Carrier: Life aboard a Navy warship

Family and friends know I served four years in the U.S. Navy before going to college, and those acquainted with my past blogging have read about some of my experiences in the Navy ("My Cup Runneth Over," "Beer Day" and "Gulf War Memories," to name a few).

The Navy slogan "See the world" was the only part of the recruitment process that wasn't an exaggeration: I visited Japan, Korea, China, Thailand, the Philippines, Australia, Kenya, the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia and other places during those four years of shipboard life. I crossed the Pacific Ocean several times, crossed the Equator twice and watched a radar screen in the first Gulf War.

If you want an even better idea what it was like to serve in the Navy than my blogging, I urge you to check out the PBS program "Carrier." Not only does it paint an extremely accurate and candid picture of what things are like for sailors and airmen/women at sea, it's also a very well produced and entertaining program in its own right. It's a 10-hour miniseries, and they've been rerunning it regularly, so check it out (you can also watch full episodes on the website).