Commander of US aircraft carrier removed over raunchy videos

WASHINGTON - The commander of a US aircraft carrier has been removed from his post following revelations he made racy videos that were shown to the crew of the ship, the Navy said.

Captain Owen Honors showed poor judgement in the content of the videos and undermined his ability to lead, Admiral John C Harvey, the commander of US Fleet Forces based in Norfolk, Virginia, said Tuesday.

“While Captain Honors’ performance as commanding officer of the USS Enterprise has been without incident, his profound lack of good judgement and professionalism while previously serving as executive officer on Enterprise calls into question his character and completely undermines his credibility to continue to serve effectively in command,” Harvey said.

The videos were humorous attempts to articulate lessons to sailors and boost morale, but they depicted simulated acts of masturbation and sex and women showering together and contained foul language, gay slurs and other lewd acts.

Honors had made and shown the videos in 2006 and 2007, while he was deputy commander of the Enterprise. He had since become the top officer on the carrier also based in Norfolk.

The Pentagon put an end to the videos when they were discovered four years ago but kept Honors in his position. But the Virginia Pilot newspaper obtained them and began publishing them online Saturday, sparking the controversy.

The Navy over the weekend said the material was “inappropriate” and “not acceptable” and that an investigation was underway. The videos were broadcast on the ship’s internal system to a crew of more than 5,000 sailors.