Pattaya’s miserable low season is about to get a 5,700-sailor jolt when the war-weary USS Abraham Lincoln arrives next week after 274 days in the Middle East.
The Nimitz-class, nuclear-powered aircraft carrier carrying a crew of about 5,000, will make the port call in Laem Chabang with two other ships from its strike group. The Royal Thai Navy said the stop is for rest, recuperation and logistics, with no joint exercise planned.
The shore leave is expected to run Sept. 2-6. The U.S. Navy did not identify the two ships accompanying USS Abraham Lincoln, but its principal escorts during the deployment have been the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers USS Frank E. Petersen Jr. and USS Spruance.
The Pearl Harbor-based Petersen is a Flight IIA Burke that has served as the strike group’s air-defense commander and carries about 330 sailors. San Diego-based Spruance is also a Flight IIA Burke with roughly 330-350 crew.
Laem Chabang, about 30 kilometers north of Pattaya, is is where the Lincoln docked during previous visits in 2006, 2008 and 2012.
USS Abraham Lincoln Visit a Godsend for Pattaya
The timing could hardly be better for Pattaya. Redlight Report reported Tuesday that August has been the city’s worst low-season month since the coronavirus pandemic, with bars empty across the city devoid of customers.
A few thousand sailors, Marines and aircrew with several days off, steady U.S. paychecks and months of pent-up demand should spread money well beyond Walking Street. Hotels, restaurants, shopping centers, taxis, tour operators, golf courses and entertainment businesses across Chonburi stand to benefit.
Past carrier visits show how quickly that spending adds up. When more than 5,300 sailors from the USS Kitty Hawk strike group came through Laem Chabang in 2006, the Tourism Authority of Thailand estimated the weeklong visit could generate as much as ฿20 million for local businesses – the equivalent of ฿27 million today.
More Than 8 Months at Sea
The USS Abraham Lincoln left San Diego in November 2025 and was redirected to the Middle East as the conflict with Iran intensified. It left the region Aug. 22 after nearly seven months there and was heading east through the Indian Ocean this week, according to USNI News.
By then, the carrier strike group had been deployed for 274 days. USS Abraham Lincoln had gone more than eight months since its last publicly declared port visit in Guam in December, setting a modern Navy record for consecutive days at sea without a declared stop.
The crew is arriving in Thailand after months of reports about fatigue, declining morale and difficult living conditions aboard. Military Times reported that two service members had attempted to jump overboard during the extended deployment, while families raised concerns about self-harm, shortages, broken equipment and sailors simply wearing down under the length of the cruise.
Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of U.S. Central Command, visited the ship Aug. 15 after the reports drew wider attention. Cooper acknowledged that extended service at sea affects sailors differently but said USS Abraham Lincoln had among the lowest numbers of mental health-related cases among the Navy’s 11 active aircraft carriers.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s attempts at spinning the reports about poor conditions aboard as “fake news” failed miserably.
The length of the cruise itself is not disputed. USNI News calculates that if USS Abraham Lincoln remains deployed through Sept. 12, it will reach 295 days and become the second-longest U.S. carrier deployment since the end of the Cold War.
The USS George Washington has relieved USS Abraham Lincoln in the Middle East, allowing the California-based carrier to begin the long trip home.
A 36-Year-Old Floating Airbase
Commissioned Nov. 11, 1989, the USS Abraham Lincoln, CVN-72, is the fifth Nimitz-class carrier and turns 37 in November.
The 1,092-foot ship displaces more than 100,000 tons at full load and is powered by two nuclear reactors. The propulsion system allows it to remain at sea for long periods without conventional fuel for the ship itself and drives the carrier at more than 30 knots.
The ship normally carries roughly 3,200 sailors, with the embarked air wing and other personnel pushing the total complement to around 5,000.
Carrier Air Wing 9 includes F-35C Lightning II stealth fighters, F/A-18E/F Super Hornets, EA-18G Growler electronic-warfare aircraft and E-2D Hawkeye airborne early-warning planes, along with MH-60 helicopters and CMV-22B Ospreys. USNI News has tracked the air wing and strike group throughout the deployment.
Lincoln Has a Long Pattaya History
The USS Abraham Lincoln’s most recent Thailand visit came in January 2012, when it arrived at Laem Chabang with the guided-missile cruiser USS Cape St. George.
The Pattaya Mail reported nearly 6,000 sailors poured into Pattaya for a five-day holiday. Mobile ATMs and money changers did brisk business, while bars, restaurants and hotels filled with Navy personnel.
Capt. John Alexander, then USS Abraham Lincoln’s commanding officer, summed up Pattaya’s appeal bluntly: there was nowhere sailors preferred more because the city offered good value, plenty to do and inexpensive hotels.
Before that came a September 2008 call that arrived during another lousy tourism period. Pattaya Mail reported that about 5,000 sailors came ashore for four days, filling bars, restaurants, souvenir shops and other businesses after months of falling tourist arrivals and shrinking local incomes.
The USS Abraham Lincoln’s April 2006 stop was historically more significant. It became the first U.S. aircraft carrier ever to dock pierside at Laem Chabang. Previously, carriers had anchored offshore and sailors reached land aboard liberty launches, sometimes having to wade ashore in rough conditions.
USS Abraham Lincoln arrived with USS Mobile Bay, USS Russell and USS Shoup. Sailors took liberty, joined organized tours and participated in community-service projects around Pattaya and Chonburi.
That visit later acquired a much darker place in U.S. Navy history.
The Fat Leonard Connection
The 2006 USS Abraham Lincoln visit became one of the early episodes in the massive “Fat Leonard” corruption scandal involving Malaysian contractor Leonard Glenn Francis and his Singapore-based company, Glenn Defense Marine Asia.
According to USNI News’ reconstruction of the case, Francis emailed Navy officers in April 2006 seeking their help to get Lincoln and its escorts sent to Laem Chabang, where his company could supply the ships with husbanding services.
Emails later disclosed by federal prosecutors showed Francis pushing Navy contacts to have all four ships dock pierside at Laem Chabang rather than sending some escorts to Sattahip. Navy officers applied pressure internally and Francis eventually received the answer he wanted. All four ships went to Laem Chabang.
Glenn Defense Marine Asia received nearly US$2 million in contracts connected to the visit, according to the subsequent federal case. A Naval Postgraduate School review of the scandal says Francis also made hundreds of thousands of dollars from security arrangements surrounding the carrier.
The scandal eventually exposed a network in which Francis showered Navy officers with expensive meals, hotel stays, travel, gifts and prostitutes in exchange for classified information and influence over ship movements and contracts.
Lincoln’s 2012 Thailand visit later surfaced in the scandal as well. Federal prosecutors said the Navy was billed $884,000 for husbanding services during a five-day Laem Chabang call and determined that more than $500,000 of that was overbilling, according to a Los Angeles Times account of the case.
The corruption case eventually became one of the largest scandals in U.S. Navy history.
Pattaya Shore Leave Has Changed
The thousands coming ashore next week will still find plenty of sailors heading straight for Pattaya nightlife, but modern carrier liberty has broadened considerably from the old stereotype of fleets of young men descending on Walking Street.
Recent Navy visits have seen sailors book hotels, restaurants, golf outings, sightseeing trips and tours across Thailand. Some spouses and family members fly to Thailand specifically to meet deployed crew members during liberty, turning the stop into a short reunion after months apart.
Community work remains part of the routine as well. During Lincoln’s 2006 and 2012 visits, sailors painted schools, worked at children’s homes, cleaned temples and visited local care facilities.
For Pattaya businesses, none of that matters less than the sheer size of the influx. The city is entering September with bar owners openly describing August as a washout, new venues delaying openings and others shutting their doors until customers return.
Five thousand Americans arriving after eight months without shore leave should change the view from behind more than a few empty bars.
