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Posted
by Sean Meade at
5/6/2008 9:17 AM CDT
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Well, I did end up watching all 10 hours of Carrier. I feared I wouldn't get to see it all (because Thursday night I went to Iron Man), but discovered that all of the episodes are available to watch over the web on the Carrier site.
So, in this post, I want to link to some posts on other sites that I saw, give a few of my final thoughts, and point you to the best parts of the series if you want to watch just some of it.
First of all, my colleague, Michael Bruno, had a post where he discussed the military's attempts at image control and made specific reference to Carrier.
Some high-level U.S. Navy officials have apparently been anxious about the PBS series about life aboard a U.S. aircraft carrier .... I recently heard a very senior admiral discuss how the chief of naval operations was bracing other admirals for the series, and why – despite its warts and all – the documentary eventually could help recruiting efforts. How so? In the ethos of Web-life, the series offers more of a transparent view of life aboard a flattop – and future, raised-with-Internet sailors have to be recruited on those terms.
Information Dissemination picked up on this same issue by pointing to a Navy web site that gives the official Navy response to Carrier. ID feels strongly that this site, Perspectives on Nimitz: Unscripted, is 'embarrassing' and a 'blunder'. I don't agree with that strong response. While I agree with his view that more open communication, like Destroyermen and Carrier, is the best way to represent the Navy, I think it's still ok for the Navy to provide official commentary, as long as they are not seeking somehow to cover-up or brush up the unflattering parts.
David Axe, of course, loves the openness of Carrier:
Navy: relax. This show makes you look good, because it makes you look real.
Finally, in terms of linking to other sites, Information Dissemination posts his review of Carrier. In general he liked the openness and realness. Interestingly, the thing he didn't like the most was the music. For my part, I thought they went out of their way to find indie songs that none of us would know, but that was ok. Maybe it's cheaper to get the rights.
One of the things that made an impression on me while watching Carrier was the big difference between enlisted and commissioned personnel. The enlisted sailors seemed to have a lot more trouble with being in the Navy, and with their life direction in general. But most of that could be their place in life: young, middle or lower class, little experience, few options. If you made a documentary of that sector of the population and held it alongside the sailors in Carrier, I bet you'd see even more relational craziness, more aimlessness. Clearly, plenty of enlisted sailors benefit from their time in the Navy.
I close with an abbreviated episode guide, pointing out what I think a typical reader of Ares might enjoy watching. There are no specific links to specific episodes or chapters, so you'll have to find your way from the Full Episodes page.
Episode 2 "Controlled Chaos"
Most of this episode which is basically an introduction to Carrier Flight Ops.
Episode 5 "Show of Force"
Combat flight operations, though no bombs were ultimately dropped, much to the frustration of most of the pilots. Something interesting in this episode is the Nugget (pilot on first deployment) who fails to refuel and has to divert to a ground strip in Baghdad. He subsequently comes under review.
Episode 6 "Monotony"
This is the episode to watch if you want to see a racist redneck from Jay, Oklahoma wash out of the Navy.
Episode 7 'Rites of Passage"
The tensest part of the whole mini-series: landing in the dark on high seas with a pitching deck (mostly the last two chapters).
Episode 9 "Get Home-itis"
The sacrifices made by sailors and their families are tremendous, especially for those who are mothers and fathers. To be away from your family for six months at a time is shocking to everyone.
Episode 10 "Full Circle"
Continued tearful reunions.
Update: Welcome Instapundit readers and thanks, Glenn, for the link.
(1) Living Conditions - no off-ship berthing tax-free reimbursement while in-port (BAQ/VHA or whatever it is called now) unless one is married or commissioned. They make mortgage payments and I live on ship?
(2) Living Conditions - no tax-free ration reimbursement unless one is married or commissioned
(3) Mickey Mouse Rules that change constantly. For example, during my second WestPac the 'rules' for damp shower towels hanging changed several times ... a damp towel smells interesting when a lifer Sr Chief orders it placed in a locker ... it smells like a lack of common sense. A corpsman lost Sr Chief's shot record shortly before the Medical Officer slapped Sr Chief silly with the clue-bat
(4) Living Conditions - weekly Zone Inspections that seem to always leave sailors with bursting bladders becauses heads are secured for Field Day Zone Inspection
(5) I would go on but it's been over ten-years since EAOS (RE1/KBK) . The show did bring back some memories.
Foxtrot-Tango-November :-)
I had great hopes for the series, but in the end it was little more than a military reality show and I could only stomach the first 6 hours. While it was predictable that the series would focus on the pilots, as everyone loves the swashbuckler types, the focus on a few non-rated sailors in rates that do not have the highest standards to enter I found troubling. I do not remember any footage of an officer being asked what sort of family background they had, but the producers of the series seem to have a fetish for illustrating how enlisted men come from the poor, uneducated masses with broken homes. Heck, the V2 Division officer bluntly stated in the first show or two that the sailors that end up as Aviation Boatswainsmates (AB) were ABs because they didnt qualify for anything else. Had they bothered to feature sailors that work down in the Intermediate Maintenance Facility or reactor spaces, I think the perception of sailors and navy life would have been significantly different.
As an ex-enlisted I have a comment for the one female pilot that said something along the lines of, &everybody else exists so that I can fly& While I expect that sort of tripe from some officers, your drivel was especially tiresome. No Maam, the ship and the sailors that work on that ship exists for one reason and one reason only the defense of our country. You are merely another cog in the machine. The poor mess cranks working 18 hours a day cleaning the galley is just important as you for without that poor overwork, harassed bugger disease could run rampant and youd end up staining your pretty flight suit. One cog fails, the whole machine fails. One of the reasons I got out of nine years, despite being a first class, routinely counseled that I should submit an LDO package and had selected for Chief was to not have to deal with condescending jerks like you. (&and everything RM3 Friskers wrote& and there was no way I was going to be the father I wanted to be and be at sea 6 plus months a year)
supported THEIR ideas
got out AFTER nine years
It is the engineer in me coming out, not the ex-enlisted.
Surprised PBS didn't capture an accidental discharge of a fly boy sidearm the Ready Room.
A better analogy would be the Army's helio squadron operations; the operation and maintenance personnel and not the aircrew. The navy equivalent to the organization structure is evident during casualties. Just as every marine is a rifleman first, every sailor is a fireman first. I have no doubt that even that racist nub that got the boot, instantly turned into another person whenever there was a casualty (fire, flooding i.e. things that can sink the ship). It really is something to see, especially on a submarine; everyone knows what to do and just does it.
In a supermarket near the Kings Bay sub base there was an electrical fire in the deli. The store manager and employees stood around doing nothing. A Navy Chief, who just happened to be in the store, immediately took charge at the scene, directing the store manager to call the fire department and grabbed some other sailors in the store to secure power and put out the fire. There was minimal damage thanks to the sailors.