U.S. Navy to Probe Controversial Carrier Videos

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Navy will investigate "inappropriate" videos produced on the nuclear aircraft carrier USS Enterprise, which among other scenes show simulated masturbation and women showering together.

A report on the videos came over the weekend in the Virginian-Pilot newspaper, which serves Norfolk where the carrier is based. The newspaper also made video excerpts available on its website (http://pilotonline.com/).

The excerpts show female sailors pretending to wash one another in a shower on the carrier and in other scenes "sailors parade in drag, use anti-gay slurs, and simulate masturbation and a rectal exam," the newspaper said on its site.

Shown in a number of the excerpts is Owen Honors, then the executive officer on the Enterprise and now a Navy captain and its commander, the Virginian-Pilot said.

Honors "masterminded" the 2006-2007 production of the videos, which were shown aboard the ship, the newspaper said.

The videos "are clearly inappropriate," Navy Commander Chris Sims of the U.S. Fleet Forces Command said in a statement responding to the report.

Production of such videos was not acceptable when they were made and is "not acceptable in today's Navy. The Navy does not endorse or condone these kinds of actions," Sims said.

"U.S. Fleet Forces Command has initiated an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the production of these videos," the statement said.

A Navy spokesman declined to speculate on Sunday as to the possible outcome and effects of the investigation. (Reporting by Jerry Norton; Editing by Peter Bohan and Eric Walsh)