All Hands - On a bright May morning, more than 5,000 sailors and Marines bid farewell to their loved ones before the mammoth USS Nimitz pulls out of Coronado, California, and sets a course for Hawaii and beyond. Among the men and women who live and work on board are an airman who describes the ship as a small town; a pilot who considers the ship a powerful instrument of diplomacy; a sailor who questions "why we're fighting to defend someone else's freedom when we barely have our own"; a cook who dishes out 15,000 meals a day; and an airman who has just learned that his girlfriend is pregnant. Controlled Chaos -The men and women of the USS Nimitz live beneath the runway of a major airport. They sleep on the roof of a nuclear power plant. It's a perilous environment. Their only bulwark against danger and chaos is to bond with their units on board the ship. The "Shooters," who launch the jets, have a "Circle of Trust"; the Ordies (ordnance personnel) pride themselves on being a "mafia"; the F-18 squadrons - the Black Aces, the Hoboes and the Marine Red Devils - are tight fraternities.
