come forward publicly.
I don’t respect anonymous cowards who run to the press at such a convenient time to air dirty laundry which was addressed five years ago. No respect at all.
afrolito
Captain Dishonored has been let go. Get the fuck over it. He made a series of juvenile and offensive videos, and he was disciplined properly for it. As others have stated, I’m sure there is a lot more to the story than anyone of us knows, as is usually the case.
As far as the sailors suffering low morale…um, they will get over it. Everyone is replaceable, and I’m sure this new Captain is immensely qualified, or they wouldn’t be allowing him run a naval ship, being deployed to a war zone.
I’m also sure that there are plenty of sailors on that ship, who are probably glad to see him, and his lame form of “entertainment” permanently dry-docked.
Jaroslaw
How about this Dr (great post by the way)? How many of us would like to be fired every time we made a mistake?
Not only that, if he made several videos and it was allowed (rightly or wrongly) by the upper brass,years ago, he should not be fired now.