Check out 'Carrier' on PBS

Starting this Sunday on PBS, a documentary mini-series will premier called Carrier. It will highlight the experiences, deployment, and lives of members of the Navy stationed on the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier. My brother, though no longer on the Nimitz, was stationed there for almost two years. At first when I (and I would assume others in my family) told Mark about it, he didn't seem that excited as he was not on the carrier at the time of major filming. But this week, after seeing the half hour preview of it on iTunes (where it can be downloaded for free) he called me excited, telling me to download it, and that he knew, had worked with, or had seen many of those people who were profiled in the episode. He began to tell me about how much he missed it, that it was a family, and even that he wishes he were back on it to be on another deployment seeing the world. I think he is now starting to see what a special opportunity it was to serve there, though initially his family seemed more impressed by it than he was. My sisters and I were fortunate enough to be present at my brother's deployment to the Persian Gulf in April of 2007. Not to be too dramatic, but it was one of the most profound experiences in my life. I have been thinking a lot about this in the days since my brother's phone call and just wanted to share some things I had written not long after his deployment in '07.

"Send Off"

From where I stand,
white lines salute
from the edge of a floating fortress
of black steel that is

taking you away
from port
and me.





"Consequences"

He tries to tell me
not to worry -
I'm being silly-
while bombs and anthrax shots
are mentioned in the next breath
that uses a foreign vocabulary
of acronyms and
job descriptions that
alienate outsiders from
understanding
and him from grasping
my distress,

Another consequence of war.


"Leaving Home"

Why is it that at some point
young men need to leave home?
They set out to work
their hands needing to be doing something,
their eyes needing to see,
their feet aching to take them to
where they are allowed to be.

And then duty calls.
And whether or not their hearts want
to continue,
their hands haven't done enough,
their eyes want to see more,
and their feet can't yet stop moving.

And at home we must be patient
for our men to return
and hope
that they know that until then
we will be here
waiting.