USS Abraham Lincoln: Nine months of war, then a party in Pattaya

Gajendra Kumar watched the arrival of American soldiers in Pattaya from monitors in the back room of Jalwa, one of the most lavish nightclubs on the Thai resort city’s famous Walking Street. Kumar, 28, normally spends his nights managing the club’s accounts, menu prices, inventory and camera system. On Wednesday, he kept a particularly close eye on the screens.

Around 5,000 Americans had docked that morning at ports around Pattaya. The USS Abraham Lincoln, newly back from a continuous deployment in the war against Iran, arrived at the industrial port of Laem Chabang. The guided-missile destroyer USS Frank E. Petersen Jr. docked in Sriracha, while the guided-missile cruiser USS Robert Smalls arrived at Map Ta Phut, alongside other escort ships.

The ships had spent 286 days at sea, a record that American newspapers had been reporting for weeks. The article presents the stop in Pattaya as a moment of release after a long and exhausting deployment, with the American fleet described as overstretched and its crews at the end of their endurance.

The setting also draws on Pattaya’s historic association with American servicemen. The city’s party and red-light district, represented by Walking Street and clubs such as Jalwa, becomes the backdrop for the sailors’ arrival and the expectation of shore leave.