USS Abraham Lincoln Pulls Into Thailand A Rusty Mess After 286 Days At Sea

At sea for a total of 286 days, including over 40 days of combat operations in the war with Iran and only two days at port, the crew of the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln has at last made landfall once again. Docking in Pattaya, Thailand, the 5,000 personnel of the floating airport will get shore leave for the next few days. Their record-breaking deployment time was reportedly stressful to the point of suicidal, with multiple reported overboard attempts, scary messages to families back home, insufficient food due to supply bases getting bombed, and woeful living conditions. President Donald Trump famously said that this deployment was "not nearly long enough." The reporting seems to have been bad enough to get him to change his mind.

As the USS George Washington replaces the Lincoln in the Persian Gulf, the latter's crew will get to unwind in a city with a long history of welcoming American military members, for better or worse. The small seaside village was transformed by the Vietnam War into a giant party town for weary and battle-worn veterans, featuring bars, massage parlors, and pharmacies with much laxer prescription laws. Prostitution was rampant then, and even after America lost the war, waves of other foreign tourists kept the trade going. AP News reports that the city has made efforts to clean up its act a bit, but its reputation remains.

For a crew that was reportedly as stressed as it was on the longest carrier deployment ever, this seems like the Navy letting them blow off steam. Though the town is very excited on its surface — stores are hanging banners welcoming the Americans and their dollars — it's also been taking steps to contain the situation. Soi 6, a red light district, will be forbidden after dark. Pharmacies won't patronize crewmembers. The police have spent the last week cracking down on prostitution and "stepping up security," per CBS News. Security for the sailors... or from them? Thai officials would just like to keep the waters smooth.

Is it a good idea to take shore leave here? The other option would have been to just keep on sailing home to San Diego, California. That would be another week or so until making port, but the sailors and Marines would be reunited with their families faster. On the other hand, maybe everybody just needed to get off that ship as fast as possible. Just a messy situation all around. Maybe we shouldn't be putting our men and women in uniform into such situations.

As for the Lincoln itself, it's sure looking worse for wear after its long voyage, with visible rusting on its hull. The ship equivalent of being bleary-eyed and unshaven, it's still perfectly capable of doing its job; it just looks like it needs a shower. Again, this is a record-long deployment, so the hull has taken an unprecedented battering from the wine-dark sea.

The Lincoln's captain, Dan Keeler, doesn't seem to think it's a big deal. The ship "looks like a dirty car in a parking lot," Capt. Keeler shrugged off to press. In terms of the conditions on board, "There's a disconnect between reporting back home and what's happening on the ship." Maybe the showers were slightly less moldy than we thought. As for his commander-in-chief's claim that the deployment wasn't long enough, all he could say was, "So, the president speaks for himself. That is what I think about that." Indeed.

Rest well, brave sailors and Marines. You've earned it. Just be good to the good people of Thailand, ok?