This article appeared on csc.com in mid-April.

Premiering April 27 on PBS, Carrier will take an unprecedented look at life onboard the USS Nimitz supercarrier, home to more than 5,000 sailors. With a rich history of supporting the U.S. Navy — and having benefited greatly from its many Navy veterans — CSC is proud to be the corporate underwriter for this 10-part documentary series.

CSC employees who have served in the Navy — some onboard the Nimitz — look forward to the show, while they look back on fond memories that have shaped their lives and careers.

CSC’s JJ Elko onboard the USS Nimitz in 1985 (photo courtesy of Elko).

Some joined the Navy to answer a calling to serve their country, some because of their families, and some simply to pay for college. They served during wars in Vietnam and Iraq, the Iran hostage crisis and the Achille Lauro hijacking. During these dangerous times, they gained and lost friends and shipmates, and experienced the highs and lows of life on an aircraft carrier.

Memories of carrier life

“I was on the Nimitz from 1982 to 1986. It was my first ship,“ recalls CSC’s Charles Maiden, a principal engineer and quality assurance tester. “I remember my first day getting there from Naples, Italy. We flew out to the ship on the old C-1. The pilots were talking low, and said they couldn’t find the ship. Couldn’t find the ship! I was thinking it was really big and gray, and you couldn’t miss it. Finally, they did locate it with binoculars, and we made a landing on the flight deck via the wire trap. Now, there is a first day.“

Maiden spent 21 years in the Navy, and today still supports the Navy through his work for CSC’s North American Public Sector division.

JJ Elko, a security specialist and certifier for CSC’s Global Security Solutions, deployed twice on the Nimitz with the Fleet Air Reconnaissance Squadron II (VQ-2). With 7,000 hours in the air (and two rods and eight screws in his back to show for it), Elko says that taking off and landing on a carrier was unlike any other experience.

“It was probably the most exciting thing I’ve ever done in my life. It’s better than any roller coaster because you’re going from 0 to 155 mph in two seconds. It’s incredible,“ he says.

Elko spent most of his 21 years in the Navy in the Middle East, and supported naval operations around both the TWA 847 and the Achille Lauro hijackings. His second Nimitz deployment was a sad one, after the deaths of seven crewmembers.

“I flew with all of these individuals in the past, and it was very difficult and frightening waiting for my first catapult launch, especially after having viewed the flight deck video of the crash,“ he says. “I’m not ashamed to admit that I was shaking in my flight boots on that first launch. Thank God VQ-2 brought their best pilot aboard to take us off and return safely to the Nimitz.“

Navy often a lifetime calling

David Crocker, a 30-year Navy veteran, deployed 14 times on nine different aircraft carriers — as an aviator, as an executive officer on the USS George Washington and as a commanding officer on the USS Carl Vinson. Crocker originally joined the Navy to pay for college, committing to the minimum four-year-and-one-hour service.

“It wasn’t until I got embedded into the squadron life that comes with naval aviation that I began to feel this kinship and this loyalty to other people. And I began to understand that serving something other than yourself was pretty important, and pretty cool. At the four-year-and-two-hour mark, I wasn’t even thinking about leaving.“

Today Crocker still supports the Navy, as a CSC business developer for Navy and Joint Programs.

“Every day I’m touching people who worked with me or for me in the Navy programs,“ he says. “I understand the mission completely, and my goal is to do whatever I can to get the things they need to do their missions safely and more effectively.“

CSC benefits from veterans’ skills

Richard Kelley, senior spectrum management lead, today supports weather satellites operated by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The expertise he employs in his career at CSC was garnered over a long and diverse naval career.

Joining the Navy because he liked the water, Kelley spent 20 years in a variety of positions around the world. He served on the carrier USS Constellation off the coast of Vietnam, capturing and analyzing high-resolution satellite data for U.S. battle forces. He was part of the commissioning crew for the USS Belleau Wood, responsible for weather support. He also ran a weather office at the very end of the Hawaiian Chain, on Midway Island.

“I ran an oceanographic data collection program aboard an ocean survey vessel, capturing 96,000 miles of data in a 10-month period, while the ship towed a magnetic detector behind it. This was a favorite of sharks, as witnessed by the teeth collected in the sensor after it was hauled aboard following a 30-day deployment,“ Kelley recalls.

Before joining CSC in 1991, Kelly was a professor at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, teaching courses in ocean/atmosphere dynamics and synoptic meteorology.

Navy teaches “people skills”

In addition to the occupational skills and technical expertise of Navy vets, CSC has benefited from the less tangible “people skills” gained from years of military service.

“In the Navy, especially as an enlisted person, you’re doing a lot of evaluations, you know how to handle people, how to manage projects and you take care of your people as a manager,“ says Elko. “In the military, you’re focused on a job, and it’s inbred into you from boot camp: Pay attention to detail, get the job done the most efficient way you can and watch out for your shipmates. I learned that more than anything in the Navy.“

Crocker says he looks forward to watching Carrier, which he thinks will present the authentic carrier experience that he himself lived.

“I gained tremendous insight into the power of leadership at all levels in the successful operation of this 92,000-ton ship,“ he says. “Leadership enabled young 19-year-old men and women to perform at an exceptional level. Collectively, they operated two nuclear reactor plants, launched and recovered up to 150 aircraft per day, prepared and served over 20,000 meals a day, and safely handled over three million gallons of jet fuel on a near-daily basis.“

Carrier premieres Sunday, April 27 - Thursday, May 1, 9:00-11:00 p.m. Eastern Time on PBS, with a preview available now.