Enterprise Deploys without Lewd Video Captain
Updated 2:21 p.m. ET
The Navy is preventing a former commander of the USS Enterprise from retiring from the service until officials can finish an investigation into the showing of lewd videos on the ship.
It is the second known personnel action taken in the case in which videos with anti-gay slurs, profanity and suggestive shower scenes were shown to the crew in 2006 and 2007.
Officials indefinitely deferred the planned Feb. 1 retirement of Rear Adm. Lawrence Rice, top officer on the ship during part of that time, and assigned him to Fleet Forces Command, which is handling the probe, Rear Adm. Dennis Moynihan, a Navy spokesman, said Thursday. Rice had been working at Joint Forces Command and had been scheduled to transition to retirement.
The move follows last week's decision to relieve Capt. Owen Honors of his command of the Enterprise and transfer him to an administrative job. Honors produced, starred in and showed the video on ship "movie nights" as a morale booster while he was second-in-command on the carrier. He later returned to the ship as commander.
The probe is looking into actions by Honors and also into who among his superiors knew of the videos and what they did about them at the time. Rice commanded the Enterprise from December 2004 to May 2007; Rear Adm. Ron Horton commanded the ship from mid-May 2007 to May 2010. Horton is still on active duty and so remains available to cooperate with the investigation.
Meanwhile Thursday, the Enterprise deployed from Norfolk, Va. with Honors staying home and Capt. Dee L. Mewbourne at the helm.
Mewbourne said he talked to the crew about the ship's former commander. He said they didn't like the circumstances of the change in command but they're now focused on the future. The ship is headed to support troop operations in Afghanistan.
The Navy is investigating bawdy, sexually themed videos Honors produced and showed to crew members in 2006 and 2007.
Pictures: Navy Captain Owen Honors' Lewd Videos
Ex-Enterprise Sailor Defends Videos, Captain
Honors was relieved of his command earlier this month and assigned to onshore administrative duties. His naval career is likely over. A top admiral says he's "lost confidence" in Honors' ability to "lead effectively."
Pictures: Navy Captain Owen Honors' Lewd Videos
Ex-Enterprise Sailor Defends Videos, Captain
No leaders in senior posts at the Pentagon and in the Navy could explain why, if Honors' conduct was so questionable, he was promoted after the videos aired in 2006 and 2007 and reprimanded only after the offensive videos became public.
It was unclear when the videos were aired. Officials said they were trying to determine who among the senior Navy leadership knew about the videos when they were shown repeatedly to thousands of crew members aboard the nation's oldest nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.