After Months at War, Brief Solace in a Party Town Far From Home

After Months at War, Brief Solace in a Party Town Far From Home - The New York Times

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pattaya dispatch

After Months at War, Brief Solace in a Party Town Far From Home

A stopover in Thailand was welcome relief for thousands of troops aboard the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln from a grueling deployment. But it was not a complete salve.

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*Sailors and Marines of the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln enjoyed time off in the Thai beach town of Pattaya after more than nine months at sea.

Credit

Credit...

Valeria Mongelli for The New York Times*

By

Hannah Beech and Muktita Suhartono

Reporting from Pattaya, Thailand

Sept. 5, 2026, 5:04 a.m. ET

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After 286 days at sea, the sailors and Marines of the warship Abraham Lincoln savored the pleasures of Pattaya, Thailand. Their indulgences were not all decadent.

They ate Double Super Cheeseburgers at Burger King. They shopped for LeBron James jerseys at the mall. They sipped from fresh coconuts at the beach, their backs to the water where they had spent the last nine-plus months.

And they danced with scantily clad women at nightclubs, the pounding music seemingly even louder than the aural assault of an aircraft carrier at war.

Pattaya is used to welcoming American servicemen. The beach town grew from an R&R refuge for American military personnel during the Vietnam War. For five days beginning on Wednesday, its pool halls, steakhouses and spas, its go-go bars, burrito shacks and trinket stalls have turned their attention to the 5,000 or so service members from the Lincoln, one of four carriers used in the air campaign against Iran.

Map shows the location of Pattaya, Thailand, south of Bangkok on the Gulf of Thailand.

100 miles

MYANMAR

LAOS

THAILAND

Bangkok

CAMBODIA

Pattaya

Andaman

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Gulf of

Thailand

The New York Times

After a grueling deployment that fed criticism of the Trump administration’s execution of the war, the service members aboard the Lincoln had been instructed not to speak with members of the news media during their time in Pattaya.

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