After 264 days at sea, USS Lincoln crew hits Pattaya for long-awaited port call
PATTAYA, Thailand — Sailors from the USS Abraham Lincoln fanned out across this beach resort city on Thursday, beginning a long-awaited port call after a Middle East deployment that left the carrier at sea without a break for 264 days.
The carrier has supported U.S. military operations against Iran during its deployment, and the unbroken stretch at sea was record-setting. The ship has been deployed for 286 days, according to the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok, including 264 consecutive days at sea before it arrived Wednesday in Chonburi province.
That prolonged rotation raised concerns last month about the mental health of the crew and shortages of key food supplies. Navy officials downplayed those concerns. President Donald Trump responded at the time by saying the deployment was “not nearly long enough.”
At the Hard Rock Hotel, the designated shuttle point for sailors traveling from the carrier, buses arrived in waves. Crew members climbed out with heavy bags and tired faces. Several said they were excited to be in Thailand. One sailor offered a muted review of the deployment, saying it was “alright,” and then declined to speak further.
Outside the hotel, vendors and tour operators had set up shop and rushed the sailors as soon as they appeared, offering souvenirs, local tours and rides. Most of the newly arrived service members waved them away while they waited for friends or transport.
A-ngoon Sombat was one of the vendors, selling small braided bracelets in bright colors. She had traveled 200 kilometers to join the crowd, as she said she does whenever she hears an American carrier is coming to Chonburi. She had made a few sales but was uncertain how the week would go. “There are many vendors around. It’s really up to how lucky each of us are,” she said.
The Lincoln was not the only Navy ship in the area. The destroyer USS Frank E. Petersen Jr. was docked at Sriracha, and the cruiser USS Robert Smalls was in Map Ta Phut in the neighboring province of Rayong, both part of the carrier’s strike group.
The carrier itself had become a local attraction. On Wednesday evening, a viewing spot near Laem Chabang port filled with people who parked cars and motorcycles along the road to catch a look at the ship through a fence. The Lincoln is nearly as long as three American football fields, and visitors took photos and swapped exclamations as they stared at the vessel.
Keith Eldridge, an American living in Thailand for five years, drove from Chachoengsao province to see the ship. He arrived too late to watch it dock, but other enthusiasts directed him to the makeshift lookout. “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.
Capt. Dan Keeler, the Lincoln’s commanding officer, said the ship will be heading home soon and may make additional supply stops along the way. He declined to say when the strike group is expected back in the United States. The carrier is expected to depart Thailand this weekend, sending sailors back out for what they hope is the last long leg home.