Tuesday, February 08, 2011

Honors's choices

I would not have expected to keep coming back to the firing of Captain Honors like I am - but new little, subtle, twists keep coming out.

Though we will have to wait for some time to get all of CAPT Honors's take on the story - something happened recently that I think gives us some insight into where he is sitting.

When the story broke on that Friday - the Navy's initial reaction probably gave him hope that he had a good chance to keep his Command, though in his heart of hearts he probably knew that his chances at Flag were now in the low single digits to zip.

As the weekend went on and the silence and drift took place, by the time Monday came around - Big Navy refused to poke its head out of its shell and others took over the message. Honors's former Shipmates stayed hiding under their bed, leaving him twisting in the wind. By the time the fetid mass flopped into Admiral Harvey's lap with a, "Ummm, you do something about it. It's your ship." - Honors had to know that the game was up. Good people can disagree with what Harvey did - but it is what it is.

This left Honors with two choices. He could go silently in the night, and let things get nice and still so those who he thought had his back could slink out from under the bed, dust themselves off, and get back to their careers - carefully stepping over his body on the way.

Thing is - I don't think that is the standard-issue attitude of a F-14 guy. They should have known that.

Honors had another option. He wasn't going to throw a hissy-fit or be a drama-queen though. No, he could simply let the facts speak for themselves. If he was going to be left out to be judged in the court of public opinion - he could at least invite some company.

If those senior people now mute who saw, giggled, guffawed, and approved of his videos at the time won't speak - then let the record speak. In this case, his Fitness Reports.

As many of you have not see or not recently seen a FITREP - well, here you go. If you want to know what his immediate superiors thought of him, now you know.

CAPT Honors has published all his FITREPS for the time in question as Big XO. You can read them here.

Now ponder. Ponder again. If you want a peek into the larger command climate there is in the Navy - this will help. Silence speaks. Silence backed up with context screams.

No comments: