Military Men and Women on "Carrier"

I'm sitting down to write out a review of Friday night's "Battlestar Galactica" and last night's "is she a Walker or isn't she" non-surprise on "Brothers & Sisters".  But I stayed up late to watch the first installment of PBS's new documentary series "Carrier" and that's really all I want to write about.

I've never spent that much time thinking about the intricacies of military life and I don't know if it's because I've always known that the armed forces aren't for me or because I'm gay. I've just never thought about it really. I recognize that thousands of men and women protect us every day, and I'm very thankful for it, but truthfully I have no idea just how it all works.

But the first two hours of "Carrier" gave me a much better understanding at least of what takes place on an aircraft carrier carrying 5,000 military men and women. Filmed in 2005 aboard the USS Nimitz during its six-month deploy to the Persian Gulf, the film gets at some of the day-to-day operations of the ship and the mundane and sometimes tedious work of the mostly Navy crew. The show isn't non-stop action with missles and gunshots and bombing, but it is always interesting and at times quite revealing about what is really expected of our military. We see people hoping for promotions--some attaining them and some not. We watch crew members get chastised for poor performance and for drinking too much. We watch people cook and clean and argue and we fly with others as they speed across the sky in jets.

The people on "Carrier" range from the seasoned captain of the ship to the grease monkeys below deck who haul cable all day. We see studly navy and marine pilots who have deployed four and five times, and then 19 and 20 year-old newbies who just want to get back home to their families. And everyone on the ship tends to see the USS Nimitz differently: as a big high school, a regular desk job, a fraternity, a floating small town.

The show also offers some interesting reflections on the war in Iraq as well as commenting on social class in America and how it affects the general makeup of our armed forces along with race, gender, and age. And all of this isn't coming from talking heads--no, these are the men and women out there fighting for us day-to-day.  All of the show feels real, if not abbreviated.  At one point there is even a gay joke or two at the expense of the air force--it flashes by quick as lightning and nearly under someone's breath, but to hear it isn't surprising.

Some of the stories on "Carrier" are uniquely personal while others seem to hinge on the same kind of job doldrums that any of us face every day in the non-military world. The film still has 8 hours left to go and I can't wait for next Sunday's second installment. "Carrier" is a well-crafted, riveting look at life at sea for these people. It's hard not to watch the show and remember that every member of our armed forces isn't just a name or even a face, but a living breathing person out there leading a life just as we do.

Comments

[recovery home]

Interesting! i like to have this want coz i know its very informative,keep up the good work.

cletsey