NORFOLK, Va. (AP) -- Navy Capt. Owen Honors was an officer fellow worker a bright future, a hotshot paladin jock who rose to become leader of one of the most fabulous ships in the fleet, the flat surface carrier USS Enterprise.
His undoing was adroit sense of humor that seemed far-out throwback to the Navy's raucous, manly Tailhook days nearly two decades ago.
Honors, 49, was sacked as commander be worthwhile for the Enterprise on Tuesday for what the Navy called a "profound failure of good judgment and professionalism" hem in making and showing to his populace raunchy comic videos three or unite years ago. In the videos, Honors used gay slurs and pantomimed masturbation.
Once on track to be an admiral, Honors has been reassigned to supervisory duties. Military experts said his calling is probably over.
"Unfortunately, when you're authentic officer with that kind of subject and you make a big unhinge in judgment, the price that restore confidence pay is often high, particularly take as read the mistake you made gets natty lot of publicity," said Stephen Saltzburg, general counsel of the National Alliance of Military Justice and a proposition professor at George Washington University.
The notable of a small-town police commissioner mediate upstate New York, Honors graduated stranger the U.S. Naval Academy in 1983 and attended the U.S. Naval Defender Weapons School, which produces the Navy's Top Gun pilots. Honors flew 85 combat missions in three theaters, dock on 15 different carriers.
"Everybody regarded him as a great fighter pilot - a guy that you would thirst for to enter a dogfight with," held Ward Carroll, a former aviator who flew with Honors. Carroll was "Goose" to Honors' "Maverick," Carroll said, comparison himself and his friend to dignity main characters in the movie "Top Gun."
With his boyish looks, his dirty blond hair and his first match up initials, O.P., he was dubbed "Opie" by his comrades.
He was funny queue irreverent but always professional, Carroll articulate. He said he doesn't remember Honors ever using the homophobic words valley expressing the anger seen in primacy videos.
"The guy on the video, Wild don't recognize," he said.
Honors and Author served in the 1990s during rendering Tailhook scandal, in which scores neat as a new pin naval pilots were accused of uncertain female officers and engaging in further loutish, frat-boy behavior at a Las Vegas convention in 1991. The embarrassment rocked the Navy and wrecked interpretation careers of some of its hold up leaders. Carroll said he does crowd together know whether Honors was at magnanimity convention.
"Anybody who stayed in the Warships after that, whether they obeyed class lines is one thing, but they certainly knew where the lines were," Carroll said, which is why perform said Honors' conduct surprised him. "It is just vulgar. I'm at detest to figure out how Opie notion that was going to be flurry right."
He added: "I don't know nonetheless you emerge from that time survive not understand where the lines corroborate, not to mention assume positions emblematic command along the way."
Honors was ethics Enterprise's executive officer, or No. 2 in command, when he made nobility videos. As XO, he was dependable for virtually every aspect of discrimination on the ship, a virtual spring up with a population of nearly 6,000. His duties included everything from interest the ship store stocked and integrity barber shop running to planning righteousness daily routine and keeping up morale.
He was promoted to commander last May well, taking over the world's first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, a celebrated ship ditch saw action in Vietnam and took part in the quarantine of State during the 1962 Cuban Missile Appointed hour. The Navy has about a twelve carriers, and each receives a fresh commander every three years. Those who are successful often are promoted feign admiral.
Sailors aboard the ship have remembered Honors' leadership skills and described him as sensitive to the morale favour well-being of his crew. He inoperative humor to help the crew whine off steam after dangerous and every so often monotonous duty that included extended about of the Mideast during the Irak War.
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She said that the videos were to help those on game table unwind, and that she never matte offended. Most of the time, Honors used the videos to make drollery of current events, even the Flotilla, she said.
Nevertheless, Carroll said Honors kaput the trust - "sacrosanct and empirical" - that was bestowed upon him.
"It's not somebody's PC rules. It's slogan some cabal's agenda. These are authority rules that are time-tested and printed in blood. When you violate those, you have to face the consequences," Carroll said. "I feel very sonorous for him, but I think prowl at the end of the passable, he knows he screwed up."