The US warship that spent too much time at sea finally gets a break

Pattaya, Thailand: The US super-carrier Abraham Lincoln, which spent nearly nine months at sea to support US operations against Iran, docked at a port in eastern Thailand on Wednesday to give the crew of about 5000 an opportunity for beachside rest and recuperation.

The sailors and marines aboard the nuclear-powered ship had not been on shore for more than 260 days, and reports emerged last month of deteriorating mental health among the crew, as well as shortages of key food supplies aboard.

The US Navy played down any problems, and President Donald Trump commented that the Lincoln’s lengthy deployment was “not nearly long enough”.

The Lincoln, launched in 1988 and as long as about three American football fields, made its way into the Laem Chabang port in Thailand’s Chonburi province on Wednesday morning, shortly after the destroyer USS Frank E. Petersen Jr, one of several ships in its carrier strike group, sailed past the area.

Another, the guided-missile cruiser USS Robert Smalls, headed to Map Ta Phut in neighbouring Rayong. Lincoln’s crew members later disembarked to spend their free time in nearby Pattaya, a seaside resort city that American military personnel have frequented since the Vietnam War era.

Crew members were not immediately accessible to the media, but the ship looked due for at least a new paint job. There were large blotches of what appeared to be rust on the hull, especially just above the waterline and at the edge of the flight deck, where fighter aircraft and helicopters were parked.

The US embassy said the ship has been deployed for 286 days since November, and that Thailand was the ship’s first full port stop in that time. Its uninterrupted time at sea before Wednesday’s arrival was 264 days.

When asked about the carrier’s appearance, Captain Dan Keeler, the Lincoln’s commanding officer, replied that “it is normal for a long deployment, and we’re not going to make further comments”.

“It looks like what it is: a ship that’s been continuously at sea for 286 days,” Euan Graham, a defence expert at the Australian National Security College, told the Associated Press after reviewing photos of the ship.

“And the Abraham Lincoln has been on a prolonged combat deployment, during which normal port calls were denied to it.

“So it becomes a tempting symbol of the US Navy’s strategic overstretch and fatigue. “However, what’s also notable is the impressive state of the air wing. So maybe the underlying story is also one of resilience under conditions of extreme stress.”

The navy had dismissed reports about sailors on board struggling with mental health concerns . A navy official said a sailor aboard the Lincoln went overboard in early August, but the person was quickly recovered, treated by the ship’s medical department and transferred off-ship for follow-on care. The official would not say whether it was considered a suicide attempt.

In Pattaya, welcome banners hung outside restaurants and bars, and a local gem store touted its self-described special deals.