Join the Navy and see yourself made a laughingstock. How's that unit cohesion thing work?

The captain of the USS Enterprise (not the starship), Owen Honors, has reportedly been temporarily relieved of his command because of the controversy over the stupid and raunchy videos he produced and broadcast to the ship in 2006 and 2007.

I don't know why this is happening only now, three and four years later; the offending videos had been seen by thousands on board while the carrier was on two six-month Middle East deployments. It may have something to do with the beginning of our finally disabling DADT, although the videos were arguably equally offensive to women, who are allowed in the navy - even if they're free to be asked and tell. In any event, Captain Honors will not be in command of the Enterprise and its compliment of nearly 6000 men and women (both het and homo) when it leaves for Afghanistan this month.

While looking online for images of queerdom in the Navy I came across this intriguing 1918 poster by queer artist Frank Xavier Leyendecker; he was doing his part for the war effort in the way he knew best, eroticizing the product with his illustrations.

I have a passion for history, and I just couldn't drop this image. I decided to use it as an excuse to give a tiny bit more context to the continuing nonsense coming from supporters of those who are still scared witless there might be homos in the military.

F.X. Leyendecker's brother, Joseph Christian, was an equally-skilled illustrator, and equally homo. I used one of his illustrations in a post I written two years back, also grumpy.

J.C. also admired the navy:

[top image from Joan Thewlis' photostream; image at bottom form bilerico]