U.S. Navy Captain Dismissed - Diana West's Column Is Dead On Target

Here's The Right Side Of it ^ | January 7, 2011 | John L. Work

[JLWORK]

In November of 1862, Abraham Lincoln fired Union Army General George McClellan following a victory over Robert E. Lee’s greatly outnumbered Confederate forces at Antietam, which was one of America’s most costly and bloody battles of the Civil War. The best estimates are that there were over twenty-two thousand casualties in one day of fighting. Lincoln took the action after McClellan refused to pursue Lee’s fleeing army.

On April 11, 1951 President Harry Truman fired General Douglas Mac Arthur, based upon matters of insubordination and open disagreements about foreign policy. MacArthur had called for an attack on China during the Korean War. The BBC reported the dismissal. The American public was shocked over the action. Truman’s decision was based upon his belief that such an attack could trigger World War III.

Diana West’s column this week focuses on the firing of United States Navy Captain Owen Honors. Honors, the commander of the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Enterprise, was relieved of duty over his direction, production and starring role in a “lewd” video that was aired to the crew of the Enterprise while he was the Executive Officer back in 2006 and 2007. You can read the column here:

http://www.dianawest.net/Home/tabid/36/EntryId/1644/The-Death-of-the-Grown-Up-Goes-to-Sea.aspx

I read West’s first book, The Death Of The Grown-Up: How America’s Arrested Development Is Bringing Down Western Civilization (St. Martin’s Press – 2007). Her thesis, brilliantly researched and supported by a mountain of solid evidence, is that the United States is stuck in a cultural un-ending state of adolescence. Further, West presented the argument that this situation has crippled our ability to analytically and logically respond to the existential threats we face from several fronts, including the worldwide jihad movement.

I believe, after the revelation of this clown show by the former executive officer aboard the Enterprise, that West can rest her case.

Call me too old to have a sense of humor. Fine. I can flip through the entire range of television channels on any given day or night and find that most of the material that is watched by a great chunk of the American Public is aimed at about the eighth grade mind. It is inane. I’m pretty sure that as an thirteen-year-old I would have found the above photo of Captain Owen Honors amusing. As an adult citizen who depends on men like Honors to protect my freedoms from the forces of Islam, I cannot help wondering what is going on in the United States Navy.

This episode aboard the Enterprise, one of America’s biggest and most powerful weapons of defense against foreign enemies, is but another symptom of the malady that West describes in her book. Would Bull Halsey or Chester Nimitz have pulled a stunt like this?

So, as the first words inside the cover of West’s book ask, “Where have the grown-ups gone?” Beats the Hell out of me.

[B4Ranch]

During my days in the Navy, ‘64/68 the Executive Officer was the hard ass in the Battalion. The Skipper was the man with the smiles and the XO was the face with frowns.

[cherry]

what I don't understand is why grown men in positions of authority think they have to sink to the lowest common denominator in order to "lead"......to "fit" in....

why?....where are the grown ups....

[B4Ranch]

The Peter Principle is the principle that “in a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to their level of incompetence”.

[buccaneer81]

Sorry to see you leading the charge to the Obamafication, femininization and wussification of our armed forces.

Hope you're proud of yourselves. After all, we can't allow any morale building in a combat zone, can we?

[TexasKamaAina]

During my days in the Navy, ‘64/68 the Executive Officer was the hard ass in the Battalion. The Skipper was the man with the smiles and the XO was the face with frowns.

I was right behind you, 69-72, and I can't imagine any commissioned officer I served with behaving like this, not even the rawest Ensign.

[The KG9 Kid]

"... This episode aboard the Enterprise, one of America’s biggest and most powerful weapons of defense against foreign enemies, is but another symptom of the malady that West describes in her book. Would Bull Halsey or Chester Nimitz have pulled a stunt like this?"

I think that I beat Diana West to this conclusion days ago:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2651331/posts?page=364#364

But, you know, I was called names and told that I wasn't 'conservative' when I brought this up. I'm "the kind of person the left wing loves most", since I 'enable' their success by not protecting a goofball Navy Captain acting like a teenage prankster, or something like that.

Yeah, where have the adults gone? It's a good question.

[B4Ranch]

If we were talking about a 20 year-old LT., I might agree with him making a video. Instead this is about a 49-year-old Captain. When is the man going to mature into a dignified leader? He represents my Country and my Navy not some podunk in Central America with row boats.

I have not seen the video(s) that Captain Honors put out but if he degraded women (as reported) then he doesn’t deserve to have any gold on his shoulders. The nurses we had in Nam had more balls than he does.

You can check my previous posts to see about what I think of Zero and his attraction for queers.

[TweetEBird007]

AMEN

[ArchAngel1983]

"Truman’s decision was based upon his belief that such an attack could trigger World War III."

Kinda ironic that WWIII is right around the corner. It is the nature of man is it not?"

[Future Snake Eater]

I have not seen the video(s) that Captain Honors put out...

Obviously.

[TweetEBird007]

AMEN

[buccaneer81]

You haven't seen any of the video? First of all, Captain Honors DID NOT degrade females.

Secondly, you are no better than the liberal leftie commie asses who cry about Rush Limbaugh and other conservatives yet admit that they've never listened to them.

[xrmusn]

I was right behind you, 69-72, and I can’t imagine any commissioned officer I served with behaving like this, not even the rawest Ensign
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Yes, B4, also in the mid 50’s/60’s XO’s were the ‘iron fist’.

The ‘behavior’ shown by Capt Honors while XO is ‘strange’ to me, to say the least, since EVERYONE knows what the Tailhook incident wrought down on the Navy.

My main question is, and has been, WHO has been sitting on this information?

I still think it is a direct result of the DADT repeal, where ‘someone’ now thinks it is time to ‘purge’ the ranks of those they know will be trouble.

I can see someone going through the ‘records’ of all Senior Enlisted and Officers just to see if they can find even a hint of ‘displeasure’ with serving with ‘those kind’.

[llevrok]

why grown men in positions of authority think they have to sink to the lowest common denominator in order to "lead"

Because we accept lazy as the norm.

I think this in today's comedy. In the old days, intelligent comedic thoughts entertained us. Now, it's easier to be coarse and vulgar (which is now repetitive) rather than creative.

[onehipdad]

Perhaps the greatest triumph of the Left in the last 25 years has been the junking of military standards regarding the sexes, a set of traditional attitudes that was slow to dismantle itself in the wake of the 1960s sexual revolution. Indeed, the military could be, and was, seen as a bulwark against the social changes wrought by a metastasizing feminism in the civilian world that would go on to kill, among other things, such concepts as "mixed company" and its prohibitions on "bad language" and other social shields. These had allowed for the existence of now-lost refuges such as reticence and discretion, which, in turn, provided shelter for a kind of privacy and intimacy that is all but unimaginable in our over-exposed world of TMI (too much information).

Yup, sums it up pretty well I'd say...

[B4Ranch]

I don’t presume neither of you have seen a Red Skeleton video. Funny and classy simultaneously. He never saw the need for being lewd. He was what we called a gentleman and a officer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPbIls0iOnI

It’s a shame Captain Honors wasn’t as classy as Mr. Skeleton

[Tea Party Reveler]

THANK YOU FREEPERS!!!!

For Standing up for men like Capt. Honors, Col. Alan West, Lt. Pantano, Col. Chessani, Petty Officers Huretas, McCabe, etc, etc.

These good men were railroaded by a very unjust military justice system while scoundrels like Capt. Lisa Nowak, Air Force Major Jill Metzger and Capt. Holly A. Graf (sea Hag) were never held to account.

[buccaneer81]

You still won't admit that you've never seen the video, yet you judge.

Lame, lame, lame.

[buccaneer81]

You need to grow a pair, son.