Here is an excerpt of an email I wrote to an old high school teacher of mine, regarding the recent Captain Honors scandal. (For those who don't know, Captain Honors has been blasted in the media for making "controversial" videos while on a deployment over 4 YEARS ago... and the videos are just now being leaked and people are just now causing a stink over it. Really??) If you haven't seen or heard about this story, Google it. I'm sure there's plenty. But here's how I feel about the situation, because I've been in the Navy, and when I heard about this it truly bothered me.
"Wow! That's crazy that you're kinda related to him. I can somewhat see the side where people think what he did was a stupid idea... but again, after having spent 5 years on active duty, and being on a deployment at sea looking at the same people 24/7 and doing the same thing every single day, working long hours, and it's not like you can just hop in your car and drive to Wal-Mart if you want to... you develop that kind of odd humor. Shoot, I have a video I made of my deployment (I think my parents have a copy on DVD somewhere, but I would gladly upload it to the net if I can find it!) and people are doing stuff that would be considered "lame" by the average civilian, but to us we were cracking up. Just like how everyone has "inside jokes"... so do crazy sailors.
I really don't think that just because that guy made a video with some "controversial" things in it that he should be hung for doing it. Or that it makes him a bad leader. Just because he took 10 minutes or so out of his time to do that doesn't mean the other 23 hours and 50 minutes of the day he acts that way. And he obviously gained his rank because he either A) worked hard and busted his ass for it or B) kissed a lot of ass for it (but based on my own judgement, I will go with option A, since I notice a lot of the ass-kissers in the military are the ones who would be offended by that video, and the type of leaders to just walk around with a stick up their ass all day and not give a crap about the lower ranking enlisted people). I've had many different leaders during my time in the Navy... I've had really awful ones who made me want to get out because I thought that all leaders in the Navy were that way, and I've had fantastic leaders who motivated me to do my best and want to make a career out of the military. (Obviously for different reasons I chose to get out and go in the Reserves, but that was not due to any leadership impact.) There are so many people who support Captain Honors because he brought humor and fun to an otherwise crappy job that a majority of Americans would balk at doing. I'd like to see the personal lives of the media people and the sorry ass "offended" people who dislike the videos... I'm sure they've never uttered a curse word or thought ill about someone or made a dirty joke in their lives, right? Are they so holy and pious that they can judge a guy who made a funny clip? Are their lives that boring that they need to nitpick away at his intentions when they can't just see what it is on the surface-- a simple video to boost morale and cause a giggle?
And what bugs me more is some people who comment on "how would you feel if that were your daughter on a Navy ship watching that" well... hopefully your daughter was an 18 year old (or older) adult when she enlisted, and the beginning of the video CLEARLY states that it may offend some, so she can certainly make the adult decision to NOT view it. No one on a Navy vessel would hold another sailor down and force them to watch something like this if they didn't want to, because something like THAT would definitely be reported and blown up in the media as harassment. If people don't like it, look the other way. I don't like politically correct stick in the ass morons who run around spouting off about how everyone is doing everything wrong and offending everyone else. But I look the other way and mind my own business and concern myself with what I DO care about.
Ahhh sorry that got long but that's my more than 2 cents... the whole issue struck a nerve with me since I've been there, done that. "
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