Exclusive: Honors says admirals backed videos - Navy News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Navy Times

Exclusive: Honors says admirals backed videos

The former carrier commander fired for producing and starring in controversial shipboard videos says the films were made with the “affirmative and tacit approval of senior Navy leadership,” according to an official statement the former skipper, Capt. Owen Honors, has provided to investigators.

In his 15-page statement, obtained by Navy Times, Honors wrote that the ship’s two commanding officers, two strike group admirals “and myriad other senior military and civilian distinguished visitors” were aware of the videos.

Honors, who produced the videos while he was executive officer of the carrier Enterprise in 2006 and 2007, also wrote that the videos often came up during Sunday meetings with the ship’s CO and other warfare commanders, and the discussion “just about always” involved “the content of the previous ‘XO Movie Night’ skit” and that he had received “encouraging feedback.”

He also wrote that he was “neither formally counseled nor told to stop producing the videos,” which puts him at odds with Navy officials who said Honors was told to stop in early 2007.

The document provides the first comments by Honors, who has not spoken publicly since The (Norfolk, Va.) Virginian-Pilot posted a story and the videos online Jan. 1. Adm. John Harvey, head of Fleet Forces Command, launched an investigation into the circumstances under which the videos were produced, fired Honors Jan. 4 and said he would be examining the actions of Honors’ senior officers at the time.

If Honors’ allegations are true, the claims in the signed and sworn statement increase the chances that his bosses at the time could be disciplined or, at the very least, highly embarrassed.

Moreover, Honors’ statement draws an even wider circle around those he said were in the know. Honors said the admiral who led the embarked training strike group, several senior destroyer squadron commodores and air wing commanders — among the “myriad” other senior visitors — also were fully aware of and approved of the videos.

Neither Honors, nor any of the admirals who were his superiors at the time, have responded to requests for comment. Fleet Forces Command has declined to comment on Honors’ allegations, citing the ongoing investigation.

Read the full story in this week’s Navy Times, available on newsstands and for online subscribers Monday. Click here to subscribe to Navy Times.