Last year, we discussed the story of the former amphib XO who demanded a court martial rather than accept NJP for training and procedural deficiencies that led to the death of a Sailor. (He was acquitted.) Now, we see that CAPT Owen Honors, former CO of USS Enterprise (CVN 65), is saying what everyone already knew -- that lots of senior officers knew about his videos, and didn't complain about them at the time.
It's an interesting dilemma. When one finds themselves the designated "bad guy" in a media firestorm, is it the better part of valor to fall on one's sword and assume that all the good ol' boys will appreciate you doing "the right thing" and make sure you get taken care of during your post-Navy career, or do you name names and go down fighting?
One particular case sticks out to me from the Submarine Force. I won't mention the name of the ship, but there's been one very prominent incident since this blog started where, I'm convinced, 90% or more of the submarines in the fleet would have done the exact same thing as this boat did in terms of pre-incident planning, and many would have suffered the same fate given the same tasking. Would you "take your medicine" and hope they'll take care of you behind the scenes, or come out swinging?
