Captain Honors Strikes Back

"When confidence and trust are lost in those who lead, we fail."

"It is fact that as naval officers we are held to a higher standard. Those in command must exemplify the Navy’s core values of honor, courage and commitment which we expect our Sailors to follow."

- Adm. John C. Harvey Jr., Commander, United States Fleet Forces Command (USFFC), Jan. 4, 2011

Navy Times has a couple Captain Honors stories up that might interest some folks.

Exclusive: Honors says admirals backed videos
Disgraced CO Honors now firing back

I am not going to rehash the details of the latest Navy Times articles, but it is as many suspected; there were no secrets, everyone knew what was going on, and apparently no one ever told Captain Honors to stop producing his movies nor even warned him over the content. Some people believe these details matter.

The discussion about XO Movie Night has shifted from the content of movies to blast radius of the careers of other folks involved. There will not be a consensus regarding the fallout from further disciplinary actions by the Navy, but any appeasement towards public approval should not be a disciplinary objective.

I note how it took a few days to relieve the 0-6, but it has taken a month to address the issues involving Flag officers. The delay will explain how Navy Times can kick start this conversation again and likely capture a great deal of news attention for it.

Whether true or not, there is a perception of double standards for accountability among leadership that remains the rule, not the exception. If it wasn't for the extra attention to the issue from the Navy Times, would we ever hear about this story again? I don't want to give the impression I encourage a witch hunt, but it only took hours to decide the fate of a CO while it has already nearly a month to not decide how to handle the fate of his superiors.

A month later the content of the videos is no longer the primary issue, the issue is why the Navy has been unable to address the lingering questions surrounding the superior officers of Captain Honors on the USS Enterprise (CVN 65) at the time. Based on the very little evidence produced by Navy Times, the blast radius now reaches out beyond Rear Adm. Lawrence S. Rice, Rear Admiral Ron Horton, Rear Adm. Raymond Spicer, and now-Vice Adm. Daniel Holloway, but also to Rear Adm. Richard O’Hanlon who was commander of Strike Force Training Atlantic during Honors’ tour as Enterprise XO.

It is better to make the wrong decision regarding the fate of the Flag officers involved than to not make a decision at all, indeed what does the inability to make a decision tell us? This is cut and dry; right or wrong - just like it was for the CO. To suggest it isn't that easy is to acknowledge the double standards that exist for Flag Officers, which for the record, I believe is the primary perception being perpetuated by the latest news reports in Navy Times and represents the selective accountability differences applied to Flag and non-Flag officers that are getting harder and harder for the Navy to ignore the existence of.

The bottom line is this. Punish some of them, all of them, or none of them - but get it done. The USS Enterprise (CVN 65) carrier strike group is now in the Med and things are getting a bit busy out there. This strike group may soon be asked to make a Suez crossing with more uncertainty than any in recent memory. The strike group may be asked to help get Americans out of Egypt. Regardless, someone needs to get the nonsense of XO movie night out of the way instead of letting it linger, or simmer, depending upon your point of view.