I get where the guy was coming form. A lot of the cookie cutter training material we receive or have to deliver, frankly, sucks. Keeping a bunch of soldiers engaged in stuff that's more likely to make them nod off is a challenge. I imagine it's the same in the U.S. armed forces. He was trying, in good faith I believe, to make the material interesting enough that the troops would listen.

With that said, he still screwed up- good as his intentions were, his judgement sucked.

Whether we like it or not we're forced to operate as armed forces that at least to a certain extent reflect the values of the societies we served. The way these videos come across easily conveys an abuse of his authority as XO, getting his sailors to perform this stuff. He also broke the cardinal rule of screwing around as a troop- never commit to video anything you wouldn't bring home to show the family. Amongst peers it wouldn't have been a big deal, but he's the XO; the right hand of God on a naval vessel, and he has to not just set the example of what he expects from his troops, but exemplify it. In this case it's gone farther to that, and he's brought his unit and his service into disrepute. His career's sunk; he's been yanked from command. Hopefully they'll still find a useful spot for him in the navy, but that said I don't think there's any shortage of good naval aviators waiting to fill the vacancy this will leave. It's an unfortunate but necessary instance of having to use someone's mistake to reaffirm certain basic lines in the sand and to deter others from potentially screwing up worse in future.

Like I tell my guys- everything you do in your professional capacity, subject it to the YouTube test. If you wouldn't want it on YouTube with your name on it, you need to at least give it a sober second thought. It might still be a good idea and necessary, but public perception counts these days. There'd better be a damned compelling reason to do something that will not go over well when it gets out.