Navy punishes 4 officers in video scandal

WASHINGTON, March 19 (UPI) -- The Navy has censured four top officers over risque videos shown aboard the USS Enterprise, effectively ending their military careers.

Navy Secretary Ray Mabus issued the letters Friday to Capt. Owen Honors; Capt. John Dixon, who succeeded Honors as executive officer; and to the carrier's commanders during Honors' tenure, Rear Adm. Larry Rice and Rear Adm. Ron Horton, The Virginian-Pilot of Norfolk, Va., reported.

The punishments were recommended by Adm. John Harvey Jr., head of the Fleet Forces Command, who ordered the investigation.

The letters, which cannot be appealed, are expected to bar future promotions for the officers and drive them out of the Navy. They also may lose rank and retirement pay.

The videos, which Honors played for the crew as entertainment from late 2005 through 2007, showed sailors pretending to masturbate and eat feces, in sexually suggestive situations and made anti-gay slurs.

Honors was the ship's executive officer, its second-in-command. He became commanding officer last year but was fired after the videos were revealed.

The Enterprise left Norfolk in January for a deployment of at least six months.