All language subtitles for Carrier - Hour 5 - Show of Force

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♪ Uh-huh it's a long road to paradise
you know I feel the pain oh, oh...

They tell me things are different
now but I still hurt the same

Haze, gray, and underway
a world away from you

and miles and miles of blue ♪

Why are we here?

It's cause it's our job and this is
what we do. We show force.

We can take this ship
anywhere in the ocean that we

want to and take our tactical
planes and send them overland to

some country that deserves it
and drop bombs all over 'em.

When the twin Towers fell,
pretty much everybody, all you

heard, not just military, but
the entire nation was, "all

right. Let's go kill 'em."

This is not no practice.

This is to use in a mission.

Mission accomplishment.

Enough said.

We're just gonna be dropping
bombs on whoever they tell us

and having a presence out there
kind of like a babysitter.

Because as Americans we feel
like we have to baby-sit the

rest of the world.

I understand it's our job to
be the Big Brother, I guess,

but when we went to go look for
certain things and they weren't

there, I really don't see any
reason for us to be here.

♪ Oh, oh♪

My hope is that it will make a
difference in the history of

the world. I hope 20 years
from now that my children look

back at this point and say,
"that's the point where

democracy took hold
in the Middle East."

♪ Yeah♪

Subs rip, edit, and resnyc by
© VJ Me 2010

♪ Parched land on desert sand,
sun is against the dark

and a little bit of water
goes a long way...♪

OK, the weather in the Gulf is
hot, it's hazy, it's humid.

It just sucks. It'll probably be
like that the next couple of days.

Trying to walk across the
flight deck in the middle of

the day, it's like walking
across a frying pan.

Well over 130 degrees.

With a turtleneck and a flow
coat and boots and camis, it's

like melting butter.

It's hot plus. It is so hot.

I saw the devil the other day
with a hot weather t-shirt

and a bottle of Gatorade.

You don't beat the heat.

You try to find a compromise
with the heat, 'cause the heat

gonna win every day.

Tell 'em what happens if you
actually do get, like, heat

exhaustion or something like that.
You gotta go down to

medical. What do they do to you?

They take your core
temperature.

Ha ha!

Core temperature.

Hey, what you gonna do?

We're gonna take his core temperature.
Ok. Cool.

What are you doing?
What are you taking his pants off for?

Actually, I taught my guys that.

They immediately started
drinking in the camo bags.

And not... he freaked me out,
'cause he was laying down.

Yeah, he was all cramped up.

And then when they took his body
core temperature, it was like 106.

Wow. But you can't stop
'em from going up there.

Ready?

GBU-12, 500 pound gutted bomb unit.
They'll take out small

targets like a house.
All the large targets are gone, so in

the event that we got called in,
90% chance would be it's a small

target. We don't want
to take out innocents.

That's gonna be a good one.

We got a gun, Maverick, and a
Weiner that I'd have to arm.

These are the detent pins...
What I pull out to arm the

missile.
This is from the AGM-65 Maverick.

Maverick. We expended one
in the war, went into a

building. Pinpoint accuracy.

Phenomenal. To sustain operations that
we could do is enough to be able to

basically make a city disappear.

Enough pounding to make a
small city complete flat.

It's my first cruise.

I had never been in anything
like this before. You could tell

that it was a total mind shift
as soon as we got into the Gulf.

It was like game time, you know?

The skipper made it clear that
it was gonna be marines on

the ground and they're gonna
need you to have your bombs on

target and on time, you know,
to stop your buddies on the

ground from dying.

I love dropping bombs.

It's instant gratification.

I love feeling the ordnance come
off the jet when you pickle

and you can actually feel
it come off the wings.

When I joined the Marine Corps, I
joined primarily to be a pilot.

I was kind of seeking that
distance between myself and the

actual combat, a distance where
you didn't have to be up close

and personal with it.
And being on the ground in Iraq, I was

very up close and personal.

In 2003, we were there for the
initial invasion of Iraq.

I was a forward air controller,
which is a pilot that is on the

ground calling in air strikes
for close air support. I don't

think when I went to Iraq that I was
quite ready for what, for what I saw.

After having seen people die on
the ground from bombs that I

called in, how am I gonna be able
to drop the bombs in the future?

If there's a guy on the ground
calling my airplane in to drop

bombs for him, in all likelihood
it's either him or the people

that I'm dropping bombs on.

I would most certainly drop bombs
for those guys at any time

at any place on anyone if
their lives are at stake.

If it was up to me, if I could
tape dynamite around my

body, go hug these terrorists
in a big group hug and waste

them all, I'd do it in a
heartbeat.

I believe we're here to support the
Iraqi people in giving them what we

have... freedom.

I think a lot of people just see
war, war, war, people dying.

However, what we are trying to
do, and the vision the president

of the United States is trying
to build this country back

in democracy so we can get some
stability out in the Middle East.

Get up!

I would like to know what
mission that we're going on.

Are we dropping bombs?

Nobody really knows.
It has always been in the back of my

mind when I salute a pilot...
"Is he gonna drop bombs?"

"What is he gonna go do,"

you know?

Right now we're called triple cycle.
So you launch, you

rendezvous with your wingman...
You push in a country...

The first thing you always
do is you go hit the tanker.

The part that I least look
forward to in a flight right now

is tanking on the KC-135s,
which have a very short hose.

Be like driving down the
freeway behind another car and

trying to put a key in his
trunk.

It's a lot of concentration.

Between 6 and 10 minutes to fill up.
Probably close to 10,000

pounds of gas. And we'll fly to
whatever part of the country

they want us to go to.

The country of Iraq is brown.

There aren't really any trees.

It's just... it's ugly.
There's fires everywhere, oil rig fires.

People burning trash.
There's a lot of smoke, a lot of haze.

And then the wind just kicks
up all the dust and sand.

I wouldn't want to live there.

You know, I was called into a
situation where troops are

getting shot at, sniper fire.

We were above and we were
directing them to where we'd

seen the sniper, and you could
hear the anxiety in their voice.

You could hear the gunshots
behind them; You could hear

people yelling. Really gives you
kind of context of what it's

like to be troops on the
ground in constant peril.

It's never the same as what the guys
on the ground are going through.

Our war's a different kind of
war.

We were in Rawah in
Northwestern Iraq, and this IED

goes off right there.
Did you see that? What the hell was

that? And then, and now you're
worried about the guys on the

ground, because you know, you haven't...
were they there?

Were they right there at that
intersection at that time?

But they came back immediately
and asked us to do a show of

force, which is basically you
come down low and fast and try

to get the guys to stop doing
what they're doing or start

running away so that units on
the ground can go get 'em.

And that's when all the
buildings up the other side of

the road opened up with machine gunfire.
And, uh, it... it was the

first time I'd seen something
like that up close. But it's

such an urban environment out there.
One building has got bad

guys in it; The next building's
got children in it. So we

weren't able to roll back in on
them.

You go to your area for about an hour.
You go back, you hit

the tanker, you fill up again.

You go back to your assigned
area, to tank, area, tank, area,

tank, back home. The 5 and a half
-6 hour missions...it's just so

uncomfortable.
It's kind of tough on the body.

"Hey, buddy. I just wanted to
drop you a letter and tell you"

that I'm thinking about you and
miss you lots. I'm working

in my airplane on the big ship,
but that doesn't mean I don't

think about you and mommy all the time.
I look at your

pictures every morning when
I wake up and every night

when I go to bed. Please be good
and mind mommy, and also be good

to Bandit. He loves you very
much and let's you be rough

with him, but don't do that too
much as you might hurt him.

Well, pal, I need to go.
I love you very, very, very much and

will talk with you soon.

Be good and please give mommy
a big hug and a kiss from me.

"I love you!! Daddy."

My name is lieutenant commander
Kevin McLaughlin. This is the

first deployment that I've had as a parent.
Got on the phone

the second day and he...
he does this whole "daddy home" routine.

"Daddy home? Daddy home?"

Daddy home?" And I said, you
know, "no, buddy. I'm not coming

home." And he started crying.

And I was like, "oh, man!"

When I left, I mean, I still
looked at him as kind of a baby.

Now I look at these pictures...
Pretty much looking like a little boy.

I was talking to my dad; He's like, "oh, yeah.
He's all boy now."

That's daddy right there.

He gives the biggest smile.

Does he?

It feels weird to be away with
Jen being pregnant, because I'm

missing the process. I'm missing the
doctor's visits and the ultrasounds.

Did you even know that
I went...?

I'd love to have a girl, but
if we had another boy, too,

that would be great, great by
me, too.

A bit off the subject, do you
think the EPA did a good

job post 9/11 here in New York City?
Because I live down there

in battery park city area, and
initially they said the air was

fine and all of a sudden
reports came out and it really

wasn't fine.
Things weren't good down there.

We all take a lot of pride in our squadron.
It's a tough love

atmosphere. You mess up, you're
gonna hear about it. They're

winners. They don't like to
lose; They don't like to be

second. My name is Jeremy Newton.
I'm a lieutenant in

VFA-41 flying the F-18 Foxtrot.

Remember, a super Hornet can fly
down to about 40 pounds-ish.

I think what the training does
is they always talk about

working on brain stem power,
which means that whenever you

get in the jet, you
automatically lose about 50%

of your brain power.

Using 500 pounds a pass.

They're gonna use 3.3 for...
You know, you're sitting on

the deck, you're like, "we're
gonna do this, we're gonna do

that." All right? It sounds simple.
You get up there, it's

nighttime, you're scared.

You know, what's going on?

Out the window. And you come
back, and you're like, "why did

I do that? Why did I make that mistake?
Why couldn't I see

this taking place?
" It's just amazing how it works like that.

So, I mean, and that's why we
do it over and over again.

The aviation community,
especially the tactical

aviation community, it's a lot
like High School, and you

develop a bad reputation for
your flying or your work ethic

or your attitude.
And when you get back to the beach, you get

assigned your next command.

People are gonna ask about you.

"Hey, how's Jeremy? Is he a good"

guy?" You come back off a
cruise, you should be solid

with landings and
professional knowledge.

You should be at the top of your
game.

I feel that this war on terrorism is...
it's a war that's

necessary. Are we going about
it the right way? I don't know.

I'm not supposed to question
it, but do I question it? Yes.

To me, the operation Iraqi
Freedom and September 11th.

One thing has virtually
absolutely nothing to do with

the other. Iraq wasn't the enemy there.
That was a...A terrorist

act. It was carried out by
individuals, cowards. It can't

be fought conventionally.

Good morning, shipmates.

Where were you 4 years ago this morning?
What were you doing?

Your answers may comme more easily
if you recall that today

is September 11th.
On this day in the year 2001, at precisely

08:46 hours, the first of two
planes deliberately crashed into

the World Trade Towers in New York City.
Soon afterwards,

a third aircraft plied into the Pentagon.
And a fourth failed to

reach its intended target and crashed
in a farmer's field in Shankstown.

It certainly brings it right to home...
September 11th... to

know exactly why we're doing it.

It makes it extremely black and
white.

I'm going over Baghdad.

We're gonna look for some folks
that are shooting mortars.

There's also a couple of convoys
moving to capture some bad guys,

and we'll fly overhead them.

And keep the bad guys away from them
as they're doing their business.

Are these insurgents?

Indeed. Yeah.

That's a big word for Dell.

Bad guys is easier.

I try to speak to my audience.

I'm Dell David Bull, and I'm the
executive officer of VFA-41.

I came from a military family.

My dad spent 37 years in the Navy.
He's a naval aviator

as well. We're gonna go out
this way and up and over.

He retired as a two-star admiral.
All set?

I was raised as a black and white person...
right or wrong,

very little gray area.

And in today's world, there's a
lot of gray, and you have to

work to make the gray black and
white, and it takes commitment,

I think, and some decisions
that aren't necessarily easy.

I'm very proud of what the
Americans and the allies are

doing to help the people of Iraq.
And I find it very hard...

It's hard to swallow anybody, um,
saying anything to the contrary.

September 11th keeps me
motivated, knowing that we are

out here doing what we need to do to
keep our families back home safe.

The "USS Carl Vinson,"

because they were involved in
the initial strike of 9/11

on Iraq, they actually wrote the
names of all the firefighters

and the police officers that
perished on a bomb and it

actually got expended
with their name on there.

Me and my older sister Brandy
had grown up with Josh and his

little brother Rick pretty much
throughout our lives. Josh was

killed in an explosion in Iraq.

I just wanted to do something
for the family that, I mean,

there wasn't too much I could do out here.
Then I came up with

the idea if it would be possible
for the command to support me

to have a flag flown over Iraq
in honor of Josh. You know, I'm

kind of hoping that the bomb
will find a worthy target.

Close?

Yeah. Close to dropping.

Oh.

About that close.

It was good. We came close to dropping.
Troops in contact with

some guys that were shooting
mortars at them, so they asked

us, you know, GB-38.
And I said, "and then some." I gauged the

Maverick. Ted goes, "You're salivating."
It was perfect

targets. It was wild West.

Out in the middle of nowhere.

It's not up... it's up to the
ground combat element. He's

gonna take a GPS ref
and command the lead.

Yeah. Well, he took a helo with a cannon.
So it was interesting.

Coming out... 3, 1, 2, 3.

Nobody has dropped so far,
and actually, I think that's

a good thing. It means that the
guys on the ground are actually

going door to door and really
flushing out the insurgents

and...I'm glad that we're not dropping.
I mean, it would be

exciting. I can't wait till we
head back and I'm able to drop,

practice, just 'cause it's fun.

One day I was just like, "why am I here?
Why am I in the"

Persian Gulf?
Why am I burning "up for no reason?"

I don't know why we're in the Gulf.
Heh. I don't know.

I mean, I've heard different
stories from marines. I've heard

different stories from just
people talking... oil.

Terrorism and all that.

It's kind of hard to find those
guys, I guess, and...I don't

know. It just seems like
it'd be never-ending.

My name's lieutenant Bohr.

I'm a pilot in the Black Aces.

I think the war on terror was
a response that needed to

happen, a response that was
appropriate in Afghanistan.

As to whether or not Iraq is the
inappropriate decision, I don't

know. I'm not the judge of that.

I'm a faithful and loyal servant
to whatever the president and

this country and the will of the
people say I should be doing.

But I think that the idea that
we're keeping the terrorists at

bay by keeping them in Iraq
is not necessarily true.

You know, and you know, the
balance between having an

opinion like that and doing my
job is definitely in conflict.

It's definitely a contradiction.

I was saving it.
I'm like, "somebody's got to bust it out."

I think all of us have different opinions.
I think not a lot of

us discuss it, but I would say
that most people wouldn't share

my opinions. I know I've
certainly got into some great

discussions that I've pretty
much always gotten slammed.

My parents tried to raise me to
think differently. It's hard to

get specific about it.
They just weren't, you know, the

mainstream. And so it rubbed off on me.
So when I got out into

the world and kind of started
expressing that, I kind of ran

into trouble because oftentimes
it wasn't accepted very well.

Unique thing about aviation
is that a lot of us have this

very same personality.
And Doug doesn't. He's a blue guy.

Our enemies, those who do not
wish us well in this world are

counting on the fact that we're
not true believers, that we are

too soft, that we are not
willing to give up the

consumption society that we live
in, they're counting on the fact

that we won't show up.

My name is rear admiral Pete Daley.
I serve as commander

of carrier strike group 11th, a
"Nimitz" strike group and its

6,000 plus sailors and marines.

I came from a family of 6 kids,
and I had a choice of taking

the ROTC scholarship and I also
was competing for an academic

scholarship in classics, in,
you know, Greek and Latin.

I've often thought, well, in the
sense of the road not taken,

you know, I'd probably be
teaching High School in

Cincinnati at some Jesuit high
school.

Good morning, Miriam.

Taking a look at Iraq.

The current situation, obviously
the bombings yesterday... upwards

of a total of 11 attacks in Baghdad itself.
Multiple vb-IEDs.

This is a different type of war
from the war that our Navy

was built for. Second and third
generation warfare had fixed

battle lines, but the character
of fourth generation warfare is

that you're not fighting a state.
You might be fighting a

group, an insurgency, who don't have
the same vulnerabilities a state has.

Looking at probably
additional sectarian violence

upcoming here in the future.

In fourth generation warfare,
often we're in a more reactive

mode, where our opponents can
get control of the timeline.

So we need to improve in the
ability to recognize activity,

move information, and
act on it quickly.

Bonds, you my boss?

Exactly.

Oh, his boy is pretending he's
talking to somebody on the phone.

This is operations.

Operations' job is we're
supposed to plan all the moves

in a battle of the strike group.

I'm the one Navy SEAL on
the whole battle group.

Which means he plays a lot of
x-box.

Yeah. I play a lot of x-box.

We've got to be honest.

You know, being on the staff is
not as fun as we're used to.

I don't think anybody ever
joined to be a staff member.

But there comes a time when
there's nothing left, you know,

you're like, well, pin the tail on the donkey.
All of a sudden

you go from steely-eyed
killer to glassy-eyed typer.

Once we got in the Gulf,
the combined backgrounds

between Art as a Navy SEAL,
myself as a backseater in super

Hornets, and that experience was
really good in drawing up some

good missions and scenarios
to help train these guys up.

For the hornets, it's kind of a
new mission set, using their

eyes and their scanners to
visually pick up information

and relay it to people on the ground.
And being a ground force

guy, that's invaluable
information.

It was real good training,
'cause up to that point, our air

wings really weren't trained
in all those kind of fourth

generation warfare missions.

They were specifically asking
us to look around the edge of

the town there, sir, to look
for any suspicious activity.

Right.

And then when they actually
pushed to go grab the guys,

providing security for the
friendlies.

How long did it take
all this to play out?

45 minutes.

And then when the Humvees
pushed, had us go to the target

area to make sure nobody was getting
away before they got there.

We're working up north near
Mosul.

We were doing some good work.

There were some cars doing
some very suspicious things.

They were pretty excited about
that, 'cause they'd been looking

for these guys, you know.

And then our time came to go.

So we left.

One thing in aviation is that
you always leave yourself

options. You're supposed to have
2, 3, even 4 different options.

We put all of our faith in being able
to get gas from that KC-135 tanker.

The tanker was moving
around pretty good.

And I, uh, I couldn't
really get in the basket.

Which, if that was to happen,
you should have a backup.

And we kind of allowed ourselves
to get painted into a corner,

which left us the only option
of making an emergency landing

in Baghdad International.

Baghdad's not one of our diverts;
It's not where they want us to go.

I mean, if you run out of gas,
you're done with jets. You're

not going to be able to fly that
thing, because everything runs

off of the engines and the
generators.

There was...
I didn't think we were gonna make it.

I was really impressed with
the guy in my backseat

being cool. You know, "this is
the situation we're in, but now

"we've just got to go from here."

As we were coming in there, they
were saying that people were

shooting in the area.

I saw the runway; I just
wanted to get there.

It was close.

It was really scary at that
point, too, because the tire

blew on the landing rollout.

We were still probably going about 70 knots.
Jet takes a real

quick veer to the left.

So it was all I could do just to
kind of keep it on the runway,

kind of dancing on the right
brake, and we just kind of

worked it, just kind of
worked it down the left side.

Yeah, there was a split second
there I thought we might have

done all that work and then
lose it there on the runway,

you know, which would
have been even worse.

Standing on the side of the
runway and looking at your jet.

It's got a tire blown, so it's
kind of sideways, you know.

And that's when you can finally
just look around and take in the

gravity of the situation.

And it was just one of those
things, there was no way that

just happened. How could...
how could I have allowed something

like this to happen?
This is bad. This is real bad.

We cut it way too close.

Tommy, will you tell them
about Iraq?

It was hot. It was Sandy.

One of our jets broke down there,
and Tommy had to go fix it.

I got to pack a gun.

It was cool.

I'm always packing a gun, dude.

Tommy's always one to hold
a gun.

It ran out of fuel and had to
divert to Baghdad. And then when

it landed, it blew a tire.

So we had to go there
and change the tire.

I'm not flying right now.

Kind of in a probationary period.
It could be awhile

before I start flying again.

What's up, sir?

Drug your ass out of Iraq, huh?

It wasn't that they diverted into Baghdad.
It was the fact

that they were pretty low on gas.
It was my decision to

conduct a FNAEB...
a field naval aviator evaluation board.

You basically look at the whole person.
You look at their past

record. You know, is this a trend?
Is he unsafe? And I don't

think that Jeremy is unsafe.

I think there were some flawed decisions.
It's a very formal

process, but once I make that
decision, the process has to

flow all the way through it.

You cannot stop it.

Hopefully, he'll come out of
this OK and better for it,

but it needed to be done.

Pretty slow day.
Pretty slow day up there.

I did one missile.

That's gonna be it pretty much for today.
It's all it's looking

like is just missiles and maybe
a gun here and there. No bombs.

Just not really dropping anything anyway, so...
My last hop was my single

best chance to do anything.

We see this boat is hugging the
shore and pulls up to the dock.

And they're like sprinting,
'cause now they hear us

overhead. They figure it's coming.
And they're using this

point to off us.
And I'm thinking, "here we go.

This is it." I'm looking at,
OK, where's my strafe "z," OK.

"What do you want us to do?"

"Can you guys take pictures?"

Ok. If there was ever a case
clearly of somebody doing

something clearly wrong here...
I just thought we were gonna be

a lot more engaged. I did.

Anybody else?

Not really.

You didn't think we were
going to be dropping bombs?

You can win the war and lose
the peace is the catch phrase.

Sure.
Winning hearts and minds.

And you can't do that if
you're dropping bombs on their

houses. And those guys on the
ground can take... they have

sufficient firepower typically
to do what they need to do.

I know that sounds like a Kool-Aid speech.
"Yeah, yeah,

yeah. Skipper's gotta say the
party line," but I mean,

you gotta do that to slowly
start fading, phasing yourself

out so that the focus is on the
ground, ground guys swap over.

You're right. I mean, the
ultimate metric of why we're

here is to create a safe society.
But of the bombs that

have been dropped, just
statistics, you would have to

say that we should have dropped
probably 50% of the bombs.

Same number of assets, same number of flights.
We've dropped 0%.

Different time of day we're
covering.

But we can shift the time.

I think that's why you get a lot
of the frustration. Both...

And below, I mean, there's a
lot of, a lot of heat over it.

Yeah, but see, part of it...
We've trained; We're here.

We haven't dropped one bomb...
Not one. And I think a lot of

guys are like, "OK.
Do we really "need to be here?"

Ok. Couple of observations.

First, I think the strike group
turnover debriefs are having a

good effect. I talked to admiral Winnefeld
yesterday kind of one v. one

"Nimitz" is the platform
people associate with the

delivery of airpower, but it
also is the command and control

node for the strike group.

They flew 18 missions over Iraq.
Only had two prowler missions to...

Tom Cropper, who is the
commander of air wing 11, leads

some 1,700 people who deliver
those 60 airplanes on the deck

of the "Nimitz.
" Then we have the sea combat commander,

commodore Mike Smith, primarily
responsible for the maritime

security ops here in the Gulf.

Good morning, admiral.

Morning, Bill.

We also have the C.O.
of the cruiser "Princeton"... Captain

Bill Alt. We talk to him every day by VTC.
And he's in charge

of air defense.

We're sending the guys back to
the "o" plants today. We're

sending an ht-1, an em-2...
And finally, we have the

information warfare commander,
who is the C.O. of the

"Nimitz"... Ted Branch.
So not only is Ted the C.O. of this

great warship, he is a warfare
commander in his own right.

Ok. Thanks, appreciate it.

This ship is all about aviation.
But there's other

components to the strike group.

We've got a cruiser, the
"Princeton," and we've got our

two destroyers, "Chafee,"

"Higgins," and in the Arabian
Gulf, we join with other

forces... U.S. and coalition.

We have on any given day 15, 16, 17 ships.
And when I come in

here, I command those units
as well.

We're in the tactical flight
command center on board the

"Nimitz." This is where we keep
situational awareness for the

admiral. But I can see what all
of my other ships are seeing

as well, which is what allows
us to in here be able to track

pretty much the entire fifth fleet.
Admiral, battle watch.

Sir, it's 14:40. Just to let you
know, there's two Iranian Boston

whalers that have crossed
over the operational line.

The admiral likes to know right
down to the small detail

levels what's happening.

The poor guy gets phone calls
probably every hour day and night.

Supporting the forces on the
ground in Iraq and protection of

the two major oil platforms...
ABOT and CAOT.

That's a huge source of Iraq's
economy, and if you were one of

the bad guys trying to destroy Iraq,
what are you going to go after?

♪ The good times are killing
me♪

those poor guys are stuck on
those oil platforms. Those are

what we call the
hardcore guys up there.

♪ Got to get water and I
know you could carry on♪

43% humidity. It's 102 temp.
Heat Index is

121. It's in the danger range.
It's isolated,

dusty, it's dirty, it's greasy,
it's a pretty nasty environment.

♪ Have one, have 20 more one
more, it does not relent

the good times are killing me♪

in April of 2004, those oil platforms,
ABOT and CAOT, came under attack.

There were 4 small boats.

They were packed with explosives.
A boarding team was

sent to investigate one of the
boats that was approaching.

And they both blew up.

And it killed two sailors
and one coast guard sailor.

Every Dow that is out
here to me is a bad guy.

If they were to pack many,
many boats with explosives,

that would be a very bad thing.

Let's go. Attention.

The Iraqi marines are
screened before they join,

but the terminal workers...
70-80 personnel that come out every

week to work on the platform...
Have no control over those whatsoever.

The decks will buckle a little
bit as you walk, 'cause

they are old.
The handrails aren't firm either.

Before, the situation here used
to be really bad, but now,

he says, the situation is
getting really, really good.

Even the fact that Iraq is still
in kind of a turmoil, but he

feels like things are going
in a better way, basically.

At the present time, he says,
it's basically almost impossible

for him to conceive of a stable
Iraq in the next 6-7 months,

and he wishes that the Americans,
actually, would stay

way longer till everything
is completely done.

We try to remind them that
this is their economy right

here... these two platforms...
'Cause none of us want to go

home and see on the news,
you know, 6 months from now

that the terminal got hit, you
know, when and if we do turn

over to the Iraqi forces.

The United States Navy has
had a presence in the Gulf

since about 1947.
There's a lot of American commerce going on

here. This is a very important
sea lane, so I see a role for

the United States Navy here long
after things return to normal.

Continue lap steady on course
125.

Continue lap steady, course
125.

Is that where the "Nimitz" is bearing?
Wait a minute.

The guys over here, forget it.

Just give them left, 20 degrees rudder.
Just say that again.

Left 20 degrees rudder.

I'm Captain Bill Alt,
commanding officer of the "USS

Princeton" and air defense
commander for the "Nimitz"

strike group.

Normally, we'll be within
10 miles of the "Nimitz" or

whatever ship we're riding
shotgun on to make sure nothing

happens to them.

We got to slow down, sir.

No! We got to get up there.

Hang out.

The other Dow out there.

You see it, Chris?

Yes, sir.

Ok. It's about, I guess, 5
miles from "Nimitz" and

they're concerned about him coming in.
You know, just to get

in between him so that they
don't come at the "Nimitz" for

any reason, really.

Run our midships.
Run our midships.

Run our midships.

For the Navy, the big wakeup
call was the "USS Cole," and the

terrorist activity against
ships.

The whole thing about asymmetric warfare is...
takes advantage of our

vulnerabilities. 20 years ago,
when it first became apparent

that, hey, you know, these
little guys on jet skis or

something, they could do us some real harm...
We will approach them...

And find out what they're doing out here.
What do they fish for?

Where are good areas to fish?

Let them know that there's a
coalition military presence

in the Arabian Gulf.

And return to Doha?

Ask them about piracy, smuggling.
Give them pamphlets

that tell them who they can
contact if they know of any

terrorists. We're operating in
their backyard, so we want to

fit in and make them know that
we're here for their protection

and their safety and their interests.
The man can't leave.

What it's really about is
understanding what happens in

the maritime waters.
And if you study it long enough, you'll

notice changes in it.

If something changes,
it will stick out.

We're performing
reconnaissance missions along

the waterways in southeastern
Iraq.

Part of our mission is to
protect the pipelines since

they're so vital to their
economy.

We're trying to figure out what
is normal activity, what is

not. I don't see it.

Guys are great. They all ran out
into the streets to wave at us.

The question, though, is are
they coming out to wave at us

because they really like us,
or are they coming out to wave

at us 'cause they don't
want us to shoot them?

I'd say a little of both.

Yeah, probably.

Merely by flying missions,
sailing these waters,

we pressurize the
maritime environment.

We make sure our enemies know
that we're present and we're

ready to do business.

Here's what's going on.

We are going to intercept about
5 nautical miles outside of

territorial waters, and we're
gonna do simultaneous boardings

of the two ships.

New search for unregistered
vehicles.

Maritime security ops are
designed to deny international

terrorist organizations the
use of the sea as a venue for

attacks or to transport people, weapons...
All right, everybody

on team one, if you find
anything, you back away from it

and you let me know immediately.

All right. Good to go.

Looking for drugs, arms,
terrorist literature, training

handbooks, or any ties to international
terrorist organizations.

Captain, this is just a questionnaire...
Yeah.

Good. Yeah.

Fort Bend.

One more thing is you have a
question, "what other masters

have you worked with?
" What's the meaning of that question?

Somebody may be working
with somebody else.

Other nationalities.

No. Maybe. He may be from
Dubai, he may be from India.

It's not just you.

We're looking for any signs
that those cars could be

converted for use as IEDs.

We're gonna sniff'em.

We're gonna look for any
explosives and check for wiring.

And we're also looking at the
origins of these vehicles.

We'd like to understand the
patterns.

When is the last time
that you saw packages?

Bring this car.

Are there any further
questions you need answered?

I haven't got to that yet.

I'm not sure if that's happening.
I've just been running.

I'll be in the Navy 17 years in January.
How many cruises is this for you?

6.

Whew. I'm complaining about 4.
I got nothing to complain about.

Second one married, though.

First one with kids.

Yeah. It sucks, doesn't it?

It's a whole new level of pain.

My wife sat there and wrote me...
It's been a traumatic

4 months for me and my family.

My wife wasn't feeling very well,
and she went to the doctor

and the doctor said, "well, I'm
not really sure, you know.

This is relatively normal.

"Did this happen last time?"

"No. It didn't happen last"

time." There's some cause for some concern.
She had a couple

ultrasounds and, you
know, no heartbeat.

I don't think there's ever a
good time for a miscarriage,

but this was certainly about the worst...
husband away, 2-year-old

with his hair on fire all the
time, running around, dealing

with the house and the car
and the dog, the bills and

everything else.
It's pretty much one of those things that

there's nothing you can say
or do that can actually help.

"I'm sorry. I love you."

I'm sorry. I love you.
What do you want me to do?" Short of

going home, which I could
do, what can you do?

You know...I mean, she's... so...

1-o-1.

I'm just not flying right now.
So I come up here and stand

this duty partly 'cause I don't
really have anything else going

on right now.

2-0-6.

I'm gonna miss out on, like, the
100 hours or something like

that. As soon as the whole
process got going, I already

knew that I wasn't gonna fly
again on this cruise. It has to

go through the admiral here
and the admiral back in San

Diego. Those guys have a lot on
their plate, obviously. So it

just takes time, which is the worst part.
It's kind of the

waiting game, seeing
what they want to do.

He's a new pilot.

I think I'm gonna go with
you guys for Thanksgiving.

And when someone gets to the
point where they're flying

a $60 million aircraft, we
expect them to make the right

decisions all the time.

When someone gets behind,
it's our obligation to sort

out why that happened.

5-0-1.

It may be training; It may
be attitude, motivation.

You have to look at their
potential as well, so it's

really an obligation on our part
to make sure that we can prevent

that from happening again.

The future's kind of up in the air.
And I'm not really sure

what's gonna happen at this
point.

6-1-4.

Is he going up?

No.

You were up there and
nothing went on?

I know. Nothing.

Did you, like, go up, drop flares,
try and instigate a riot?

They didn't want anything.

I told 'em there's a whole bunch of ...
going on, but they didn't buy it.

Where were you at?

Mosul.

I'm going tomorrow.

Now when we're in a support role
for the folks on the ground,

if we don't drop any bombs, then
that means things are going

well in Iraq. So, although it's
not quite as much fun, it's...

That's the goal.

It's just ridiculous that we
would come here for over two

months and drop nothing.

The missions that we perform
are kind of a morale buster.

We're still in the same ballgame.
It's just that it's

not our turn to be at bat.

And we're just supporting.

I guess some of the times
they said they came close to

dropping, but there's not
that much of a need.

I'm a naval officer flying
a very expensive piece of

equipment that I've
never used in its role.

Maybe I have.
Maybe I've deterred guys on the ground

or maybe I've helped guys on
the ground just being there.

And I think that's what
we're doing these days.

However, I think it's a very
expensive and costly way to do

that. And I think that the way that
wars are being fought are changing.

Seems like aircraft carriers
are not the way to do it.

Ok. Swim call from 12:30...
15:00. I'll be the first one in

at 12:30, so get your suit
out, get your rubber ducky.

Get ready to go.

Swim call in the Arabian Gulf.

Hey, we got a floater down
here.

Hey, you know, if you come down
and jump in now, you won't

even need to put on any
sunscreen.

I just hope I don't get any sea
snakes or sharks in my mouth.

I fly over this every day.

I see the oil slicks.
Think I'll pass on it this time.

Not if you paid me.

It's just gross.
Sea snakes and jellyfish.

Naw, I mean. And, oh, by the
way, we dump about a million

pounds of fuel per squadron, you
know, over the span of the time

we've been here.

♪ It's a soothing delight
and it's moving my life

everyone, every sinner and every Saint

it's so cold, cold yeah, beautiful

everybody knows that life can be
wonderful it's a soothing delight

and it's moving my life

it's a soothing delight.

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