Far from hitting the bars and fleshpots of the Thai beach resort of Pattaya, in their first hours onshore most of the nearly 5,000 sailors from the USS Abraham Lincoln seemed determined to go shopping.
At the Hard Rock Hotel – one of two beachside hotels where they were able to stay off the ship – they hung around clutching their recent purchases. But perhaps, after a record 250 days confined inside a grey steel warship, the normality of a trip to the mall might have been just what they needed.
With their military haircuts, moustaches and navy t-shirts, they stood out against the usual Pattaya crowd in its flip-flops and beachwear.
ReutersLocal businesses have been hoping to benefit from the sailors’ nine months of unspent salary while at sea – but Pattaya’s sex industry has been declared off-limits to the sailors, who have been reminded that prostitution is technically illegal in Thailand.
Conflict in the Middle East, where the USS Abraham Lincoln was last operating, has impacted business in Pattaya, with many of the tourists the city depends on choosing to stay at home.
But on Wednesday night, the city’s most famous promenade, Walking Street, was very much open to the sailors, with a huge, illuminated sign at its entrance welcoming the crew of the US carrier.
By midnight some of the younger sailors there were so inebriated they had to prop each other up. Others edged nervously into the red-lit caverns of the go-go bars, with their gyrating and barely-clothed pole dancers.
Conversation over the pounding music was challenging. One older crew member told us they really needed the break.
“The news says we’ve been at sea for nine months. To be honest I’ve lost track of time”, he said.
“It got boring. It’s never big enough on board. It’s big but it still feels like a boat, especially when you’re sharing it with thousands of people.” How long would it take them to get home to California? “Too long” he said.
Shakeira Fairfax, the mother of 25-year-old crew member Jada Fairfax, told Reuters there had been moments over the past few months when “morale was low”.
She described the period after hostilities broke out in the Middle East as an “uncertain” and “scary” time.
“I just can’t wait to see her smile. I can’t wait to hear ‘mum’, I know that’s the first thing she’s gonna say,” Fairfax added.
The crew have been well-drilled not to talk about conditions on board the USS Abraham Lincoln during its long combat deployment in the operation against Iran, which have been the subject of criticism back in the US.
Some sailors were wary of making any conversation at all. Others referred journalists’ questions to their media teams. Visible everywhere in Pattaya were the men wearing t-shirts emblazoned with the letters SLG, or Shore Liaison Group.
It is their job to maintain discipline on land, to watch out for the crew members, some of whom are very young and inexperienced, and to co-ordinate with the local authorities during port calls.
US Naval Attache Kristopher Robinson did not answer questions from the BBC about activities that soldiers were banned from doing while in Pattaya, saying that “we’re trying to give the sailors as much opportunity for rest as they can”.
US personnel, he added, would “conduct themselves in accordance with US law, US naval regulations, and the laws of Thailand”.
ReutersThe decision by the USS Abraham Lincoln to stop in Pattaya makes a lot of sense. Port calls by the US Navy in Thailand, a long-standing treaty ally, are routine with well-established protocols.
It is also on the ship’s route from the Gulf to California, giving the crew a chance to let off steam, and enjoy a break from the demands of life on board a warship.
If their stop in Thailand does the trick, any frustration they may feel over their unexpectedly long and tough mission may have dissipated by the time they get home.
