Carrier - the Review

I've finally finished watching the PBS miniseries "Carrier" that has been running all week. It's a very interesting show, but one with a different focus than I would have expected. Instead of all military muscle and gee-wiz stuff, it was a character driven series dealing with a number of people from different ranks and jobs on the boat.

There were some funny moments (such as when all the pilots in one Navy fighter wing go out in Hong Kong and buy matching brilliant red suits), and some heartbreaking moments such as when a big tough marine breaks down in uncontrollable sobs after watching video of his son being born while he was out at sea. And the tension was palpable as the carrier pitched and rolled at night in an Indian Ocean storm as pilot after pilot found it almost impossible to get their jets safely on the carrier (they all did, thankfully). All-in-all, it was an interesting 10 hour look into life on an aircraft carrier during a 6-month deployment, and some of the little stories going on in the big ship.

As I watched, I was reminded of something that happened back in 1979 when I was working in San Diego for Bank of America. A lot of the women I worked with were Navy wives, and a number of them had husbands aboard the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk.

The Kitty Hawk was at sea during a 7-month Western Pacific cruise when Islamic extremists took over the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, Iran and the hostage crisis ensued. The Kitty was sent to the Persian Gulf and Arabian Sea in response. Shortly after that the Russians invaded Afghanistan, and that part of the world became pretty dangerous. As a result, the cruise was extended by 2 1/2 months. All those wives who had planned for their husbands to return in a couple of weeks now had more months to wait, and you've never seen such a miserable bunch of people. There were red eyes and sobs all over the bank that day. Carrier life is hard on everybody involved.

Instead of coming home in November as had been planned, the ship did not return to San Diego until February of 1980. There were a lot of smiling faces that day.

If you missed the series, it's now available for order by clicking on the link above.