A strenuous nine months at sea. No days off. Enduring repeated missile and drone attacks. Reports of supply shortages and deteriorating mental health among the crew.
Now the 5,000 or so sailors and Marines aboard a beleaguered aircraft carrier, the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln, will have a few days off. The warship will dock Wednesday in Thailand, local officials said, near Pattaya, a beach town notorious for its freewheeling atmosphere and red-light districts.
The crew is expected to have shore leave until Sunday, when the carrier is set to depart for its home port of San Diego, the mayor of Pattaya, Poramet Ngampichet, said after meeting with U.S. officials. He welcomed the port call and said the area was well prepared for the influx of visitors, noting that Chonburi Province, which includes Pattaya, receives 28 million visitors a year.
“Handling 4,000 to 5,000 people is actually routine for Pattaya,” Mr. Poramet said. “We are not worrying and we are glad to welcome them because we are confident they have high purchasing power.”
The stopover comes after a long Middle East deployment for the Lincoln, which has become an emblem of how the war in Iran has strained the U.S. military. The nuclear-powered ship left San Diego on Nov. 21, briefly docking in Guam in December and later picking up supplies in Oman. Resupplying the carrier became a problem after Iran destroyed a vital U.S. Navy base in Bahrain early in the fighting.
In recent weeks, Democratic senators have raised concerns about the carrier’s lengthy deployment, including reports of poor living conditions and a lack of downtime for the crew.
“There have been widespread reports of shortages of basic supplies, water contamination, plumbing issues, deteriorating mental health, deck safety concerns and disruptions in the mail system, which have caused many care packages in route to the ship to be lost in transit for months,” Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut, said in a letter to Defense Department officials.
In Pattaya, officials are expecting the crew members to spend an average of $100 to $150 each per day, a welcome source of income during low season. Mr. Poramet said the city was seeing even fewer visitors than usual this year because of high fuel prices brought on by the war in Iran.
“The places they can visit are quite varied,” he said. “It is not only pubs and bars. They can also go to attractions, shopping malls or cultural sites, which should help spread the income across many segments of Pattaya’s service sector.”
U.S. service members have been coming to Pattaya for R&R since the Vietnam War, when it was a small fishing village and American troops were stationed nearby.
Over time, the sex trade flourished and Pattaya, about 60 miles south of Bangkok, became a popular destination. Its most notorious red-light district, Walking Street, is a major tourist attraction.
Prostitution is illegal in Thailand; but penalties are small and the law is seldom enforced, unless minors are involved or trafficking is suspected. The government generally turns a blind eye to the sex industry because it is a significant economic generator, including bringing revenue to hotels, restaurants and other businesses.
Mr. Poramet said that U.S. officials had told him that the crew would be barred from visiting certain nightlife areas and from buying or smoking marijuana, which is legal and widely sold in Thailand. They also will be prohibited from participating in water sports such as parasailing and jet skiing.
On Saturday night, the Pattaya police arrested 25 women for soliciting along Pattaya’s beachfront promenade and other public areas.
Pattaya’s police superintendent, Col. Anek Srathongyoo, said that the sweep’s purpose was in part to learn what kind of sex workers were coming to Pattaya, so the police were better prepared for the Lincoln’s arrival. He said he did not expect misbehavior from crew members, but the police would conduct extra patrols to help keep them from harm.
“I believe that, even though they have been pent up on the ship, they still have military discipline,” he said. “If they were to do something illegal, they could be detained and risk not getting back with their group at the same time.”