tjweaver84-Blog

I just saw this article and video on the internet about the current CO of the Enterprise when he was the XO. It's about the videos he made to entertain the crew. Here is the link http://hamptonroads.com/2010/12/raunchy-videos-starring-enterprise-skipper-come-light. I personally didn't find the video offensive. Stupid yes but offensive no. I can however see how someone could see them as offensive. I am not here to write about how offensive or inoffensive the video is. The bigger problem I see  I when he says people complained about the videos were gutless and didn't tell him face to face. Watching that video it makes me think that if I was offended and went to tell the XO he would just sit there and belittle me to my face. I don't know if that is true as I have never met the man but that is the feeling I get and apparently others felt that way as well and they didn't complain to him personally. That means they probably complained through the Command Managed Equal Opportunity (CMEO) office on the ship. That is the office set up specifically to deal with problems like this. It was pretty obvious to me what he thought of non-aviators which takes it to the realm of EO. But the chain of command did nothing to reprimand him when they got complaints about the videos. In fact he makes a new video calling the complainers gutless and says if they are offended do not watch. We had a similar situation on the George Washington as far as the command not listening to complaints about senior leaders on board and just brushing them aside. That type of situation does not help morale at all as people know they are not being listened to when they have a problem. Had they taken the complaints seriously they could have taken care of this on the ship level without everybody on earth finding out about it. As it stands now it makes the Navy look like a bunch of assholes who don't give two shits about anyone who has a different opinion from leadership (as a former sailor I know that is true but now the rest of the world can see that also). On the GW it reached the point where several of us decided no one on the ship was listening to us and we all started writing congress and they stepped in saying certain people in Reactor were not being treated in accordance with navy regulations. I would like to see what the navy has to say about these videos made on the Enterprise. I may use the same language as him on this blog such as if you find me offensive leave my site but I would never tell my subordinates if you find this video offensive don't watch. That makes it seem like there are so many things to watch on the ship. No there's not much. You have a few AFN channels then the ships channels and when videos made by the chain of command come on the usually shut off the AFN and play the command videos on all the ships channels so they didn't have much else to watch. Plus the fact that it said some of the videos which are played pre-port call (the article says that but I think it may not be 100% accurate) which means, at least on the GW, the ships goes on lock down for the duration of the video and you aren't allowed to walk around...You are supposed to be sitting in front of a TV watching the video so you know how to act in the port you are about to visit.  I suppose that that is the problem I see. Videos that anyone can see will offend some people are made and the entire crew is supposed to watch them. So the argument of they didn't have to watch them will stand up pretty well to the general public who has never set foot on a ship but in reality there isn't a lot of choice. Well Time to go. I could keep ranting but I don't feel like it right now.