Capt. Owen Honors, by all accounts a popular and effective skipper of the U.S.S. Enterprise (CVN-65 not NCC-1701), reportedly will be sacrificed to the PC gods for making off-color jokes about homosexuality and masturbation in a series of skits produced (four years ago!) in an attempt to boost the morale of his sailors.
No, this isn’t a direct result of DADT repeal — though we might speculate on why the videos were released and reported on four years after they were produced — but it is exactly the sort of thing those of us on the fence about repeal worry about: the PC-ification of the military and a world in which command effectiveness is judged on whether you hurt somebody’s feelings.
I think gays have served and will continue to serve honorably and with distinction in the armed services, and so I’m happy they will be able to defend our country without, as the chairman of the joint chiefs put it, hiding who they are. But if repeal brings more incidents like this, there could be real trouble. The commander of the greatest instrument of American power projection ever devised — the world’s first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier — felled by a couple of blue jokes. What’s next? Sensitivity training for drill sergeants?