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Tuesday, January 4, 2011

In regards of Captain Owen Honors

If you know me or read this blog, you know my views of the elitist officer community of the Navy. I do not hold them, in general, in the highest regards. However, there are some good and even great Naval Officers and I have written about some that I have served with in my career. The latest chapter in the leftist media's campaign to demoralize and destroy the United States and her military is the attack on Captain Honors. Those of you who read the print media stories or view the feeding frenzy on television sit in righteous indignation over Captain Honors' blatant immorality and how he is corrupting those pure, innocent sailors, while you fantasize about having sex with you secretary or the teenage girl next door! What the hell do you know about life on a Navy ship, underway?! Let this old Master Chief educate you ignorant land lovers.

Life at sea, on a combatant vessel is no "Love Boat" cruise. You don't pull into a exotic port every day and spend a restful night or leisure. Ships stay at sea, doing their mission, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for two and even three months at a stretch. Sometimes, even longer! There is NO privacy. You are "Nuts to Butts" with 5000 of your closest friends. You eat together, shower together, work together, sleep together. There is no rest from each other. No place to go to be alone. The noise of the ship goes on 24/7. On an aircraft carrier, planes are being launched and recovered, 24/7. You get rousted out of your sleep, day or night for fires, airplane crashes, refueling, replenishment at sea, at any time. If you work nights, you sleep days, if you work days, you sleep nights, unless one of the many events or emergencies happen, then you don't sleep. There are no holidays, days off, or "sick days". I would like to say that you now understand what life at sea on a combatant ship is like, but you don't and can't unless you have served on one of these magnificent ships. But let me say this, morale of the crew is the hardest thing to maintain and the most precious commodity on a Navy ship. The ships chain of command will do anything to maintain and enhance morale. That is what Captain Honors was doing, notice I said "DOING" not "trying to do" when he made those "Site" TV appearances. All of us watch "off color" comedy on our home TV, jokes about "Gays", nudity, racial jokes from Chris Rock and others, and thing nothing about it. But you are all up in arms about Captain Honors because he is a naval officer. I hate people with double standards more that I can say here.

From what I have seen in the media, and read about, Captain Honors did nothing but entertain his crew, enhance their morale, and keep his ship ready to do the countries bidding. His crew, especially the enlisted personnel, male and female, stand behind him. If you don't believe me, check out the sites on "Facebook". That is real enlisted support! So, I say to all of you civilians, leave the Navy alone! Go back to fantasying about you neighbor or secretary. Your double standards are not welcomed.
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14 comments:

  1. There is no doubt someone had it out for him. I have not served however I have a son serving on this ship which I am learning so much about (greatly due to her FB page). I admire everyone on board and am truly sorry lost her Capt. so close to deployment however I believe in her crew. God bless you all and I will be waiting anxiously for her safe return with everyone on board.

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  2. I was on the ship while these videos were aired, and while reading this article I thought you were, too, Master Chief. You hit the nail on the head. Besides the fact that the actual videos had a lot more important content than is shown by the VA Pilot, Captain Honors was able to keep morale up during *two* of these such deployments, which totaled to 13 months at sea back-to-back. Due to Honors' leadership, when he took the role as CO of a smallboy after his XO tour on Enterprise, his ship received the retention award for the highest reenlistment rates.

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  3. Right on the money chief! I can't believe what a nation of pussies we've become. Who the hell said you have the right to never be offended? Best I can tell the crew loved this guy and he was able to maintain morale under very tough circumstances. That's rare on any ship there's too many captain Queegs out there.

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  4. well said! I was on board during the 2004-2006 it was amazing captain honors is a great man and was an even more outstanding captain! I was also an enlisted member! I support Capt. Honors

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  5. I agree wholeheartedly. I'll go so far as to say it was Political Correctness that hurt Captain Honors. I also wrote about this: http://getalifekent.blogspot.com/2011/01/politically-correct-1-humor-0-its-sad.html

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  6. There is a standard. A standard for Navy Sailors (high) and a standard for everyone else (not as high). Captain Honors failed to live up to the high standards of a Naval officer. They don't catch you every time but when they do - you're fired.

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  7. The only reason this came out now....instead of 5 years ago (when the films were made), is because of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy that recently got repealed. Some fag on board thought that if he/she got the Capt in trouble, that the ship wouldn't get underway for deployment on time...not the case. They now have a new CO and they are still getting underway on schedule. It is sad that someone would go out of their way to destroy a Man's phenomenal career as a Naval Aviator/CO. My thoughts and prayers go out to Capt. Honors and his family as they go through this trying time. I wish the best for him, he doesn't deserve any punishment thought from anyones mind.

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  8. I was not only on the ship, I was in at least one of the videos. There was nothing malevolent about any of the videos. CAPT Honors was constantly soliciting ideas for anything funny to give the crew a laugh. After all, he didn't clog the O-3 level head with the sexual device. He just made a joke out of it when the Repair Officer reported it. He is one of the best with whom I have ever served. If you are going to declare him unfit for cursing, we have to dissolve all of the military, particularly the Marine Corps. If you take away the "F" bomb, they won't be able to speak. I was with them for years.

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  9. To Cpt.SDC, I'm sure that Cpt. Honors has high standards and for his crew, and I'm sure if it had not been for some slack mother "F-bomb" this would have never happened. If it had affended anyone at the time it was made it all would have come out then, not years later. My son-in-law sailed with Cpt. honors and my grandson and daughter have met him. Trying to keep men and women happy while so far from home has to be a real struggle, I salute his efforts.

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  10. @Captain-Special Duty Cryptology You are full of crap.

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  11. I am a retired Navy Chief Master-at-Arms. I did seven (count them 7) deployments and served on 5 (count them again 5) different ships. One Tin Can, Two Gators, one MSC and a Bird Farm. If any of this language is foreign to you, then it is my humble opinion that you should keep your mouth shut and let the Captain do his job! Part of my job as a Navy MAC was to advise the Skipper if he or anyone of his wardroom were walking a thin line. Obviously the good Captain wasn't! Cause if he was I can think of about four (again lets count them 4) people who would have pulled him off to the side and said Skipper NO! As my brethren of the Mess so gently put it "this aint no love boat land lover!" You have grown men and women trained to do a job and put on a ship that is designed and built to fight a war. If you expect your tax payers money to put to good use then let the fighting men and women do their jobs! The BIGGEST fight any Senior Enlisted or Senior Officer on board ANY U S NAVAL Vessel is the fight against low morale. This CO did what ever other CO did. His VERY best to get and keep the morale of his crew up and keep them motivated. The Media needs to do a few tours out to sea to get a "feel" of what is it like to eat, sleep, work, fight and live with 5,000 of your "CLOSEST FRIENDS" for six to nine months at a time. Then they can whine, cry and BITCH about what we do.

    Give'm HELL Capt Honors!
    Chief Taz

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  12. Everything in those videos poked fun at aspects of Navy life aboard ship at sea, and it was poked from the view of an Officer showing that all were in the same situation together.
    The shower scenes are a parody about water, a commodity civilians take for granted. Ships have to make their own fresh water and it is always in limited quantities. Ships go on water hours where water use is restricted and sometimes there isn't any for days at a time. When water is available there is a rush to use the showers which are also limited. There are also pressure problems. Captain Honors in his shower parody pokes fun at these conditions by showing that Officer Quarters suffer the same discomforts. This is important for young inexperienced sailors to know or any idea that someone on board has it better than them could distract from their jobs and affect everyone. Captain Honors attempts to shower. The pressure in his shower, XO's have their own, is bad. He then radios to the ship’s engine room to complain and is most likely informed that they trying to fix it. So he then begins an adventure to find a shower that is unused. His difficulty in finding one not occupied and the dual occupation in most is to poke fun at the experience felt by the whole. Water is limited and showers are limited The Captain has cleverly used that realization to make fun of it and help the crew relieve their stress from it. . Life is hard on ship even bunks are sometimes shared in what we call hot bunking. One sleeps while the other one goes on duty.
    Everything in his videos is a parody of life aboard ship. His alter egos point out the friendly yet harsh competitive camaraderie between officers who serve different roles. The Captain implies he as XO has to serve several roles as do many of the crew and it is refreshing to see in that parody he understands. Just that alone raises ones morale tremendously. The different roles are most often accusing each other of being more important than the other. Referring to a particular role as being gayer than another is not a gay bashing thing, it's a play on words to imply that one particular shipboard role is more salty (sailor like) than another. The Captain uses that to show the crew that the same friendly ribbing is also in the Officer ranks. That ribbing amongst the different ratings and rates aboard ship is common and it bonds each group into a tight knit bunch. You have pride in what you do and the discomfort and sacrifice you put up with to do it keeps you bonded tightly as a crew when you realize all are in the same boat. Any frustration over that sacrifice is then taken out on the enemy and not each other. That is the most important role of command is to instill that pride and use it to get the job done. Any officer that does not see that is a fool. Officers have to be willing to sacrifice themselves and their careers for their crew. They have to be completely selfless.
    The masturbation stuff though crude, points out that in close quarters there is difficulty with sexual tensions and finding a way or place to relieve them. If anybody thinks that young men and women in the prime of their sexual activity years simply stop or stop thinking about sex for 6 to 9 months when deployed, they are in fantasy land. The masturbation parody brings humor to the fact that they don't and it shows the crew that Officers are no different.
    There was a time in the Navy where Officers were made out to be celibate priests that were above any human frailties. Captain Honors lets the crew see that they are all in the same close quarters in their harm’s way condition.

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  13. What words... super, magnificent idea

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