Real World: Persian Gulf

A simple twist of fate spun Chris Altice's life in ways he could never imagine.

The Manassas man should have boarded the Washington state-based USS Carl Vinson after naval training school, but a delay sent him to Southern California and a tour of duty aboard the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz.

Within a few short months, Altice, then 20, fell in love with a young woman who became pregnant with their child just before he deployed to the Persian Gulf from May 7 to Nov. 8, 2005. His long-distance relationship under stressful conditions is among the stories chronicled in "Carrier," a 10-hour documentary series on PBS.

"I never thought it would be such a big part of the film," Altice said. "But what I was going through was just what a lot of the guys on the ship go through."

The Nimitz is a floating city that stands 24 stories high and is three football fields long. It carries 85 military aircraft and more than 5,000 Navy personnel with an average age of 19.

Executive producer Maro Chermayeff said it was a long and difficult process to get access to film, but once that was accomplished there was no interference. The filmmakers embedded on the ship got unprecedented access to film the crew, who gave unfiltered interviews about everything from how the war on terrorism was being fought to gays in the military.

"Captain [Ted] Branch of the Nimitz wanted it to be about the enlisted," as opposed to the fighter pilots, Chermayeff said. "There have been a lot of hotshot stories, but what he was interested in was a story about the people on the ship. He said, 'We really believe in our people, and we don't feel they have had their moment yet.'"

Chermayeff said she wrote down themes she wanted to cover through the course of the documentary -- such as faith, danger and relationships -- and then sought people who could speak to those themes. Among those chosen were Seaman Altice, fighter pilot Lt. Laurie Coffey and Marine Gunnery Sgt. Randy Brock.

Brock said his parents left him with a worker at a carnival when he was 3; after a rough childhood, he joined the Marines. A producer spied him salsa dancing in the ship's bay one night.

"We were like, 'Who are these guys who have a salsa club at 11 p.m.?'" Chermayeff said. "There was Brock, with his broken nose, a rough-and-tumble guy who could be so graceful."

Chermayeff said she was fascinated by the different personalities on board the ship.

"What I loved was the incredible conversations with people who had so many different political views, yet bonded so much in this environment of isolation," she said.