The Souvenir I Brought Home From an Aircraft Carrier

By Cliff Potts, CSO, and Editor-in-Chief of WPS News

Baybay City, Leyte, Philippines — April 22, 2026

Parents visiting their kids in the Navy usually expect to come home with a few souvenirs.

A baseball cap.
A T-shirt.
Maybe a coffee mug with an anchor on it.

I came home with a cold that could have knocked over a mule.

Years ago, I visited my son while he was serving aboard the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CVN-65). The Enterprise, for those keeping score at home, was one of the most famous ships the U.S. Navy ever built — a nuclear-powered floating airport that carried thousands of sailors and a full air wing of aircraft.

It was basically a small city that happened to float.

And like any city, it had its own germs.

The Floating Petri Dish Theory

At the time, I didn’t know that.

All I knew was that a few days after visiting the ship, while driving back toward Texas, I started feeling like I had been run over by a truck that then backed up to make sure the job was done properly.

Fever.
Chills.
Exhaustion.

The kind of sick where you can’t decide if you should lie down, sit down, or just apologize to everyone around you for still being alive.

I spent about a week like that.

Later on, my son explained what had probably happened.

Aircraft carriers are essentially floating mixing bowls of people from all over the United States. When you pack four or five thousand sailors into one ship—sleeping, eating, working, and breathing the same recycled air—you end up with a pretty impressive collection of ordinary viruses circulating around.

Nothing exotic.

Just every flavor of the common cold known to modern science.

Regional Viruses Are a Thing

Here’s the part most civilians never think about.

Viruses circulate differently in different parts of the country. People in Texas get exposed to slightly different strains than people in Ohio or California. Your immune system gets used to the local neighborhood germs.

Then suddenly you walk into a floating city full of people from everywhere else.

Congratulations.

Your immune system has just been introduced to a nationwide convention of rhinoviruses.

Nobody Gets Out Clean

The funny part is that nobody on the ship is really immune to the process either.

A sailor might be used to the viruses circulating around their hometown, but once they arrive on the carrier they are suddenly sharing breathing space with thousands of other people carrying different strains.

It becomes a sort of biological potluck dinner where everyone brings something slightly different to the table.

Sometimes what they bring is a cold.

The Carrier Is Gone, But the Lesson Remains

The Enterprise itself has since been retired. After more than half a century of service, the old ship was decommissioned in 2017 and is slowly being dismantled.

But the lesson remains.

If you ever visit a large military ship, enjoy the tour. Admire the engineering. Thank the sailors.

Just remember that when you step aboard a floating city with thousands of people from all over the country, you are briefly entering their microbial ecosystem.

And sometimes that ecosystem sends you home with a parting gift.

Mine lasted about a week.

Frankly, I would have preferred the coffee mug.

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