{"id":73280,"date":"2022-10-20T15:54:43","date_gmt":"2022-10-20T15:54:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/uncategorized\/2022\/10\/20\/the-navy-let-cher-perform-on-ship-in-89-its-regretted-it-ever-since\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T14:34:55","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T14:34:55","slug":"the-navy-let-cher-perform-on-ship-in-89-its-regretted-it-ever-since","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/off-duty\/military-culture\/2022\/10\/20\/the-navy-let-cher-perform-on-ship-in-89-its-regretted-it-ever-since\/","title":{"rendered":"The Navy let Cher perform on ship in \u201889. It\u2019s regretted it ever since"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The USS Missouri<\/a> has borne witness to some of modern military history\u2019s most monumental events, but its role in one affair involving Cher gyrating in a fishnet G-string left the Navy blushing over the \u201cMighty Mo.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1945, after the mammoth 45,000-ton battleship helped defeat the Axis powers in hallowed places such as Iwo Jima and Okinawa, Japanese foreign minister Mamoru Shigemitsu and his glum-faced delegation surrendered aboard the ship<\/a>. In 1950, it was the first American battleship to slice through Korean waters<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And in 1989, the Navy, flush with the notion that a singer, songwriter and actress of Cher\u2019s caliber would aid in recruiting numbers, permitted the singer to film the music video of her latest hit, \u201cIf I Could Turn Back Time,\u201d on the storied ship in front of throngs of eager, cheering sailors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video \u201cwas an opportunity for us to get national exposure and reach the lucrative recruitable youth audience that watch MTV,\u201d one Navy official told the Washington Post<\/a> in 1990.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One would bet that the Navy wishes it could \u201cTurn Back Time\u201d on that decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the Navy had reviewed the music video\u2019s story line \u2014 Cher\u2019s producers had originally proposed a video about a sailor who gets a \u201cDear John\u201d letter aboard ship \u2014 whoever approved of the recruiting plan clearly didn\u2019t know much about Cher and her zany love to dare to bare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Navy had neglected to ask about one crucial tidbit: exactly what (or if) the songstress was planning to wear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They assumed (and you know how that goes) that she would be sporting a Navy coverall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, at 2 a.m., Cher rolled up to the Mighty Mo wearing what can only be described as two slips of black fabric covering the bare essentials, a black and gold belt holding up approximately nothing, and a \u201ctransparent net body stocking and two posterior tattoos the size of pancakes,\u201d wrote the Los Angeles Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n