The Navy commander fired for making racy videos and broadcasting them on a ship says that the movies had the "tacit approval" of senior Navy leadership, the Navy Times reports.
Owen Honors' statement to investigators, obtained by the Navy Times, marks the first time his side of the story has been made public.
Honors made headlines for days in early January when the videos were published on the Virginian-Pilot newspaper site. The films included a simulated rectal exam, anti-gay slurs and sailors pretending to shower with each other aboard ship. In early January, Honors was removed from his post commanding the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise.
An official 15-page statement that Honors gave to Navy investigators states that two commanding officers, two strike group admirals "and myriad other senior military and civilian distinguished visitors" were aware of the videos, according to the Navy Times.
Honors made the videos in 2006 and 2007 when he was executive officer of the Enterprise, and they were discussed during meetings with the ship's commanding officer and other leadership, the Navy Times reports. During these conversations, Honors received “encouraging feedback” about the content of the movies and was never told to stop making them, according to the report.
Honors' superiors did not respond to Navy Times' requests for comment.
Sounds like something you would hear from an Ensign instead of a Captain
If the Navy fired Captain Owen Honors, why is he still working for them? Are they still paying him? I suspect that he wasn't actually fired, despite the repeated claim in the news media. He was relieved of command. That is not the same thing as being fired by the Navy.