NAVAL AIR STATION NORTH ISLAND, California – When the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) pulls away from its California berth for its upcoming deployment, the crew will embark with some homey creature comforts.

Comforts like cushy club chairs by an electric fireplace, reliable WIFI, a gaming room, a stadium-seating movie theatre. There are also phones, a pair of teal-blue rotary dial phones plain old telephone system lines, are tucked into two enclosed, sound-proofed booths. Those amenities are features of the new fully renovated library and lounge, courtesy of the USO, that have taken over three spaces of the Lincoln’s command religious ministries department. Each space is softened by teal bulkheads, wood laminated flooring, wood accents and artificial plants with steam punk-styled and contemporary artwork of the former Abraham Lincoln dress the walls. The newly named USO Center is the fifth to open aboard a Navy aircraft carrier, officials said, and similar redos of library and lounge spaces aboard four more carriers are planned this year. “What the Abraham Lincoln USO Center offers is a peaceful and modern respite for our sailors and Marines to rest and recharge and to reach their families while using wifi while at sea, to watch movies in legitimate movie theatre seating, and play video games in a purposefully designed video game room,” Capt. Pete Riebe, Lincoln’s commander, said during a Monday ceremony on the carrier’s flight deck.

Each renovation is intended to provide comfort and a healthier work-life in mind for the sailors and Marines who live and work every day while at sea. “We ask a lot of our sailors and Marines. We ask them to uphold the values of our nation. We ask them to sacrifice time away from their families, loved ones and friends,” Riebe said. “For their sacrifices, it’s absolutely fitting that we provide our Abraham Lincoln sailors and Marines a suitable space to truly unwind.” Lincoln ship’s company is preparing to take on its carrier air wing for a planned overseas deployment later this month.

The USO Center, was transformed over the past month by a team of USO volunteers, contracted workers and ship’s crew after a month-long pre-deployment training at sea. It joins other modernized libraries aboard four other aircraft carriers, including USS George H.W. Bush (CVN-77), the first to renovate the spaces in 2023. “This is critically important… This is what gets after quality of service, because this combines quality of life and quality of work,” said Vice Adm. Daniel Cheever, commander of Naval Air Forces and Naval Air Force Pacific. “This is not just a USO Center. This is our commitment to this aircraft carrier and to the Navy that we are here to support you, no matter where the mission takes you,” Plamp said. “This is the start of a long relationship with the Lincoln,” said Christopher Plamp, USO’s chief operations officer and a retired Air Force colonel and pilot. “In the Navy, I don’t think the USO was doing all that we could do, because their main deploying force is on these ships,” he told the audience. “We’re now here. We want to be here. We want to sustain here.” The renovations cost roughly $200,000 each, all covered by USO donations, Plamp said.

Three more carriers will get their renovations by year’s end, “with the goal by the end of next year to be on all the CVNs. They might be in existing libraries “or whatever spaces that a ship can allow us to have. The whole idea… is to really add a morale element, where it gives them kind of a space that isn’t Navy, isn’t shipboard or doesn’t feel like it.” Bush was the first carrier identified, and a donor quickly stepped up to cover the renovation costs, said Plamp. USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69) got its renovation before its deployment last year. “We pushed that one up to do it quickly, to make sure that when they deployed, they had a centre on board,” Plamp said. The other libraries-turned-USO Centres are aboard USS George Washington (CVN-73) and USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76).

The afloat USO Centres are popular, and spaces get booked up. “It’s been tremendous. It’s booked up. We had over 8,000 visits to one of our centres on one carrier the last month,” he said. “That’s a lot of them telling us this is a highly-needed type of thing,” he added, and it dovetails with the Navy’s plans to make life at sea more comfortable for sailors. “When you’re in an industrial environment like this, a ship is made to be a military facility,” Riebe said. “So to go in and sit in a comfortable couch, take a pause, talk to your shipmates, read a book, be on your phone or internet, play a game – whatever that activity is… and it really does not feel like you’re on a ship.” The 5,500 members of the Lincoln’s crew and embarked air wing will see better WIFI connections, which on ships and at sea can be sporadic.