Thousands of crew members of the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier streamed into Thailand’s seaside resort city of Pattaya on Thursday, after more than 260 days at sea.
After clambering down from buses, laden with luggage, several service members said they were excited to be in Thailand. One sailor said “it was alright” when asked about the lengthy deployment, but declined to speak further.
The Lincoln was supporting the U.S. war against Iran, and its deployment included a record-setting uninterrupted time at sea. Its lengthy deployment drew concerns last month about deteriorating mental health among the crew as well as shortages of key food supplies aboard.
The Navy downplayed any problems, and President Donald Trump commented that the deployment was “not nearly long enough.”
The ship has been deployed for a total of 286 days, according to the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok. Its total uninterrupted time at sea before Wednesday’s arrival in Chonburi province was 264 days.
The ship is expected to depart Thailand this weekend and continue its journey back to the U.S.
Vendors and travel agents gathered outside the Hard Rock Hotel, the designated pickup and drop-off point for troops traveling from the Lincoln, which is docked nearby at Laem Chabang port.
They swarmed service members as they arrived, offering a range of souvenirs and services. Many sailors waved them away while waiting for their rides.
Two other ships from the Lincoln’s strike group are docked elsewhere in Thailand, with the destroyer USS Frank E. Petersen Jr. at Chonburi’s Sriracha port and the cruiser USS Robert Smalls in Map Ta Phut in neighboring Rayong province.
A-ngoon Sombat traveled 200 kilometers between Pattaya and the central province of Ayutthaya to sell colorful braided bracelets to the visiting crew, as she does every time she hears a U.S. ship is coming for a port call in Chonburi province.
She set up opposite the hotel entrance and had managed to make some sales, but said she is still unsure if business will be good this week.
“There are many vendors around. It’s really up to how lucky each of us are,” she said.
A spot just outside the Laem Chabang port had turned into a small attraction by Wednesday evening, as people gathered to catch a glimpse of the Lincoln.
People arrived by car and motorcycle to peer through a mesh fence at the ship, which is as long as about three American football fields. They took photos and videos, excitedly chatted with strangers about their chance to see the vessel.
American Keith Eldridge, who has lived in Thailand for five years, traveled from the neighboring province of Chachoengsao just to see the ship. He was too late to catch the Lincoln docking but found the viewing spot through a recommendation from other enthusiasts he met along the way.
He said it was impressive for him to get to lay his eyes on this “engineering marvel.”
“When you get to look at something so big, wrapped up with so much technology, the radars, the sonars, the weapon systems, the propulsion systems, it is truly amazing that we can build it, float it, and we fight from it,” he said.
The Lincoln’s commanding officer Capt. Dan Keeler said the ship will be heading home soon, but may make further supply stops. He declined to comment on the exact date the strike group is expected back in the U.S.
There's no getting around the fact that Thailand's seaside resort of Pattaya has a lingering reputation for sex tourism, even though that's only part of the story. The Marines will be following millions of other tourists, including a significant number of US military personnel who take part every year in major land and sea exercises nearby with their Thai counterparts.
Social media ahead of the Lincoln's visit has been awash with jibes about lusty sailors, but recent visitors say the development of more family-friendly attractions means the new, more wholesome Pattaya overshadows its former seedy self.
Many US Navy ships dock at nearby deep-water facilities such as Laem Chabang Port and the Sattahip Royal Thai Navy Base, both less than an hour away by road.
Shore leave spending boosts the local economy, and mission duties often include community outreach in and around the city, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) southeast of Bangkok. That includes specialized medical care for villagers or putting in volunteer time at orphanages.
But when hundreds or thousands of sailors have a chance to enjoy some onshore liberty, the navy deploys members of its Shore Patrol to work side by side with Thai police to defuse any trouble.
Navy personnel are likely to have been reminded that, though rarely enforced, the law in Thailand technically bans prostitution, and paying for sex is a punishable offense under Article 134 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the legal framework for the US armed forces.
The military connection goes back at least to the Vietnam War era, when at its height, 40,000-50,000 U.S. service personnel were stationed in Thailand, largely in support of that conflict's air operations. Bases used by US forces dotted Thailand, and all attracted their share of nightlife activities.
Pattaya was close to both the Sattahip naval base and the Thai Navy's U-Tapao airfield, which hosted US Air Force B-52 bombers.
Elizabeth Becker, author of "Overbooked: The Exploding Business of Travel and Tourism," wrote that American GIs during the Vietnam War flocked to Pattaya, a once-quiet fishing village, "and it turned into a raunchy seaside playground."
The military facilities brought a continuous stream of personnel through Pattaya, while the 1966 Entertainment Places Act created a legal gray area allowing the sex trade to operate semi-openly in bars and massage parlors — as something of a private arrangement between customer and employee — despite a 1960 law criminalizing prostitution.
Pattaya also had a beach that could be reached relatively easily from Bangkok, which positioned it well for a transition to civilian visitors after the withdrawal of U.S. military forces in 1976.
Pattaya's infrastructure of go-go clubs and other entertainment venues was then marketed to travelers arriving in greater numbers due to cheaper air travel and a boom in package tours. Sex tourism became entrenched. Severe economic disparities brought many young women and men from Thailand's poor northeastern Isan region to work in Pattaya's lucrative nightlife sector. They earned wages far exceeding rural agricultural incomes, allowing them to send money home to their families.
Prostitution is culturally taboo, but sex work has quietly flourished in Thai society for centuries, with the domestic market dwarfing the more glitzy one for foreigners.
Pattaya underwent another evolution in the 1990s, with a new wave of tourists coming from what had been the Soviet Union, after communism there collapsed in late 1991.
Embracing modern globalized tourism, the newcomers came on direct charter flights, even from provincial cities, to the civilian airport at U-Tapao, benefiting from a 30-day visa-free agreement. Signs in Cyrillic sprouted around Pattaya as businesses catered to this new clientele. Russians were not the only people calling Pattaya their home away from home. The agreeable climate and allegedly laissez-faire attitude of local law enforcement attracted fugitives from justice and criminals from all over the world, including Russian, Eastern European, and Western European gangsters as well as drug-dealing motorcycle gangs from Australia.
Pattaya has tried with some success to rebrand itself as a family destination, with parks, malls and luxury resorts largely in surrounding areas that attract large numbers of Thais and visitors from other Asian nations. A popular water park is themed around Cartoon Network shows. The Nong Nooch Tropical Botanical Garden displays vast stretches of flora and hosts cultural shows. The Sanctuary of Truth Museum is an ornate all-wood structure over 100 meters (yards) tall.
There are also golf courses, running events and day trips to nearby islands. Travelers can still get a taste of the spicier old Pattaya with a nocturnal stroll down "Walking Street," at the heart of the city's racy nightlife district.
