Carrier - A 10 episode PBS Series

[Mumbles]

I felt bad for the Marine SSGT who was raised by carnies..... small hands. Smell like cabbage.
Seriously, that was a sad story.

 

[FLY_USMC]

They probably didn't show the interviews with enlisted Devil Dogs because they thought Sailors bitching about the Navy and Marines bitching about the Navy as well might be a bit much

 

[Beans]

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.

So maybe this guy believes in small government, low taxes, and use of our military power when necessary, but happens to disagree with what got us in to this war? Does that make him a liberal? And how is that hollow or disconnected? Obviously he is willing and ready to do what is asked of him, but maybe his personal opinion is that we shouldn't be in the war in the first place. As long as he doesn't allow that to interfere w/ his mission, I say 'big deal.'

 

[mmx1]

So maybe this guy believes in small government, low taxes, and use of our military power when necessary, but happens to disagree with what got us in to this war? Does that make him a liberal? And how is that hollow or disconnected? Obviously he is willing and ready to do what is asked of him, but maybe his personal opinion is that we shouldn't be in the war in the first place. As long as he doesn't allow that to interfere w/ his mission, I say 'big deal.'

Doesn't matter now that he's out, but why the hell is a commissioned officer questioning the war on national TV? Everyone has to consider what they are doing, sure. National TV is not your venue for doing so.

Personal opinions are fine. Questioning your chain of command and the national command authority on national TV.....stupid. You can talk all sorts of shit in the wardroom, but you don't let your doubts show in front of your subordinates or the public.

He came off as whiny because he portrayed himself as unique and special for thinking critically about the war (and implying his peers are robots).

 

[FlyinSpy]

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.

I'm also surprised that no one has raised the issue of "Hey, aren't we spending an awful lot of our available time transiting to and from the Boat, rather than being on station?" Given that in the timeframe of the filming the fight was in the Baghdad-Fallujah-Ramadi corridor, and that it took 1.5 hrs to transit from the Boat up to your orbits, wouldn't it have made more sense to beach det some of the jets to Al Asad or Balad, and allow for almost immediate on-station times? Think of the savings in tanker gas alone that such an approach would have allowed.

I already know the answer, since it was asked and answered more than once, almost always by the CAGs: "Well gee, if we beach det the guys the pilots will go out of qual for lack of traps, and we can't have that." My response was always "Well gee, I hate it when the war we are fighting interferes with your CQ metrics." Of course, that was my internal monologue response, since no one ever asked me for my input on the matter....

 

[Flash]

I'm also surprised that no one has raised the issue of "Hey, aren't we spending an awful lot of our available time transiting to and from the Boat, rather than being on station?"......My response was always "Well gee, I hate it when the war we are fighting interferes with your CQ metrics." Of course, that was my internal monologue response, since no one ever asked me for my input on the matter....

I think you need to drink some of that Kool-Aid they imbibing in over on the Amway thread, you are thinking too logically.......

 

[bunk22]

So maybe this guy believes in small government, low taxes, and use of our military power when necessary, but happens to disagree with what got us in to this war? Does that make him a liberal? And how is that hollow or disconnected? Obviously he is willing and ready to do what is asked of him, but maybe his personal opinion is that we shouldn't be in the war in the first place. As long as he doesn't allow that to interfere w/ his mission, I say 'big deal.'

I was more concerned (for him) with how he either portrayed himself or how PBS did. He's probably a good dude but the rantings, the family/kid changed me...I'm more spiritual (how it came off to me), his wife reading poetry to him just came across rather ghey. The very liberal guy in 30 was a great dude and pilot, just was way out there in his political views (relatively to most of us). He always got a good ribbing. He was a vegan and an animal rights type of guy. He had pictures of his pet turtles on his desk

 

[bunk22]

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.

Concur. IMO, if we this incident was what they said, there had to be more to it. There's usually a lead up to a FNAEB (non Class A mishap). A trend of poor performance or decision making. Even after a mishap, they will go back and look for a negative performance trend.

 

[Single Seat]

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."

PM'd you, details not to be shared.

 

[DSL1990]

Navy's perspective on the Carrier series:
http://www.navy.mil/perspectives/index.html

they have a policy video on every episode! LOL!

 

[kmac]

The very liberal guy in 30 was a great dude and pilot, just was way out there in his political views (relatively to most of us). He always got a good ribbing. He was a vegan and an animal rights type of guy. He had pictures of his pet turtles on his desk

I was just about to ask if he was "the vegan" but right then and there you spelled it out. What's he up to these days?

By the way, the rumor was that his wife changed him. Any truth to that?

 

[HeyJoe]

This may come across as a dumb question but I was watching the program tonight and I was just blown away by the pitching deck sequence. On one hand it looks scary...really scary. But then that crazy side of me kicks in screaming 'I can't wait to do that!'

So, my question is this. When you're coming in during seas like that, what do you watch? I would guess some instruments come in as no use so would you just listen to Paddles all the way in? I finally (after a long time of wondering btw, been interested in this since I was a kid) how they get the plane in (the flat camera) but for the pilots what's it like up there?

Overall I'm liking the program, not the absolute best, but but still worth my time. Most of the things I want to see though they probably wouldn't show - mostly flying/aviator/officer stuff like the day to day and living and....you know I'll just wait till I get there to find out.

Quite alright, but we like all "dumb" (or stupid) questions to be asked in the designated "homeroom" because chances are someone else has same question and the very popular thread acts as a virtual primer on Naval Aviation,

 

[webmaster]

There is only one point I have liked so far in this series... the mentioned the P3 once!! Only to use a place holder graphic of some empty ocean to depict the supposed P3 crews performing a ladder search... sigh...

Seriously though, I have enjoyed the series, and particularly like that they are focusing on the ppl vice the ship.

 

[TheBubba]

I've watched bits and pieces... mainly during commercial breaks during other shows.

I've actually seen a couple people I know: former TW6 Commodore and a former USNA Chaplain (at least I think the Chaplain is the same guy).

 

[magnetfreezer]

former TW6 Commodore

If you mean the Air Boss he's still CTW-6.