BANGKOK — The troubled USS Abraham Lincoln’s 5,000 sailors and Marines end more than 250 days at sea Wednesday at Thailand’s Pattaya, a notoriously raunchy town of beaches, pulsating bars, tourists and thousands of sex workers.
U.S. and Thai officials have arranged tight security for the aircraft carrier and two other accompanying U.S. Navy vessels’ Wednesday-to-Sunday stopover at Laem Chabang Port, 62 miles east of Bangkok.
A nervous Thai government is trying to balance the safety of the American service members against concerns that accommodating the U.S. ships might jeopardize relations with Iran. Bangkok has enjoyed excellent relations with Iran — a relationship most recently evidenced by a Tehran-brokered deal in November 2023 that freed 23 Thai hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.
Bangkok and Washington said the U.S. Navy Carrier Strike Group’s nuclear-powered Lincoln is on a rest-and-recreation visit, a Pentagon-Pattaya tradition dating back to the Vietnam War more than 50 years ago.
The flat, gray aircraft carrier’s arrival carrying fighter jets is officially portrayed as having nothing to do with Thailand’s relations with Iran.
Thailand’s “government is clear about its approach to international relations. We do not choose sides, but choose to create opportunities from relationships for the benefit of Thai people,” spokeswoman Rachada Dhnadirek said Wednesday regarding the Lincoln visit.
Military officials said Thailand will not load ammunition and other weapon supplies onto the ship. “There will be no joint operations,” Defense Ministry spokesman Rear Adm. Sursan Kongsiri said the same day. “The personnel have been at sea for a long time, and the U.S. side has acknowledged a certain level of stress.”
“Sailors have made multiple attempts to jump overboard and are experiencing other issues with their mental health,” Military.com reported, citing multiple sources. “A Navy sailor who jumped from the USS Abraham Lincoln this month is facing disciplinary action and could lose half his pay, according to charging documents and testimony from his wife.”
But the Pentagon and American commanders have downplayed the reports of low morale aboard the carrier.
“Of the U.S. Navy’s 11 active aircraft carriers, the Lincoln currently has among the lowest number of cases related to mental health,” U.S. Central Command Commander Adm. Brad Cooper said in mid-August.
“A small number of mental health cases were treated with no loss of life,” Navy acting Secretary Hung Cao said on Aug. 15.
“There is no question our young men and women have been pushed to their limits — but they have never broken,” Mr. Cao said. “Semper Fi and Hooyah.”
The U.S. and Thailand are non-NATO treaty allies and have conducted extensive joint military training exercises, including an annual Pentagon-led multinational Cobra Gold drill in Thailand.
Pattaya’s hotels, restaurants, shops, entertainment venues and other businesses are hoping the 5,000 sailors and Marines will splash some much-needed cash during Thailand’s low season — as long as the Americans remember that prostitution, despite the city’s flourishing sex industry, technically is illegal in Thailand.
Ahead of the carrier’s arrival, authorities are cracking down on prostitution, according to local media reports. Police arrested, fined and released 25 accused sex workers Saturday night along Pattaya’s beach, including 18 Thais, five Laotians and two Ugandans.
In addition to U.S. military police and Thai cops, undercover Thai police are expected to watch Pattaya’s vulnerable and popular sites for international security threats while imaginatively disguised as noodle vendors, taxi drivers and other civilians, the Pattaya News reported, citing the example of an undercover informant in the area who on Saturday wrapped himself in an orange robe and shaved his head to resemble a Buddhist monk.
He then helped arrest a real monk in a large temple, Wat Photi Samphan, during an alleged ketamine purchase.
In the past, American sailors and Marines with shore leave in the city of 350,000 have been warned to avoid sex workers and the ubiquitous licensed cannabis shops.
The U.S. Uniform Code of Military Justice forbids service members worldwide from patronizing prostitutes — even where prostitution is legal — and punishment can include a court-martial, dishonorable discharge, imprisonment, reduction in rank, fines or forfeiture of pay.
For the past few decades, Pattaya officials have painstakingly attempted to project the beach resort as a safe, sanitized family destination featuring delicious dining, fun sites, water sports and natural settings.
Brian Gruber, 71, a Thailand-based American author and former C-SPAN host, said he would go to Pattaya this week hoping to talk to the Lincoln’s crewmembers.
“I am curious what American sailors experienced during their 250 days at sea and what they know, saw and believe about their relentless bombings of Iran,” Mr. Gruber said in an interview.
Others see the arrival of the Americans as a chance to do business in a town built on taking care of visitors.
“Everyone is excited and ready to welcome them,” Pattaya Tourism Association Adviser Bhunanan Patanasin said.
The Lincoln, homeported in San Diego, enabled 1.5 million pounds of ordnance to be dropped on Iran by more than 10,000 sorties, Adm. Cooper said on Aug. 17.
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