Anyone watching "Carrier" on PBS?

dudemar · May 2, 2008

Awesome documentary. I loved every minute of it, all 10 hours. For some reason I enjoyed watching the enlisted men more than the officers. I feel that my job is similar to theirs: thankless bosses, a**hol3 coworkers and
little (if no) reward at the end of a hard day's work. I am very impressed with how they pulled this documentary off.

Anybody else like this show?

Burgess · May 2, 2008

Yes !

I watched 3 hours of the series. (out of 10 total episodes)

Was very well done ! :thumbsup:

Amazing they've accomplished all this withOUT a Narrator !

My only "complaint" is . . . .

Too much MUSIC !

Waaaayyy too LOUD music !

But that's just me. I'm 54 years old.

Younger people, i'm sure, probably like that stuff.

BTW, while watching, i was wondering . . . .

Can a Carrier actually Launch and Retrieve aircraft

at the Same Time ?

Thank you for any info you can provide here.

Oh, and to dudemar --

Thank you for starting this thread !

:twothumbs
_

Black Rose · May 2, 2008

I only caught one episode this week...the one where they were launching and retrieving aircraft in rough seas.

As if landing on a carrier wasn't difficult already :ohgeez:

DonShock · May 2, 2008

I've been watching it on and off. But I've been disappointed with a lot of it. I don't know if it's a real difference in the people or just the way the material was chosen for airing, but I didn't see much of the pride and professionalism that I remember from my service days. Granted it's been 10 years since I got out and I was on submarines, not an aircraft carrier. But I can't believe the people are that different. Way too much of the time is spent focusing on race, religion, fighting, drinking, complaining, etc. Then they continually come back to "Is the war right or wrong?" My experience was that you were too busy with your job to spend much time on such issues. The only real example of professionalism that stood out for me was the drive of the one woman who was hard charging to qualify to lead the flight deck plane crew and got sidetracked for scutwork duties. She was more representative of the people I knew in the Navy than the guy kicked out for racism or the one going back to civilian life that they spent so much time on.

LukeA · May 2, 2008

Burgess said:
BTW, while watching, i was wondering . . . .
Can a Carrier actually Launch and Retrieve aircraft at the Same Time ?

IIRC, they don't.

powernoodle · May 2, 2008

Very enjoyable. But being PBS, it seemed that they were magically unable to find but a few lower rates (Seaman, Petty Officers) who didn't have a drug addict mother and who could not figure out why we are in Iraq. I suspect that was not a representative sample. Still, quite a good taxpayer-funded series.

dudemar · May 2, 2008

No problem Burgess!

While I didn't like the music (I'm 27), I feel it complimented the program well. Admittedly I liked a few songs, like "Play" by Flunk at the end of episode 5 (when they were jumping in the ocean to take a swim). Sadly this song was originally on the OC (cringes, ugh). I really like the opening song, though. You're right, it was amazingly done without narration!

Regarding recovery and launching, yep, it can be done!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aircraft_carrier#Angled_decks

I am especially proud of seeing these people on the aircraft carriers, because I was born at Naval Hospital Yokosuka Japan, homeport to USS Kitty Hawk (America's only permanently forward-deployed aircraft carrier). I was an Army brat, but I feel I have a little "squid" inside me too.

My aunt and great uncle were sailors, after all. :grin2:

Did anybody relate to any of the sailors/marines? I identified most with the marine who was promoted on ship to Gunny, and had been left at a carnival by his parents at the age of 3. He lead a tough life, but all the while remains faithful to his workers and relentlessly pursues his goals and dreams.

dudemar · May 2, 2008

DonShock said:
I've been watching it on and off. But I've been disappointed with a lot of it. I don't know if it's a real difference in the people or just the way the material was chosen for airing, but I didn't see much of the pride and professionalism that I remember from my service days. Granted it's been 10 years since I got out and I was on submarines, not an aircraft carrier. But I can't believe the people are that different. Way too much of the time is spent focusing on race, religion, fighting, drinking, complaining, etc. Then they continually come back to "Is the war right or wrong?" My experience was that you were too busy with your job to spend much time on such issues. The only real example of professionalism that stood out for me was the drive of the one woman who was hard charging to qualify to lead the flight deck plane crew and got sidetracked for scutwork duties. She was more representative of the people I knew in the Navy than the guy kicked out for racism or the one going back to civilian life that they spent so much time on.

I guess one has to keep in mind it's just a tv show, and its intent to keep us entertained (and educated because it's PBS). Also, there were only 30 or so folks interviewed out of a +5,000 crew throughout the program. It's still a tough life on a carrier, though.

While I'm not in the Navy (never was in the military), it's funny you mention the professionalism because all my coworkers (+20 yrs old) still act like kids. They talk on their cellphone on work time, if you **** them off they'll key your car, etc. Petty bull**** like that speaks volumes about my (today's) generation, and generations thereafter. :ohgeez:

If it helps any, at the end of the program the ship's CMDCM (he's been in since '81 I believe, the website said 27 years) said it was one of his greatest pleasures to serve that cruises' crew, and it almost made him cry to see how hard working and dedicated they were. I guess that's the most important thing.:shrug:

Uncle Bob · May 2, 2008

I just replied to this thread with some fine comments but when I hit the reply button it said I was not logged in and they disappeared. This has happened more than once and is frustrating. I enjoyed "Carrier." That's all I can say. I hope this shows up in the thread at least.

dudemar · May 2, 2008

Uncle Bob said:
I just replied to this thread with some fine comments but when I hit the reply button it said I was not logged in and they disappeared. This has happened more than once and is frustrating. I enjoyed "Carrier." That's all I can say. I hope this shows up in the thread at least.

That's exactly what happened to me just now!:sick2: One thing I like to do is highlight all my text and "copy" it, just in case. If you care to try again, I would love to read your comments.:twothumbs

Thanks for the reply!

Uncle Bob · May 5, 2008

Dudemar,

I was going to say that "Carrier" reflected my experiences working as an Army medical lab tech in a general hospital as well as a field hospital back in the mid-sixties. There were troops that were:

A. "gung-ho"

B. those of us who just wanted to be good soldiers doing our jobs responsibly and

C. the whiners and slackers

My hat is off to any unit that can accomplish its mission knowing that there are so many personalities to deal with.

Lightmeup · May 5, 2008

I have watched most of it, and I must say that I have not found it to be particularly interesting. The thing that surprised me the most is the general low quality of the enlisted personnel. If you go by this show you cannot but conclude that a major proportion of the enlisted folks:

1. Come from broken homes
2. Are children of drug addicts and/or alcoholics
3. Are there only because they passed some military-designed GED test, not HS grads
4. If not for the military they would likely be unemployed, homeless, in jail, drug-addicted, or alcoholic
5. If employed, they would be lucky to handle a job in a fast food joint
6. Are not emotionally capable of successfully handling a marriage

Instead of the impression I previously had that these folks are patriotic model citizens, I came away with the feeling that they are clueless and only in the military because have no other viable options. I thought the show was depressing and made the military look even lamer than I previously thought. Again, I'm not saying all of the enlistees give this impression, but way too many of them do.

Uncle Bob · May 6, 2008

Lightmeup said:
Instead of the impression I previously had that these folks are patriotic model citizens, I came away with the feeling that they are clueless and only in the military because have no other viable options. I thought the show was depressing and made the military look even lamer than I previously thought. Again, I'm not saying all of the enlistees give this impression, but way too many of them do.

There certainly are plenty of clueless people shown in the series. Did the producers have a hidden intent to show these opposed to those with sharper minds? We can't be sure. Maybe they thought clueless, complaining sailors were more interesting than those who weren't.

Burgess · May 14, 2008

Haven't seen 'em all, but caught 2 more episodes last Sunday.

Tell me . . . .

Did they ever find / recover the poor fellow who fell off the Princeton ?

_

dudemar · May 14, 2008

Sadly no, they didn't. However their valiant efforts really puts meaning into the words "leave no man behind".

Stereodude · May 15, 2008

Lightmeup said:
I have watched most of it, and I must say that I have not found it to be particularly interesting. The thing that surprised me the most is the general low quality of the enlisted personnel. If you go by this show you cannot but conclude that a major proportion of the enlisted folks:

1. Come from broken homes
2. Are children of drug addicts and/or alcoholics
3. Are there only because they passed some military-designed GED test, not HS grads
4. If not for the military they would likely be unemployed, homeless, in jail, drug-addicted, or alcoholic
5. If employed, they would be lucky to handle a job in a fast food joint
6. Are not emotionally capable of successfully handling a marriage

Instead of the impression I previously had that these folks are patriotic model citizens, I came away with the feeling that they are clueless and only in the military because have no other viable options. I thought the show was depressing and made the military look even lamer than I previously thought. Again, I'm not saying all of the enlistees give this impression, but way too many of them do.

What? A negative view of the people in the U.S. military on PBS? That's impossible!!! :laughing:

What's next, you're going to tell me that the sky is blue and the sun rises every morning? :crackup:

They producers told the story they wanted to tell, and they found and followed the people around who allowed them to tell it. With 5000 people on the boat finding 30 of them that fit that mold doesn't seem to hard. :sigh:

Omega Man · May 15, 2008

I saw a preview before it aired and thought it looked great. I caught 2 episodes one weekend when they played like 10 of them in a row, and I like it.
The reason I like it, is I'm a damn nut for the new Battlestar Galactica, and it reminds me of that alot. As a matter of fact, BSG was made to mirror life on an aircraft carrier. So Carrier to me is basically BSG, but on Earth(that's gonna change though Ooooo!) and without the hotty Cylons.

Anyone watching "Carrier" on PBS?

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