After more than 250 days at sea, sailors and Marines aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln have finally reached a port of call. The aircraft carrier docked at Laem Chabang port in Thailand’s Chonburi province on Wednesday, giving roughly 5,000 crew members their first extended time on dry land in nearly ten months of deployment.
Buses carried hundreds of sailors into nearby Pattaya, where they began several days of shore leave. Reporters on scene said crew members were not immediately accessible to media, and the ship itself showed visible wear, with rust patches on the hull near the waterline and along the edges of the flight deck.
The carrier’s commanding officer, Capt. Dan Keeler, framed the stop as more than just rest for the crew.
“Abraham Lincoln’s visit to Laem Chabang is a clear demonstration of our enduring commitment to our allies and partners in Thailand, and we are all very excited to make Thailand the first port visit on our historic deployment,” Keeler said.
The Lincoln did not arrive alone. The U.S. Embassy in Thailand confirmed that the carrier’s strike group came into the region together, with the destroyer USS Frank E. Petersen Jr. docking at nearby Sriracha and the guided-missile cruiser USS Robert Smalls making port in Map Ta Phut, in neighboring Rayong province.
Video circulating on social media showed sailors stepping off buses in Pattaya, bags in hand, after months away from home in the Middle East.
The carrier’s commander described the stop as a “well deserved break” for a crew that has spent the better part of a year at sea.
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