PBS Carrier Series: A story of extreme careers
I’m hooked on the new PBS mini-series, Carrier, featuring portraits of men and women on board the USS Nimitz, an aircraft carrier on a Middle East cruise.
Although I’m hooked, I find the series painful to watch. While some sailors clearly love their jobs, and we often see the crew members having fun, you can tell they’re living in a pressure cooker. I feel claustrophobic just watching sometimes. As one crew member says, it’s like being in a prison without actually being in a prison. Quarters are close, privacy is scarce, noise is constant, and food is bad.
What bothers me the most is the message that gets repeated over and over, probably unintentionally. For so many people, one mistake can ruin your career and devastate your life. We see Airman Chris Altice, a formerly carefree twenty-year-old, soon to become a father after one careless night with his then girlfriend. Altice has a Myspace account now, so we know he was honorably discharged from the Navy, dumped by his girl friend and still finding his way in the civilian world.
A senior enlisted man (E-6, like a sergeant in the army or air force) gets busted for having sex with a fellow sailor when both were returning to the ship after an alcoholic shore leave. Now he’s on restrictions and facing a ruined career, after winning awards and anticipated a bright career of command.
A junior pilot runs out of fuel, is forced to land at Baghdad airport and blows a tire on his $60 million aircraft. Now he’s grounded, awaiting the outcome of some sort of board hearing with admirals.
In civilian or military, business and professional lives, so much of what happens gets determined by a single incident. One driving mistake (or one decision to drive home from a party after a few drinks). One casual date that gets careless.
As I get older, I must admit I resist the reality of the life-changing power of a single minute. You have to accept responsibility for creating a baby, but you can turn that outcome into a positive. But should one night of consensual sex destroy a career? You can argue about the value of deterrence. You can say, “One episode we know about may hide many we don’t.”
But I’m not so sure.
i so enjoyed the carrier series. i cried right along with them. what sacrifice. at my house everything stopped for this show. my husband put the kids in bed. so enjoyed it. gave me a glimpse of what they do for the country.
I, too, am hooked. “Carrier” is a show that definitely is a must-see, not only in terms of what ‘serving your country’ really means but also as a reflection on who is serving in our military. I found that to be quite profound. Several of the circumstances that led to individuals joining the military left me near tears.
Like the first poster, sometimes, I found the show hard to watch.
Many, many thanks to PBS, the numerous producers and especially the men and women of the U.S. Navy for providing such an unrestricted glimpse into their lives.
I enjoyed the Carrier documentary, too, and thought it was worth ordering the series on DVD. I started watching one night and was hooked. I have a better understanding of what our servicemen and women do and of the great sacrifices they are forced to make for the rest of us. Being in a military family, I do know some, but this series really opened my eyes to a lot of other things. Good job PBS, and thank you.
As for the Chris Altice guy, I know he’s on MySpace.com because I looked him up and added him as a friend. I did that because I was curious to see how he was doing since everyone saw him last on the show, and what his life is like now. I thought he was a really good kid with bad luck, initially because of what I saw on the show, but now I’m not so sure. Reason being, he’s been posting these “bulletins” for everyone to read, some of which were interesting video blog updates about his life and questions from his many “fans” of the show. But then posts one asking people to send money to him via his Paypal account so he can go see his daughter and friends from the USS Nimitz in California. He says only we can send help him get there. Originally, it did say that he would send anyone who made a donation an autographed Carrier poster. He called this whole thing something like “Operation Visit Jeslyn 2008″ or similar. I can’t remember exactly what it said. He has since removed that post and just left the Paypal sign up on his page so people can send him money. He’s got 2 items up for bid on eBay from the show now, also. One is a red jersey, the other is an autographed Carrier poster, personalized to whoever the winning bidder is. Ok, that’s not so bad. But for someone who claims to have been triggered by the show to want to suddenly go see his daughter in California, he then posts a bulletin asking for a “hookup” for a brand new T-Mobile Sidek!ck because his is too old and slow, and then another bulletin about how, much to his dismay, the DC Chili Cookoff was sold out. Not in those exact words, though. What going on here? I thought he really needed money to go see his kid. Does this sound a little strange, like maybe exploitation to anyone else, or is it just me? I don’t want to beat the guy up, but come on… this documentary was on a cruise that took place about 2 1/2 years ago. People are sympathetic, yes, as was I, but he’s a 23 yr old ADULT now. It just seems to me that this might be getting to Mr. Altice’s head and the “milking” has begun.
I think Tanya did the right thing. She settled down with the “other guy” who from what I’ve read is a Church Ministry Leader. This guy is helping Tanya to raise the little girl, and has been for over two years. I think she knew a long time ago what would be best for her and her baby. And that kind of thing happens all the time during deployments, most of us have just haven’t actually seen it until now.
It was a bit interesting to see Chris and the situation he got into. I was 21 years old when my ex said she had a child by me. Only thing that I doubted was that fact that she go married 3-months after she claimed she was pregnent. Now she lives with her husband raising my son. I guess with Tanya and Chris, it was likely to happen anyways. She wanted a better life and security for her child. This does not make one or the other a worse or better person. It’s just the way things happen.
I too enjoyed the series. The main thing that I noticed was the lack of control many of the crew members felt, even regarding small details of their lives. I wonder if anyone else, besides the one “blue” fighter pilot, noticed what a colossal waste of resources takes place in the military on a regular basis? The aircraft carrier isn’t ideal for fighting terrorists- they didn’t drop a single bomb during their two month stint in the Gulf. I was also shocked at the garbage they throw overboard. One thing I would mention- the senior enlisted man only got busted for consensual sex, but the woman did say that she was not certain that it wasn’t rape. She did not want to ruin his career, since she wasn’t certain. My guess is, he took advantage of her.
Excellent point about loss of control. Those in the military know how to work around it. You are SO right about waste of resources, but it’s not just the military. We have huge waste in other areas of government, including the justice system, and also the health care system (“medical industrial complex”). And yes – throwing out the garbage sounds awful.
I’m not so sure we can say there was a problem if they didn’t drop any bombs. They were available and they were a presence. Plus they need to train.
Re the enlisted man: A lot of disciplinary problems seem related to an overly tight ban on alcohol. If they could drink a few beers or glasses of wine on the ship, regardless of aqe, I suspect they’d have fewer problems. The earliest American Navy ships served everyone beer and some foreign countries still do.
Thanks for commenting!