Phuket tourism is about to get a 5,120-sailor jolt when the USS George H.W. Bush group arrives this weekend for six days of shore leave after months of U.S. operations against Iran.
The latest Thai government schedule has the USS Geeourge H.W. Bush and USS Delbert D. Black visiting Phuket Oct. 4-9, with about 4,800 personnel aboard the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier George H.W. Bush and another 320 aboard the guided-missile destroyer Delbert D. Black.
The ships will use Phuket Deep Sea Port in Wichit, where police and U.S. Embassy officials have been working on security, traffic and shore-leave arrangements. Police are preparing transportation routes to Patong, Kata, Karon and Phuket Old Town, giving hotels, restaurants, shops, tour operators, taxis, spas and nightlife businesses a shot at six days of American spending.
Phuket Could Use 5,120 Sailors
Phuket welcomed 9.2 million visitors from January through August, down 1.76% from the same period last year. Foreign arrivals fell 2.52% to 6.79 million and tourism revenue slipped 0.99% to ฿356.21 billion, according to Tourism Authority of Thailand figures released this week.
Five thousand sailors won’t reverse a year’s tourism numbers, but Pattaya got a good look last month at what an aircraft carrier can do for business in a few days.
The USS Abraham Lincoln arrived at Laem Chabang Sept. 2 with about 5,700 sailors and Marines after a grueling Middle East deployment. By the time it left, Pattaya Mayor Poramet Ngampichet estimated the visit had generated about ฿100 million in local revenue.
The sailors didn’t spend it all on Walking Street. During the Lincoln’s three days of shore leave, they filled restaurants, shopped for clothes and gifts, booked hotel rooms, visited spas and tourist attractions and hit nightlife venues across Pattaya. Lucifer disco, Jalwa Club and Hot Tuna were among the businesses that drew Navy crowds, while other bars saw little or no benefit.
Phuket has more ground to cover, but Patong is specifically included in police planning for the USS George H.W. Bush visit. Bangla Road probably won’t have trouble finding a few customers.
6 Months Deployed, 5 in Middle East
The USS George H.W. Bush left Norfolk March 31 with Carrier Air Wing 7 and more than 5,000 personnel assigned to its carrier strike group. It sailed around southern Africa and entered the U.S. Central Command area April 23, joining the American naval buildup for the war with Iran.
The USS George H.W. Bush has remained in the region for more than five months. USNI News still had the carrier in the Arabian Sea Sept. 28, only days before its scheduled arrival in Phuket.
Its aircraft have been directly involved in the Iran operation. On May 8, an F/A-18 Super Hornet from USS George H.W. Bush fired precision weapons into the smokestacks of two Iranian-flagged oil tankers that U.S. Central Command said were trying to enter an Iranian port in violation of the American blockade. Both ships were disabled without being sunk.
The deployment also has had a fatal accident. An MH-60S Seahawk helicopter from USS George H.W. Bush went down in the Arabian Sea July 1 with four crew members aboard. Three were rescued, but Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 5 commanding officer Cmdr. Gabriel Edwards was lost. The Navy searched more than 14,000 square miles for 102 hours before ending the search.
The Navy was already looking for places to give its Middle East carrier crews some time ashore. Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle said in August that extended deployments and long stretches without port calls were wearing down sailors, with the Navy considering stops in Africa, India and as far east as Singapore.
Caudle specifically pointed to the Abraham Lincoln’s eight-and-a-half months without a port call as something the Navy did not want to repeat. Phuket gives the USS George H.W. Bush crew the break Lincoln went without for most of its deployment.
The USS George H.W. Bush Phuket visit does not appear to be Bush’s trip home. USS Theodore Roosevelt left San Diego Sept. 27 and is expected to relieve USS George Washington in the Middle East, not George H.W. Bush. The Navy has announced neither a replacement for Bush nor where the carrier will go after Phuket.
USS H.W. Bush: A 100,000-Ton Floating Airbase
Commissioned in 2009, USS George H.W. Bush is the 10th and final Nimitz-class aircraft carrier. The 1,092-foot ship displaces more than 100,000 tons at full load, runs on two nuclear reactors and can exceed 30 knots.
Carrier Air Wing 7 brings the aircraft that turn the USS George H.W. Bush into a floating airbase. Its nine squadrons include F/A-18 Super Hornet fighters, EA-18G Growler electronic-warfare jets, E-2 Hawkeye airborne command-and-control aircraft, MH-60 helicopters and CMV-22B Ospreys. USNI News has tracked the air wing throughout the Middle East deployment.
The USS George H.W. Bush is named for the 41st U.S. president, who was a Navy pilot during World War II. George H.W. Bush flew 58 combat missions and was shot down over Chichi Jima in 1944 before being rescued by the submarine USS Finback. He attended the carrier’s commissioning in 2009.
Delbert D. Black Has Been Gone Even Longer
The roughly 320 sailors coming aboard USS Delbert D. Black have been away from home three months longer than the Bush crew.
The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer left Naval Station Mayport Jan. 3 and has spent much of the year operating in the Middle East. It was still in the U.S. 5th Fleet area in late September and has participated in operations connected to the Iran conflict.
Delbert D. Black is not one of USS George H.W. Bush’s regular carrier strike group escorts. The two ships are making the Phuket visit together after separate deployments that put both in the Middle East, with the destroyer’s crew approaching nine months away from home. Six days in Phuket should look pretty good by now.
U.S. Carriers Have Been Here Before
Phuket has handled American supercarriers before, including the USS Carl Vinson in 2015 and USS Nimitz in 2013.
The Nimitz arrived off Phuket May 28, 2013 with USS Princeton and about 5,500 sailors, Marines and aircrew. The Phuket News reported that many headed for the beaches and Patong, while more than 300 volunteered for community projects at schools and children’s facilities.
The Phuket Tourist Association predicted as much as ฿450 million in economic activity from ship provisioning and crew spending during the visit. The old Phuket Gazette produced a much lower estimate for shore-leave spending itself, putting the amount at at least US$1 million.
The visit also produced a problem anyone familiar with Phuket could have predicted. A fight between local taxi operators and the Navy’s transportation contractor temporarily disrupted shuttle buses carrying sailors between the Deep Sea Port and Patong.
USS Carl Vinson followed in 2015 during its return from a nearly 10-month deployment to the Middle East and Western Pacific. The U.S. Pacific Fleet listed Phuket among the carrier’s final overseas stops before it headed home to San Diego.
Phuket Gets Its Turn
Last month’s Lincoln visit showed that 5,000 American sailors don’t automatically turn every nightlife venue into a gold mine. Some Pattaya bars were packed, others saw little difference, and much of the money went to restaurants, hotels, shopping centers, attractions and businesses selling supplies directly to the ship.
Phuket now gets almost the same number of U.S. personnel for a longer scheduled stay. Bush’s crew has been deployed six months and operating around the Middle East for five; Delbert D. Black’s sailors have been gone since January.
Police have already planned routes from the port to Patong, Kata, Karon and Old Town. Where 5,120 sailors go from there — and how much they spend — Phuket will find out this weekend.
