In the middle of the ocean, a thousand miles from nowhere, a floating city rises above the sea. Twenty-four stories high, three football fields long, carrying 5,000 sailors and marines and 85 military aircraft – this is the USS Nimitz.  From May to November 2005, a team of documentary filmmakers embedded aboard the USS Nimitz as it deployed to the Persian Gulf in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.  The result is a raw and honest look at the United States Navy and its role at a critical turning point in this controversial war.  With startling intimacy, CARRIER follows a core group of subjects as they navigate personal conflicts around their jobs, family, faith, patriotism and the rites of passage -- all against the extraordinary backdrop of the war in Iraq.