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 - Brings back the memoriesWow. I have to say that the first 3 episodes really brought back the memories. My first ship I was stationed on fresh out of boot was the USS America (CV66). It was in dry dock in Norfolk. It had just come back from a Westpac to Vietnam. In thirty plus years, nothing has changed, with exception of women on board warships now days. At sea, it was a 24/7 operation. On a Med cruise, once the carrier left the pier in Norfolk, you never tied up at a pier again until you returned to the states. Always anchored out, and the always enjoyable boat ride to the dock. The constant cleaning, the enjoyable 3 months spent `mess cooking', and like they pointed out in the show, the ship was like a huge high school. You had it all, from the jocks to the geeks and everything in between. My personal favorite was the every three day refueling/resupply evolutions. Just like clockwork, and for some strange reason, we did it around midnight every time. Top Gun was Hollywood, this is the real deal. Rating: - So far so good!I came to this page to buy this item after seeing just 2 of the 10 episodes on PBS. I love it so far- you can really try to put yourself in their place, and it is interesting to see how the discipline of the Navy influences each person. Rating:  - The best documentary series on modern US CarriersOwing to a childhood fascination, I've watched pretty much every documentary on carriers produced in the last ten years. A few of them have been Nat Geo productions, and the latest rounds play all the time on the Discovery Channel and the Military Channel. This series beats them all, hands down. The problem with most documentaries on this subject--or virtually any 'mainstream' docu on military topics, is that the filmmakers get distracted by the whistles, bells, and blinking lights of all the technology. As a result, the documentary lens becomes clouded by all the 'gee-whiz' of the technology and machines. Granted, this sort of perspective has its place. What gets lost, or uncovered, however, is something far more compelling, and that's the human element. A carrier is, as the old saying goes, a city at sea, and it's the lives of the crew that make for real storytelling, not more of the same file footage of missile launches or facts about the latest blocks of the CIWS and the takeoff thrust of an F/A-18 at full military power. This series focuses on the stories of the crew, and many of them are quite moving. It's hard not to get a lump in the throat when watching how hard these (predominantly) 18- and 19- year olds have to work in order to send aircraft over the bow, or how they're trying to meet the demands of family life from thousands of miles away at sea. Their personal struggles and hopes are the meat of this series. Production values on this series are quite high. I met the producers at a sneak preview and found that they had shot over 3,000 hours of HD video over the course of a six-month deployment. Working over that time, and with a 17-member production and shooting team, they found the real stories in the nooks and crannies of the ship. The editing, which was done by a team, is also quite good, as is the music design. The net result is a series that has the look and feel of a modern reality series, without any of the sensationalism. In short, it's filmmaking by adults. The assistance of the Navy was also nothing short of remarkable--here on the series some of the characters speak openly about how hard their jobs are, or how they work with gay crewmembers, or how they don't understand the war they're supporting. This internal confliction and confusion, from the words of servicemen and women, makes for real storytelling and makes this series worth recommending above any other on the same topic. Rating: - Feeling those sea legs coming back.The first two hours have already proved to be pretty close to how real life is on a ship. If anyone knows someone in the Navy and doesn't know what that someone does, I think this series will answer many untold stories. It will reveal how event/uneventful life at sea away from family for 6 months really can be.
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