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.
