Wicked Cool: The hubris and high jinks of Captain Owen Honors, United States Navy, sometime captain of the USS Enterprise.

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant

Let me introduce you to a cool dude, cute too, who knows how to party and had the perfect place to do it. I'm talking about U.S. Navy Captain Owen Honors, only just relieved as commander of America's only nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the proud USS Enterprise.

Honors, who never met a camera he didn't like, a man determined to please his crew, liked to spend his week preparing videos -- starring, guess who -- Captain Owen Honors, 49 year old Top Gun pilot and decided off-color video star.

Honors had at his disposal the very best video equipment generous U.S. taxpayers could buy. His effects were right up-to-the-minute, like having three separate screens in which (guess who?) appeared as three different (all cool) characters. Wow!

Honors, each week determined to outdo himself on week-end XO nights (when his latest videos were shown), somehow found time in his very busy days. The USS Entereprise, after all, was deployed supporting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. A man of dedication, energy, imagination he somehow found the time to work on video ideas, plots, film venues, and a dazzling array of really cool outfits perfectly tailored. This caring captain was determined to give his eagerly expectant 6000-person crew the very best . He certainly did, particularly in 2006-2007 when his bold ideas and still bolder presentations took the Enterprise by storm and riveted every eye on the ship. What, they all wondered, would their daring executive officer, then Captain Honors do next?

They never had long to wait.

There was that hot video when their cutting-edge commander simulated masturbation at his desk. As Paris Hilton would say, "That's hot!"

What about the never-to-be-forgotten episode of two naked guys soaping each other off in the shower. Honors was a nut for saving water... and wanted to drive home the point with eye-popping visuals. And, to be completely politically correct, he did the same scene with two of the women of his crew.

There was more, much more since Honors was an indefatigable guy with an unceasing appetite for more and better; ambitious videos of which he soon became the master with the help of designated members of his command.

There was the anal probe episode... and all the "fag" plots, pratfalls and plays. That commander... what a cut-up.

There were the in jokes, like writing "little XO" on his you-know-what. It was hilarious, pure camp, what a guy.

And just think, he did it all while on deployment in not one, but two war zones. How did the guy do it, inquiring minds wanted to know.

Alas, there was irritating criticism from small minds.

It's hard to imagine... but disgracefully true... that there were members of the Enterprise crew who found their commander's hard work and dazzling results offensive. Small minded, picayune, uptight... these folks made a fuss and criticized the coolest guy in the fleet. This rankled with Honors, for he was working so hard. Why his bravura video on the "f-bomb" was pure poetry. Really, who could object?

In a rare outburst, this commander of poise and sensitivity lashed out at his anonymous accusers: "Over the years I've gotten several complaints about inappropriate material during these videos, never to me personally but, gutlessly, through other channels." Gutless, indeed! If there'd been a plank aboard the Enterprise, Honors would have been well within his rights to put the snivelers on it.

Instead, he opened one of his last videos with these mild, entirely justified words: "This evening, all of you bleeding hearts... why don't you just go ahead and hug yourself for the next 20 minutes or so, because there's a really good chance you're gonna be offended."

That's the man in a nutshell, empathetic, soft spoken.

Still one of these snivelers (probably gay), not yet identified by name, took (inexplicable) offense... go figure... sending the (to him) offending tapes to the Navy Inspector General.

Where all hell broke lose.

Despite the fact that Owen Honors was well-known throughout the Navy, despite the fact that he had a high visibility command; despite 3,400 flight hours in 31 types of aircraft... despite a chestful of bona fide awards and medals... the Navy moved expeditiously because it knew it had a real hot potato on its hands.

Navy media releases quickly went from "the videos were intended to be humorous" to "inappropriate"... to the announcement Captain Honors was relieved of his command as the Navy initiated, behind the scenes, the steps required to cashier him from the service he loved and had served throughout his life. My how the mighty had fallen!

Certain Navy personnel and those persons wedded to the good old days of fag baiting and the humiliation and degradation of women, predictably launched a campaign to save the Captain and his wayward views. They tried to convince by asking what was the big deal after all; the views advanced in the Captain's high tech videos were commonplace, nothing to write home about, the way "everyone" thought.

Exactly.

This is why the Navy Department is to be commended on taking (reasonably) prompt action to lance the infection and proclaim zero tolerance for mocking good sailors, their sexuality and gender.

The Navy is moving fast now to get just-suspended Captain Honors out of public view, to bury this still young officer with talent and skills to burn and ensure that he becomes the complete non-person, He is, after all, a total embarrassment... the story breaking at the worst possible time, as the Navy shows that it can, with good humor and in good order, nimbly move into the post "don't ask, don't tell" era.

There is, the Navy signals, no place in this new order for Captain Honors, once absolute lord of all he surveyed. Such a man so powerful and so lacking in judgement is now an inconvenient artifact of an age and state of mind the Navy wants firmly, irrevocably behind it.

About The Author

Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., where small and home-based businesses learn how to profit online. Dr. Lant is also the author of 18 best-selling business books.

Republished with author's permission by Rahimah Sultan http://SureFireSuccessNow.com.
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