Pretty as a picture.

The Pentagon is a serious place. 

That fact  makes this prank even more hysterical.  What I like best about this story is not just the prank -- which is epic -- but the description of the guys who were part of it.  The subject of the picture was described in his Naval Academy yearbook as someone who  "never let academic problems interfere with his two favorite pastimes, drinking beer in dives and playing the ponies." The office where the pranksters worked -- which included British and Canadian officers -- sounds like a very cool place: I wonder how many Pentagon offices have their own beer fridge? (It was the Brits and Canadians who were responsible for actually hanging the picture.)

I can understand why the Pentagon took the picture down: you don't want to encourage people to just  hang things on the public corridors.* Still, it might have been nice to allow this to stay a little longer. 

In memory, not of Ensign Hord, but of a few Merry Military Pranksters.

*Unlike, say, at NASA.  The Rocket Scientist once went around posting Demotivational posters on the billboards around his building, which were usually filled with large posters about current or recently completed projects.