US Navy aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln has steamed into Thailand's Laem Chabang on Wednesday with roughly 5,000 sailors and Marines who have spent 286 days at sea. The visit follows reports of mental health concerns and deteriorating conditions on board the warship. The Lincoln was deployed in November last year and was involved in the US naval blockade and combat operations in the war with Iran.
It set a modern-day record for consecutive days at sea. Typically naval deployments are for between six and nine months, but during times of conflict that can be extended. There's no getting around the fact that Thailand's seaside resort of Pattaya has a lingering reputation for sex tourism, even though that's only part of the story for the city that's an expected shore leave destination of crew members aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln.
The 5,000 or so sailors and Marines will be following in the wake of millions of other tourists, including a significant number of US military personnel who take part every year in major land and sea exercises nearby with their Thai counterparts. Social media ahead of the Lincoln's visit has been awash with jibes about lusty sailors, but recent visitors say the development of more family-friendly attractions makes the new Pattaya overshadow its former seedy self. Many US Navy ships dock at nearby deep-water facilities such as Laem Chabang Port and the Sattahip Royal Thai Navy Base, both less than an hour away by road.
Shore leave spending boosts the local economy, and mission duties often include community outreach in and around the city, such as specialized medical care for villagers or putting in volunteer time at orphanages. But when hundreds or thousands of sailors have a chance to enjoy some onshore liberty, the navy deploys members of its Shore Patrol to work side by side with Thai police to defuse any trouble. Navy personnel are likely to have been reminded that, though rarely enforced, the law in Thailand technically bans prostitution, and paying for sex is a punishable offense under Article 134 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the legal framework for the U.S. armed forces.
The military connection goes back at least to the Vietnam War era, when at its height, 40,000-50,000 U.S. service personnel were stationed in Thailand, largely in support of that conflict's air operations. Bases used by U.S. forces dotted Thailand, and all attracted their share of nightlife activities. Pattaya was close to both the Sattahip naval base and the Thai Navy's U-Tapao airfield, which hosted U.S.
Elizabeth Becker, author of "Overbooked: The Exploding Business of Travel and Tourism," wrote that American GIs during the Vietnam War flocked to Pattaya, a once-quiet fishing village, "and it turned into a raunchy seaside playground." The military facilities brought a continuous stream of personnel through Pattaya, while the 1966 Entertainment Places Act created a legal gray area allowing the sex trade to operate semiopenly in bars and massage parlors — as something of a private arrangement between customer and employee — despite a 1960 law criminalizing prostitution. Pattaya also had a beach that could be reached relatively easily from Bangkok, which positioned it well for a transition to civilian visitors after the withdrawal of U.S. military forces in 1976. Pattaya's infrastructure of go-go clubs and other entertainment venues was then marketed to travelers arriving in greater numbers due to cheaper air travel and a boom in package tours.
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