He slumped in the front row of the Greyhound, looking nervously out the window as I settled beside him in the only empty seat. The wind was cutting, yet he wore only a hoodie and jeans. He was wiry, smelled of cigarettes, and his dirty blond hair was in a military cut. He barely answered my hello.
But eventually, the sun drained from the sky, the groan of the engine drowned out the chatter, and he decided to talk.
He was Blake, home from Iraq, riding from San Diego to his mom's in Wyoming. He'd been held for five days in Las Vegas because of snow and didn't have a coat with him. He was embarrassed to be the only one whose family didn't greet him at the airport in California; his mother couldn't afford it. He was a Marine corps sniper with PTSD and anxious for a different job. His girlfriend had left him for someone else, but her photo was still his cell phone's wallpaper. A Vietnam veteran sat across the aisle from us, occasionally offering us Little Debbie cakes and starlight mints in the dark. It was obvious he'd taken Blake under his wing, this young man who'd come of age in the military after enlisting at 18.
A couple of my friends said they thought Blake's sad story sounded far fetched. I couldn't disagree, but what do I know about military life? I'm sure civilians have plenty of misconceptions – good and bad – about life in the armed services and life at war.
That's one reason I'm eager to sink my teeth into "
Carrier." This new 5-night special – airing statewide April 27-May 1 – is a reality TV special about some people actually worth following. They're not whining over who's hot and who's not, or eating insects or leaping into pools of ice in bikinis for the fun of it. In a sense, they're doing the real version of what reality TV is trying to imitate. They're thousands of miles from home and undergoing a series of challenges, but these challenges are high stakes and real. They're the crew of the USS Nimitz, a nuclear aircraft carrier in the Arabian Gulf.
The series focuses on a handful of characters whose average age is 19. The filmmaker, Maro Chermayeff, calls it a cross between "Top Gun," "High School" and "Prison." It's an intimate portrait of soldiers who are coping with the personal and professional strains of their jobs – from fighting the war on terror to avoiding sexual relationships (forbidden on deck) to assimilating to family life when the mission ends.
Much like we did with Ken Burns' "The War," Rocky Mountain PBS is starting a conversation around "Carrier." On air, online and in person, we're asking Coloradans to tell the story of life on an aircraft carrier. We've recorded interviews with people with aircraft carrier experience (and their families), which will air in short clips around the broadcast of "Carrier." We're hosting three free sneak previews of "Carrier" next week, two in Denver and one in Grand Junction, and all three will feature a post-screening discussion with Coloradans who can discuss their carrier experience first hand. We also added a StoryShare module to our "Carrier" page on Panorama that allows people to write about their experience on a carrier. It also features a section for family members to weigh in and for civilians to leave a message to people currently serving.
Everything you need to know about "Carrier," including a 26-minute preview clip, is available
here on Panorama.
"Carrier" airs for
five consecutive nights (with each episode repeating immediately after it airs) and on a weekend marathon in May.
Check it out, and be sure to let us know what you think.
- Allison, Rocky Mountain PBS
