206: Somewhere in the Arabian Sea
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Today's radio show was first recorded back in January 2002. It was still very early after September 11th, and U.S. forces at the time were fighting in Afghanistan. Today, of course, there are many more Americans fighting in the region than the were back then. And so the show about what daily life is like for some men and women in the war on terror still seem relevant. Our enemies are in hiding, some lived in caves, some cross borders in disguise, some slipped from one safe ass to the next, sometimes they must go hungry. They pray. Meanwhile, on the largest warship ever built, stuck with the most advanced weapons in the world and a crew of over 5,000, an American sailor who's doing her job in the war against terror. My name is Priwan Scott, just filling up the vending machines. Is that your full-time job? Yes. It's your full-time job? Yeah. You're filling up the vending machines all day for 12 hours. A few weeks ago, this American life producer's Alex Bloomberg, Wendy Duran and I flew halfway around the world to spend some time with the USS John C. Stennis. Stennis is one of two aircraft carriers that are launching jet fighters to support the ground troops in Afghanistan. Alex is the one who talked to Priwan Scott. What are the big sellers? I'm like, right now it's Snickers and Starburst. Snickers goes real fast. What's the least favorite candy on onboard? Bonkers. The fruit juice. We've got boxes of those and still have them. Sometimes if we don't have anything else, we'll just put it all rolls of bonkers and they'll still stay in here. Some people hate bonkers, they just nobody likes bonkers. We've been ordering a whole lot of new stuff, so I've been trying to keep a whole variety of things in here. Crunchy munch, we just got the crunchy munch and the cheeses we normally didn't have in here. Cheesus? Yeah, the cheeses. The different kinds of cheeses in there. Our enemies need this to say are not supplied with crunchy munch. Yes, we're at war and yes that means thousands of Americans are in Kandahar and Kabul and are the very dangerous places doing very dangerous things. But for every person on the front lines, there are dozens back in the mob. With equipment, logistical support and cheeses. This aircraft carrier has only 50 or 60 pilots on board who actually drop bombs, who actually take part in combat. Everyone else is here, over 5,000 people to get them in the air. Back home, over the last few months, we've heard about the pilots, we've heard about
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