Sailors from the USS Abraham Lincoln are swapping military operations for beaches, bars and a few days of much-needed rest after landing in Thailand. And after a record nine months at sea, parents of the sailors are just happy they are on solid ground after the grueling deployment.
“I’m certain that his feet have touched the ground, and I’m really so relieved, so relieved,” Christi McGarey, whose son Marshall Ludwig is a sailor on the ship, told CBS News. “Those ports are really important, and there’s a reason why things like this don’t happen, because since that particular vessel has been in commission there’s never been this many consecutive days at sea.”
Some 5,000 sailors, Marines and crew departed the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier after spending the last six months involved in the war with Iran.
During that time, there have been ongoing reports of deteriorating conditions on board due to a lack of supplies from U.S. bases in the region that were repeatedly targeted by Iranian strikes — as well as a decline in the mental health of the crew.
CBS News spoke to several sailors as they arrived in Laem Chabang, but none wanted to comment on the conditions on board the ship. They all said they were excited to be on solid ground in Thailand, though.
Anthony Wallace/AFP via Getty Images 
McGarey said her son, who is on his second deployment, believed the concerns were “overblown.”
“I don’t know if he was trying to make mom feel better. He said he knew about one person that had jumped overboard, but that that was all that he was aware of,” McGarey said. “I won’t speak for my son, and I don’t want to do that. I also know that what his experiences can be very different than somebody that’s in a different department, or you know where that landing strip is and the noise and the chaos.”
There was an incident of a sailor going overboard in August that is being investigated, according to the Navy. The sailor was rescued safely and left the ship for follow-on care. The circumstances of how and why the sailor fell overboard are unclear and part of the investigation.
The father of one sailor previously told CBS News about the families’ concerns about those on board the carrier.
“They should not be deployed this long,” said Jefferson Kelley, whose son Jackson was on the Lincoln on his first-ever deployment. “These are old ships. It’s not like they’re even state-of-the-art. And they take a lot of maintenance, a lot of work. It’s around the clock.”
AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit 
McGarey said she’d had very little communication with her son over the last six months as the crew was involved in strikes on Iran. The crew was also part of the U.S. blockade preventing ships into or out of Iranian ports.
“They just set off on regular deployment, no idea that a war would break out in the area they were in,” she said. “So just knowing that today his heart is lighter, today he had fun. Gosh, I just, I can’t even tell you. I can’t even explain to you how that feels for me.”
The USS George Washington carrier group has now replaced the Lincoln in the Middle East. The USS Lincoln will return to its home port in San Diego after spending a few days in Thailand.
