PBS shot a 10 hour documentary aboard the USS Nimitz's 2005 deployment to the Persian Gulf. The episodes aired last week, but are now streamable from the PBS website
http://www.pbs.org/weta/carrier/full_episodes.htm
I've watched most of it so far, and as someone who spent seven years in that environment, I think they did a really good job of capturing the realities, good and bad, of a CVN deployment. There's the cool, adrenaline rush parts and there's the downright disturbing/gritty parts. they gave equal airtime to both (IMHO). There's no political slant to it one way or another and while it definitely isn't Navy propaganda, neither is it slanted the other way as one might expect from the mainstream media (especially PBS).
For anyone with a spare 10 hours to burn, I think you'd enjoy it, especially Duke, TZ and the other former Squids in the squad. There's not really even any big words, so Ma might get a kick out of it too
PS. If you just want to catch a couple of the episodes with the best flying sequences, give #2 and #7 a shot.
