On Wednesday morning, the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier of the United States Navy officially docked at Laem Chabang Port, north of the resort city of Pattaya in Thailand, for a 5-day rest and refueling mission.
The USS Lincoln left California in November 2025 for the South China Sea mission, and was later deployed to the Middle East in February 2026 for military operations against Iran. The deployment, originally scheduled to end in May, has been extended multiple times. So far, the USS Lincoln aircraft carrier has been active in the Iranian region for over 200 days, with a continuous deployment at sea exceeding 270 days, setting a record for the longest continuous voyage in modern U.S. Navy history.
Accompanying the USS Lincoln in Thailand are two other U.S. warships: the USS Frank E. Petersen Jr., a missile destroyer, which docked in Sriracha not far from Laem Chabang, and the USS Robert Smalls, a missile cruiser, which arrived in Map Ta Phut east of Pattaya.
It is understood that approximately 5000 U.S. Navy and Marine Corps officers and soldiers are part of this visit. The first batch of officers began boarding shuttle buses on Wednesday afternoon to travel to nearby tourist destination Pattaya, where they will stay in hotels and engage in sightseeing and spending.
Pattaya Mayor Poramet Ngampichet expressed earlier that the authorities welcome the U.S. military’s visit and hope that the docking activities will boost local tourism and consumption.
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