Extreme makeover, US Navy edition: See the new apartment-like digs on US aircraft carriers

These extreme carrier makeovers come courtesy of the nonprofit United Service Organization. One of the latest recipients is the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, whose shipboard library and lounge were transformed into an afloat USO Center.

The ship deployed in July with its carrier strike group and has been operating in the Arabian Gulf region amid heightened Middle East tensions in the Red Sea.

Before the Lincoln left its home berth in San Diego, USO-contracted workers and sailors spent about a month transforming four nondescript spaces into a library, lounge, theater, and video gaming room. The redesign changed the look and feel of the new USO Center overseen by the ship’s chaplains and religious ministries department.

“What has been accomplished over the last month is nothing short of remarkable,” Capt. Pete Riebe, the ship’s commander, said during a July ribbon-cutting ceremony on the flight deck.

The USO Center offers “a peaceful and modern respite for our sailors and Marines to rest and recharge, and to reach their families using wifi while at sea, watch movies in a legitimate movie theater seating, and play video games in a purposefully designed video game room,” Riebe said. Sailors and Marines “work hard every day, especially while at sea … This is not easy work, and it entails a great deal of personal sacrifice.”

“Maintaining a work-life balance while underway is critical to managing the day-to-day stress involved with our line of work,” he said.

The Lincoln is the fifth flattop to get the USO renovation.

“The USO is always looking for where are we not servicing,” Christopher Plamp, USO chief operating officer, said. “The carriers were a key one … They deploy on a regular basis, and they stay out for quite some time.”

The initiative to provide shipboard crews a cozy respite meshes with the Navy’s push to improve sailors’ quality of life, Plamp said. The ship carries nearly 5,000 personnel on deployment and is home to many of its younger enlisted sailors even when it’s back at its homeport.

The afloat USO Centers have been a hit.

The response “has been tremendous. It’s booked up all the time,” he said. “This is a lot of them telling us this is a highly needed thing.”

The Norfolk-based USS George H.W. Bush was the first to get its USO center, which opened in June 2023 in the ship’s library. The USO center aboard USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, sponsored by the National Football League, was completed before the carrier left home for what turned out to be an extended Middle East deployment defending against Houthi attacks.

Other shipboard USO Centers are established aboard USS George Washington and USS Ronald Reagan. The USO also built a smaller afloat center aboard USS Mount Whitney, a command ship based in Gaeta, Italy.

The renovated spaces are highly appealing.

An electric fireplace framed by herringbone tiles catches one’s eye when stepping into the ship’s renovated library. On the mantel are books and artificial potted plants. Tan sofa chairs, a colorful carpet, and wood-patterned vinyl flooring lend a homey feel. Lamps and LED ceiling lights cast warmer tones than the traditional fluorescent ceiling lights. All those items and furniture pieces would be strapped, tied down, or stowed when the ship encounters rough seas, as naval regulations require.

The renovated library “feels like home, and that’s important out here because we’re so far away from home,” said Machinist’s Mate 3rd Class Caleb Davis, a Lincoln sailor who hails from Springfield, Illinois. “I don’t feel like I’m on a ship when I’m in here, I just feel like I’m in a lounge or something.”

“I mostly come in here to listen to music, and it’s just a nice environment to get away and just relax,” Davis said.

The ship’s movie theater got a facelift and 20 stadium-style theater seats. A video gaming room is tucked into a smaller space nearby.

“Much of America and much of my crew love their video games,” Riebe said.

The lounge features bar-height tables and chairs, ottomans, cushioned chairs, flat-screen TVs, video gaming monitors, and computer stations. Starlink satellites provide dedicated WiFi and increased bandwidth so sailors and Marines can check their social media, surf the internet, and phone, text, or video chat with loved ones.

“It’s nice to have a quiet place to talk to my wife,” said Aerographer’s Mate Airman Jaden Robinson, from Clarksville, Indiana.

For those personal conversations, sailors have more private options. Two soundproof booths feature rotary phones and provide a more intimate option to make calls. There’s a 15-minute limit for the booth.

The Lincoln’s skipper is loving the new spaces.

“Between the flooring and the paint and the décor, it’s sort of a demilitarized zone. It just screams homey comfort, not warship,” Riebe, who has seen little change in shipboard décor over his 34-year naval career, told BI. The goal is “to try to provide a space that lets our sailors unwind, recharge, and sort of take care of themselves.”

Rather than a place with “old dusty books on a shelf in a lounge, now it feels like somewhere where you would want to hang out and game or surf on your phone or connect with family at home,” he said.

Snacks and drinks are close by, courtesy of the USO. The spaces also support special events and activities.

“The USO library is a good place to relax and have fun with your friends. The Navy isn’t all just serious and hard work. It’s also about getting to experience new things and sometimes have fun,” said Machinist’s Mate Fireman Nabor Anica, from Concord, North Carolina.

“In here, you’ve got a quiet area to talk to your family. You’ve got card games,” Anica said. “You’ve got a theater if you just want to sit back and watch a movie — and if you want candy, you can participate in events to win candy.”

The USO spaces, including the library, sit just below the flight deck, and the dozens of embarked fighter jets and airborne early warning planes rumble off the ship’s catapults or thump onto the angled landing strip overhead.

“It’s a little bit noisy. They hear them land, they hear them take off,” Riebe said. “There’s only so much you can do when we’re talking about jet engines, overhead catapult landings, catapult takeoffs, and arrested landings.”

Still, the new spaces provide respite from the hard industrial environment that is aircraft carrier life everywhere else.

“A ship is made to be a military facility, so there is no comfort. That’s secondary,” said Plamp, a 25-year US Air Force veteran. “They’re able to go in and just sit in a comfortable chair or sit on a comfortable couch, take a pause, talk to your shipmates, read a book, be on your phone or on the internet, play a game, or whatever that activity is.”

“It gives them a place that isn’t Navy. It isn’t shipboard — or doesn’t feel like it,” he said.

That may go a long way toward boosting the quality of life for seagoing crews, a big focus for the Navy as it struggles to recruit and retain Gen Z.

“40% of my crew is [age] 22 or less, and 60% of my crew is 24 or less, so this is a young man and woman’s game,” Riebe said.

The USO and Navy aim to update all 11 carriers by next year. The Harry S. Truman unveiled its renovated spaces last week, with USS Gerald R. Ford slated to be next.

“A lot of that is based on the ship’s schedule and their availability and deployment,” said Plamp.

The renovated and refurbished spaces vary by ship, depending on what’s available, whether it’s the recreation room, lounge, library, or other designated rooms. On average, the cost for the renovations runs more than $200,000, he said.

“We get donor dollars that then pay for these as we go forward,” he added.

That cost “varies depending on how the space is, what we have to do, how much the flooring costs that we’re buying,” he noted. At times, sailors have volunteered and helped offset some labor expenses.

Gidget Fuentes is a freelance writer based in Southern California and has reported extensively on military and veterans issues.