Nobody spins a yarn like a sailor. Generations of young men and women have joined the US Navy to serve their country and to see the world. Somewhere between the boredom and adventure of life at sea, many have also found the stories of their lifetimes.
Riding the wave of national interest in the Navy being generated by the 10-part PBS series CARRIER, Thirteen/WNET and WLIW21 have collaborated to create a multimedia repository for tri-state area sailors to collect and share their own past or present Navy experiences. Whether they’re tragic or trivial, from the bridge or the boiler room, we welcome all remembrances of life aboard America’s fighting ships.
I am delighted that you are showing a documentary on the USS Nimitz. My son Sean, serves on the Nimitz, and the 6 month deployment to the persian gulf was his first overseas deployment. My wife Mariya & I, flew to San Diego to see the Nimith leave on this deployment,April 2007, and returned to San Diego
to welcome the Nimitz, and its crew home. I am so PROUD of my son Sean, for his service to his country.
Respectfully James Brady.Father of The Brady Bunch
Tracey. Caroline.Trina.Emma Kathleen. Sean.
5 Daughters & 1 Son. Everyone a gift from God.
I was lucky to be part of an educators’ sneak preview one evening. Over the past 15 years, I am highly confident that I’ve seen just about every aircraft carrier documentary there is to see. So what’s special about this one?
For starters, the writing and camera crew are top-notch. The editing is also excellent, which is really crucial in any production but especially a long series like this.
Most important, the production crew was aboard the ship for the entire deployment, and focussed on the lives of the men and women who make this awesome machine work, rather than the usual “gee whiz” commentary about the technology. To be sure, tech junkies will get their fill watching the most awesome warship in the history of seapower strut her stuff. But the crew’s the heart and soul of the warship, and we get to hear their stories. I can’t wait for the premiere!
My husband is active duty navy. He is currently on a 7 month deployment. His ship is engaged in daily combat operations. He has been in for 14 years and he has many different career path’s in the Navy. When he first started out he was on the carriers but then changed career path’s. Although enlisted my husband always had dreams of flying and was able to do so as an FE on the PE Orion and as an air crewman on a cod. As exciting as it is being on an air craft carrier is, it also gets old really quickly. Working 12 hour shifts every day until you get a few days off for a port call which can happen as often as every 30 days or so, but my husband’s ship has missed their last 2 port calls so I can imagine they are all just itching to get off. There are a lot of exciting things that he has been able to witness and do. But as with anything he misses us, and can’t wait to get home.
This sounds like a fabulous series. But why do you cram it all into one week? Why not a series of Sundays? As with the Ken Burns war series, it was overload to pack it all into one week. It’s one thing to set aside a series of Sundays, quite another to find time every night in one week.
Thankyou so much for putting this series on TV, my son is an airman on the ship.
Given that we have a nuclear power plant on the Nimitz with 5,000 crew, why are we so concerned in building and operating nuclear power plants on USA soil?
great series – the sound track is annoying
Not sure why this is on PBS, whose mission is apparently to “report on stories no one else is telling”. Unfortunately this run of the mill series, a cross between a reality show, and history channel glorification of arms and armaments, gives us a view of military life all to common and readily available on commercial stations – just longer and without ads. Lacking in depth and featuring a sound track ripped straight from a pentagon promo, this is a sorry example of pandering to criticism from the far right, and does not belong on public television.
Great Series, My son aspires to be a pilot someday. Thank you for the realism the series portrays. I’m
planning on purchasing the series.
Wonderful series. One of the best I have ever watched. Thank you.
I am dismayed about the ignorance displayed by so many of the officers about how they are preserving democracy by fighting the terrorists and otherwise keeping the world safe. I can’t tell whether this series is a satire similar to “Team America” or those officers really are that clueless about U.S. history and foreign policy.
“Carrier” is an engrossing exposition of an incredibly complex system.
The production is superb, especially the editing, which captures the dense web of relationships between patriotism, growing up, mentoring, love, lust, marriage, camaraderie, discipline, failure, abuse, accomplishment, class, race, friendship, faith and fear. The music is absolutely appropriate for both the subject and the ages of the seamen.
Does it belong on PBS? Why not? It’s just as “real” as “Live from Lincoln Center”, less propagandistic than “Frontline”, and it’s characters have more range than a year’s worth of “Masterpiece Theaters”. Is it an infomercial for the defense industry? Only if you turn off the sound and don’t listen to the lives of the shipmates. And only if you think that wishing bad things go away will make them go away.
As to the the decision to air the series over 5 consecutive days, instead of 5 weeks: although it is inconvenient, the schedule imposes a continuity that reinforces the story threads.
In all, important and totally worth the ten hours in front of the television.
The previous writer so well summed up this incredibly good production. The lives of many of these young seaman often brought me close to tears. The Navy budget is worth every penny, if only for their secondary role of helping young people who were on the verge of falling off a cliff, find some footing in their lives at sea. This should be aired again soon and required viewing for all who blithly dismiss anything military.
I am to the Left. I never have and never will hold a gun. I’m not a fan of military power. HOWEVER, this series showed the Navy as a job–a job that may very well save the lives of a number of people who don’t know where to turn. It made me think that perhaps one of the most difficult parts of the navy (along with deployment, which can’t change) is the constant moving of one’s family. If the military would allow people to settle into communities then maybe that wife who had a miscarriage would have had more than one person to turn to in that emergency. Seems to me that’s an easy policy to fix in helping to create a better a work-life balance.
I served 8 years in the Navy, 4 active and 4 active reserves. This is about a real as it gets when it comes to the navy. My wife worried i would want to join again after seeing this series. But to her delight i have served my country and don’t want to go back to 7-8 month deployments. Plus i remember the long days out to sea and the short port calls. If you haven’t been in the Miltary and want to get a taste of a deployment in the Navy. Well this here is the best way to see it without doing it.
Thank you for doing a series like this. I was very much glued each night. My Husband is a Merchant Mariner, and I taped it for him, as he is away too. I empathised with the families. I have great admiration for all those who serve, in every way. Please give us more series like this on the other branches of the Military.
Thanks for airing this! Our son is on a carrier in the Navy and is a green shirt. We are very proud of him and all the other sailors aboard his ship. This program tells it like it is.
Nothing against the Navy, but I found the programs very boring and listless, like being becalmed. I could not finish watching all the segments.
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What do you think ?
“Equations are more important to me, because politics is for the present, but an equation is something for eternity.” – Albert Einstein !
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“A person starts to live when he can live outside himself.” – Albert Einstein !
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“One had to cram all this stuff into one’s mind for the examinations, whether one liked it or not. This coercion had such a deterring effect on me that, after I had passed the final examination, I found the consideration of any scientific problems distasteful to me for an entire year.” – Albert Einstein !
what is the point of this quote ?
“Great spirits have often encountered violent opposition from weak minds.” – Albert Einstein !
what is the point of this quote ?
We should be meticulous and discriminating in all the information we give. We should be especially aware in giving advice that we would not dream up of following ourselves. Most of all, we ought to refrain from giving recommendation which we don’t imitate when it damages those who transport us at our word.
Very nice site!
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