5,000 crew members, 286 days at sea: Why USS Abraham Lincoln’s Thailand stop matters

When the US Navy’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln steamed into Thailand’s Laem Chabang port on September 2, it gave nearly 5,000 sailors and Marines their first substantial break in almost 10 months.
The carrier docked at Chonburi province, about 30 minutes from the seaside resort of Pattaya, after spending 286 days on deployment.