Carrier - A 10 episode PBS Series

[Single Seat]

I understand that the majority of the military IS that age range and are from various backgrounds. What can be frustrating is that when the general population is non-military and has little to no exposure to persons in the military, they see the media portray military personnel as the kid that joined to get out of trouble, or the kid from a broken home. I agree that is very impressive that these people have chosen to join and get themselves on the straight and narrow. However, for someone who is a middle America, college educated person who chooses and works hard to get into the military through OCS, Academy or rotc instead of pursuing a career in something more commercial or "ordinary" (business, etc.) it can be frustrating for people to say "why would you want to do that?" because all they see in the military is the kid from your HS class with failing grades and nowhere else to go.

All that being said, the series has been showing personnel from all walks of life as its progressed so that gripe is gone.

Gripe all you want, it's reality. Go to sea and see for yourself.

 

[Rasczak]

There was some things I saw on that show that confused me. Some of those enlisted women, were HUGE. I'm a little perplexed about that.

 

[Uncle Fester]

Gripe all you want, it's reality. Go to sea and see for yourself.

True dat. Very true. The assclowns like the idiot manchild redneck "racist with black friends" are the 10% of your division you spend 90% of your time on. The secret is not forgetting the 10% that does 90% of the division's work.

(for you math majors - the other 80% are more or less just there...makes it fun at eval-writing time...there's only so many ways you can write "vanilla")

Moving on; does anyone else think a FNAEB on that Rhino guy was kind of harsh for just mis-managing your fuel ladder? I mean, he was a nugget and effed up. Everyone walked away, all it needed was a new tire. Shit happens.

I'm noticing a trend with these stories, though. If they anchor on someone for more than 10 minutes at the start of an episode, something bad's going to happen to them by the end. Mrs Fester watched him talking about safety, trends, grading, being a nugget, etc, and said, "Watch...he'll get FNAEB'ed."

 

[Amall]

There was some things I saw on that show that confused me. Some of those enlisted women, were HUGE. I'm a little perplexed about that.

There are a lot of HUGE enlisted women and men. The navy allows 33% body fat for females (!!!) PT sessions involve a lot of arm circles and head bob push-ups. no worries. these people eventually fail their PRT for the third time and get kicked out.

 

[CodWife]

I think it is actually pretty good. Of course, PBS had to throw in some stupid political stuff that I have NEVER even heard brought up before by anyone that is in the military, I guess it must happen on other fronts..

I think the highlight was when the LT explained a carrier landing. I always wondered what y'all thought it was like. LOL! His quote: "Carrier landing is like having sex during a car wreck. It feels good, but it sure is violent." Have to say, I never thought of it that way before. LOL!

 

[phrogpilot73]

Moving on; does anyone else think a FNAEB on that Rhino guy was kind of harsh for just mis-managing your fuel ladder? I mean, he was a nugget and effed up. Everyone walked away, all it needed was a new tire. Shit happens.

My first thought was, "Man, they're uptight in the jet community." Then I thought "well, we only get one small snippet of the story. This could have been the straw that broke the camels back." We don't know the full story, and this could have merely been an indicator of his previous failures.

 

[FLYTPAY]

My first thought was, "Man, they're uptight in the jet community." Then I thought "well, we only get one small snippet of the story. This could have been the straw that broke the camels back." We don't know the full story, and this could have merely been an indicator of his previous failures.

It was probably the straw but seeing that he is an active duty member, let's give him the courtesy and not speculate. The thing however that did irritate me was how some of the crew were talking about how they "did not know why we are over there" or making other allusions to their opinion of what good and bad foreign policy is. Educate yourself and you will realize that this "war" is a totally different war than what was originally fought in Iraq. Coincidentally, Iraq happens to be in the part of the world where the Muslim extremists are. And finally, you cannot win an insurgent war in a year, it takes lots of time and you need to win the hearts and minds. The female aviator who said she was glad they were not dropping bombs:icon_rage.....well, that is horsecrap.....every time a bomb drops, bad people die and that is why we are there.

 

[whalepelt]

...The female aviator who said she was glad they were not dropping bombs:icon_rage.....well, that is horsecrap.....every time a bomb drops, bad people die and that is why we are there.

I think her point was that it was a sign that things were improving to the point where that level of force wasn't necessary and thus a good thing.

 

[phrogpilot73]

It was probably the straw but seeing that he is an active duty member, let's give him the courtesy and not speculate.

I wasn't intending to, or encouraging speculation. I was merely pointing out that we've only seen a small snippet of him and his life in the squadron. We have no idea what has led up to the FNAEB, and second guessing his command is just as bad as speculating about his performance.

I did get tired of hearing "We haven't dropped anything." While I understand the sentiment (knowing how you'll perform in the big game), it seemed like a lot of the pilots didn't really get the big picture. The simple fact that they're overhead, flying a SOF, or simply trying to help the guys on the ground build their SA, can be more important to the guy on the ground than a big boom. They know they've got someone up on high protecting them. So while they feel as though there's no reason for them being there, the grunts would disagree wholeheartedly. It seems as though they missed that fact.

 

[bluesig1]

While watching the series, has anyone else felt like they picked the most negative people, and with opposing views to policy to put on camera?

 

[Uncle Fester]

The simple fact that they're overhead, flying a SOF, or simply trying to help the guys on the ground build their SA, can be more important to the guy on the ground than a big boom. They know they've got someone up on high protecting them. So while they feel as though there's no reason for them being there, the grunts would disagree wholeheartedly. It seems as though they missed that fact.

Well, nobody ever tells you that on the Boat. Unless you get kicked to a JTAC, all you ever hear is the CAOC, ASOC, etc. And it gets frustrating when you don't get employed. Us up in the Hummer would call up our pointy-nose guys on J-voice just to let them know what we were hearing over the SATCOM and whatnot.

I think the griping wasn't so much that they weren't dropping, but it was everybody else (read: AF) was dropping and they weren't. It's a Zoomie-run air war over there and maybe it's strictly a matter of perception, but seemed like they'd much rather have AF assets dropping than Navy.

Afghanistan was a different story. The Air Wing was much busier over there.

 

[Amall]

While watching the series, has anyone else felt like they picked the most negative people, and with opposing views to policy to put on camera?

yes. i don't understand the liberal aviator at all. Is he just thinking "flying is fun and dropping faux bombs is fun but, I believe in the real thing is unjust" everyday. Seems a little hollow and disconnected to me. Or the enlisted girl who wishes she would have joined the peace corps because she "never thought we'd go to war". what the hell.

 

[Uncle Fester]

Well, the Navy/MC isn't a monolithic bloc of square-jawed right-winger lifers...which is what I think the series was trying to show. People from all over, all kinds of outlooks, backgrounds, problems, goals, etc etc. It's just the crew, talking. It's not a Navy recruiting video.

Incidentally, the discussions I've seen of Carrier on other, non-military message boards have been overwhelmingly positive, both of the show and the crew. People like seeing what everyone is really like, and they're impressed. We who are in look at this kind of show through our own lens and we forget it's very different from the way General Public sees it.

 

[mxracer19]

I whole-heartedly agree with Uncle Fester. While I understand that the people shown are only a small portion of the crew, I find the show extremely interesting. I've been basing most of my stories of the Navy off my cousin over at DLI in Monteray. To see even a small portrayal of Navy ship-life is motivating. Before PLC, I'd thought about joining our blue brethren with aspirations in ATC or working on the flight deck. I wish I'd enlisted and done some time before earning a contract to OCS this summer.

 

[jus2mch]

I thought the show was pretty good and accurate. Even if the cameras are focused on the "10%" a majority of the time, those are the people everyone in the division talk about anyway. It's not like there are secrets on deployment. I liked the AN who blamed his DIVO for being the, "guy who ruined my career", because DIVO wouldn't submit his package after the AN had an alcohol related incident. The ear plugging waiting for Cats/Traps segment was pretty funny also.