bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

moreOnThisArticles

urlAlias

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

paywallTypes

corrections

sponsorType

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

socialHeadline

headline

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

publishedDate

additionalInfoBoxes

images

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

createdDate

sponsor

factSheets

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

copyrighted

customTimezone

liveContents

Agence France-Presse

Day and night, warplanes take off from the USS Eisenhower for Iraq or Syria. But below deck on the vast aircraft carrier, the fight against the Islamic State group (IS) feels a world away.
Beneath the roar of fighter jets soaring into the sky some 5,000 people, including 1,000 women, provide everything from a dentist’s clinic to the daily newspaper to ensure the 200 pilots on board are in top form for their missions.
A host of specialists take care of aircraft maintenance, weapon preparation and the nuclear reactors that power the warship.
But in the labyrinthine corridors, where the air is muggy with fuel fumes and sweat, young sailors run a bustling city.
Some barely out of their teens, they work in the huge kitchens, chapel, desalination plant, medical centre – and hair salon.
I’m happy even though all I see is mostly water
Andrew Garcia, on-board radiologist
For roughly seven months they labour seven days a week with little time off and rarely a chance to see the light of day.
Come nighttime, they share huge barracks where only small blue curtains around each bunk bed offer a semblance of privacy.
Andrew Garcia, who joined the navy to travel and learn a skill, is the ship’s radiologist and spends his time examining injuries from hands trapped in the vessel’s heavy doors or tumbles down the steep and narrow staircases between decks.
He shrugs off a question on how it feels to be part of the battle against IS, saying he is “just providing the help needed on board”.
The 26-year-old, who carries out up to 30 X-rays a day, said he enlisted “to see other things”, quipping: “I’m happy even though all I see is mostly water”.

In the waste treatment room, beads of sweat cling to 36-year-old NCO Jamalli Hill. He pledged in 2004 to serve 20 years both for the experience and to save up the money he needs to open his own air conditioning business.
In the meantime, along with 16 underlings who work eight-hour shifts, he spends his time crushing or incinerating garbage.
Christine Smith, 25, who signed up for five years in 2013 because she loved to swim, though here she spends her days behind the counter of the on-board Starbucks. Her minuscule coffee kingdom sits in a corner of the main dining hall but not far enough down to escape the roar of engines at each arrival or departure.
“Obviously they don’t tell us what we are doing. But I’m sure we’re accomplishing something,” she said. Minutes later, the voice of Captain Paul Spedero, resounds throughout the boat on loud speakers.
“We conducted a hundred missions last week, with several very effective strikes in Iraq and Syria,” he announces, before bringing news to warm the hearts of the crew, fed up with eating frozen food. A provisions ship is on its way, and salads and fresh fruit will be on the menu “in the next few days”.


Starbucks to salons: life below deck a world away from IS on US Navy’s air craft carriers

US Navy sailors wait in line for Starbucks coffee on board of the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Photo: Reuters

epa05365514 A handout image released by the US Navy Media Content Operations on 14 June 2016 shows US aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69) transiting the Strait of Gibraltar into the Mediterranean Sea, 13 June 2016. Dwight D. Eisenhower, flagship of the Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group, is conducting naval operations in the US 6th Fleet area of operations in support of US national security interests in Europe. EPA/MICHAEL R. GENDRON/US NAVY / HANDOUT HANDOUT EDITORIAL USE ONLY

News

World

United States & Canada

A host of specialists take care of aircraft maintenance, weapon preparation, but in the labyrinthine corridors, young sailors run a bustling city
