The USS Abraham Lincoln is heading home to the United States at last, wrapping up a Middle East deployment that stretched beyond 200 days amid the war in Iran, as defense officials ready another aircraft carrier to take its place.

Before its return journey, the USS Abraham Lincoln made a stop in Thailand last week, giving roughly 5,000 sailors and Marines a chance to unwind, step off the ship and take in the attractions of Pattaya, one of the country’s best-known resort destinations.

‘We would like to thank the people of Thailand for their incredible hospitality,’ US Navy Captain Dan Keeler, the commanding officer of the USS Abraham Lincoln, said in a statement.

‘This port visit to Pattaya was a tremendous opportunity for this crew to recharge and a highlight for the strike group.

‘Thailand has such rich culture and history, coupled with incredible hospitality and that all shone through in this port visit,’ Keeler added.

‘We are grateful to our Thai allies for hosting us and we look forward to continuing our mission here in 7th Fleet, alongside Thailand and our other regional allies and partners.’ 

The trip marked the ship’s first regular port call since it was first deployed on November 21. 

The patrol included 280 days at sea and 200 in combat zones playing a crucial role in Operation Epic Fury and the US blockade of Iranian ports.

Aircraft carriers typically make port calls every 30 to 45 days for maintenance, resupply of goods and crew rest. But the USS Abraham Lincoln previously only stopped at Guam on December 11 through 12 and made an even shorter stop in Oman on July 7. 

As a result, sailors onboard reportedly experienced brutal conditions that family members said led some service members to experience mental health crises. 

The sailors described to the Wall Street Journal how they had to work 12-hour shifts, seven days a week amid cramped conditions.

They had been allocated extra time off after their deployment was extended beyond its original end-date in May, and crew members tried to keep up morale with activities such as spelling bees or lip-syncing competitions.

But at times, their meal portions became smaller to ensure there would be sufficient rations as the fighting made resupplying the vessels more difficult.

Sailors also said that early on in the deployment, the WiFi onboard the ship was turned off for nearly two months for operational security, which made it more difficult to communicate with friends and family back home.

Despite these challenges, the sailors said they were proud of what they accomplished – including shooting down more than 200 Iranian drones and flying more than 10,000 operational missions. 

As the ship now heads home, US Navy officials made a point to thank the crew members for their service.

‘To the sailors of USS Abraham Lincoln, thank you. Your dedication, professionalism and resilience through a long and demanding deployment represented the very best of our Navy,’ Adm. Daryl Caudle said in a video address.

‘You answered the call, you got the job done and just as importantly, the lessons you bring home are helping us better prepare the next team to deploy,’ added Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy John Perryman.

The two officials then went on to announce that when the USS Theodore Roosevelt departs from its home port of San Diego in the coming weeks, it will carry extra supplies so it can remain self-sufficient.

The decision to do so comes as the Defense Secretary extended troop deployments in the Middle East, including for warship crews, air defense units and paratroopers.

‘Roosevelt is maximizing its loadout of food, retail products and hygiene items before getting underway,’ Caudle said.

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Crew members are also ‘converting available spaces into additional storage, building the ability to remain self-sufficient for longer periods, especially when resupply may be difficult,’ Perryman announced.

At the same time, the Navy is ‘focused on quality of life’ issues.

‘That means new entertainment equipment on the mess decks, more durable fitness equipment, spare cardio machines ready for our replacement and even holiday materials purchased ahead of time,’ said Caudle.

Additionally, efforts are underway to provide families with ‘reliable, consistent communication throughout the deployment,’ the admiral said.

‘Small things matter during a long deployment because taking care of our sailors is part of maintaining combat readiness,’ Perryman concluded.

‘As one carrier returns home, we listen to its sailors and families. We capture what worked and what didn’t and we make it better the next time.

‘To the Lincoln team, thank you for what you accomplished and for what you taught us,’ he continued. ‘And to the Roosevelt team, we’re doing everything we can to make sure you are ready for the mission, for you and your families.’

Since the beginning of the war in Iran, reports have surfaced of food shortages and rationing aboard the Lincoln, accompanied by photographs of sailors’ meals. 

Sailors aboard the Lincoln are also said to have endured moldy showers, broken toilets, laundry outages and long stretches without hot water.

The wife of one even described the ship as a ‘floating metal prison’ with appalling conditions, claiming her sailor husband described the experience aboard the aircraft carrier stationed in the Middle East as ‘the worst deployment he’s ever been on.’

‘This is not his first deployment. This is not his first time being out there, and he is saying that it is the worst deployment that he’s ever been on. And he also says that his shipmates say the same,’ she told CNN‘s Jake Tapper.

Remaining anonymous out of fear of retaliation against her husband, the woman added that her spouse, who she said is typically unaffected by work stressors, ‘feels himself being angrier and more frustrated.’

‘You’re stuck in a floating metal prison essentially, in the middle of the water, eating prison-like food with the same people in the same bunk beds in the same small quarters for 200 days, 250 days, you start to go a little insane working 12 hours, getting four or five hours of sleep,’ she continued.

Some even reportedly tried to jump ship amid the extended deployment, with one 19-year-old father-of-two now facing non-judicial punishment from the Trump administration for hurling himself overboard in an apparent attempt to drown.

Navy documents accuse the servicemember of ‘intentionally faking an illness or hurting themselves to avoid work, duty or service,’ while a separate charge claims he failed to report to his required place of duty during the mental-health crisis. 

‘I think they’re insane for doing this to people who need mental help,’ the sailor’s wife told MS NOW. ‘Instead of giving them help, this is just another huge stressor.’

His wife said he repeatedly requested paternity leave to meet his newborn daughter but was denied each time. His fate will be decided at a ‘captain’s mast,’ where his commanding officer could dock as much as half his pay, according to the charging documents.

The sailor was rescued after going overboard on August 3 and medically evacuated before returning to San Diego ten days later, according to his wife.

He then spent five days at Naval Medical Center San Diego, known locally as Balboa, where staff monitored his vital signs but never had him evaluated by a psychiatrist or therapist, she said.

He was ordered back to work immediately after his release and did not receive his first therapy session until this Wednesday, nearly two weeks after arriving home.

The Navy is pursuing the case through non-judicial punishment, an internal disciplinary process generally used for lower-level misconduct that avoids a formal court-martial and criminal conviction. 

Working out a foreign currency is often one of the more confusing parts of travelling overseas, especially when the exchange rate turns everyday purchases into figures that run into the millions.

For one Australian tourist, however, a simple Bali currency mistake became an exceptionally costly lesson after a glamorous New Year’s Eve night out ended with a bill in the five figures.

Perth traveller Hayley Davis was enjoying a holiday in Bali with her best friend and family when a group of male friends arrived on the island to celebrate New Year’s Eve with them.

With the countdown fast approaching, plans still up in the air and many venues already fully booked, Hayley stepped in and arranged a luxury daybed at Atlas Super Club in Kuta, where US rapper Swae Lee was set to perform.

The premium spot sat beside the stage, included a private pool and, at what Hayley thought was $1650, appeared to be the ideal place to welcome the New Year in style.

So, they made the most of it, ordering vodka, drinks, shishas, burgers, chips and oysters as they settled into the VIP experience.

‘We are literally living like the rich,’ Hayley said in a now viral video that has amassed nearly 300,000 views.

It wasn’t until three days later, when her card was declined while she was trying to order $20 worth of McDonald’s, that she realised just how much they’d actually spent.

Convinced she’d been hacked, Hayley opened her bank account and was horrified to discover a $10,650 charge from the Super Club.

The daybed she thought she’d booked for $1650 had actually set her back ten times more – and that wasn’t even the most painful part.

In her video detailing the extraordinary blunder, Hayley revealed she’d been so oblivious to the true cost of the night that she’d even offered to leave $7,000 of the unused tab behind as a tip.

‘Before I air this, I know it was stupid. I know it could have been easily avoided. I don’t need to hear it.’

Hayley explained that she’s usually the organiser in her friendship group and, with most events already sold out on the night, Atlas was one of the few options remaining.

Despite admitting none of them knew much about the headline act, the daybed itself was hard to resist.

There were, however, early signs something wasn’t quite right.

Hayley initially tried to pay through a link on the Atlas website using her credit card, but the transaction wouldn’t go through.

She then transferred the money to her friend, whose attempt returned an ‘insufficient funds’ message.

Still not suspecting the enormous price tag, Hayley believed there was an issue with her bank and eventually called Atlas to complete the payment over the phone.

She even shared a screenshot of the receipt in their group chat, but nobody spotted the mistake.

By New Year’s Eve, any concerns about the booking had been forgotten. Surrounded by guests Hayley said looked ‘filthy rich’, the friends embraced the VIP treatment as food and drinks were handed to them on a silver platter.

Ironically, Hayley even tried to rein in the spending when one of the men asked for another shisha, worried they were about to exceed their tab.

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‘I should have let them get five more… shishas,’ she joked.

The next clue came when the group decided to leave and their waitress attempted to explain there was still a significant amount of money left on their tab.

Because of a language barrier, Hayley didn’t understand exactly what she was trying to say and casually told her to keep the remainder as a tip.

Instead, the waitress began giving them bottles to take away to try and compensate, and even then, no one twigged.

As they walked home, the group began giving some of the bottles away to people on the street because they couldn’t drink them all.

One woman then spotted a bottle of tequila and told Hayley it was worth $600.

‘I was like, “What? What do you mean?”‘ she recalled. ‘No, it’s not. It can’t be. There’s no f***ing way.’

Still, it took another three days for the penny to finally drop.

When Hayley’s card was declined and she discovered the gigantic withdrawal, she went into shock.

Fortunately, she praised her friends for eventually paying their shares of the enormous bill, although she said another $700 in interest had accumulated by the time the money came through several weeks later.

‘Thank God I have some of the best friends,’ she said.

Her spectacularly expensive mistake has since stunned viewers, with many admitting they would struggle to recover from the shock.

‘This makes me feel so much better about my $800 lunch on Rodeo Drive,’ one person joked.

‘I don’t think I’d EVER get over this. Good on your friends to pay though,’ another wrote.

‘Genuine question, did you not convert the currency? Or did you and just read the decimal incorrectly?’ a third said.

‘I just got back from Bali and the amount of times I asked AI to confirm how much I was spending was a lot.’

But one viewer suggested Hayley may eventually be grateful for the memories, if not the bill.

‘As hard as this lesson is to learn, in a few years the money won’t hurt and you’ll keep the story and the memories,’ they wrote.

For Hayley, however, the sting is still very real.

‘I’m literally traumatised.’

Liberal frontbencher Andrew Hastie has escalated his clash with Pauline Hanson and Barnaby Joyce, accusing the pair of being “lying cowards” after they denied branding him a traitor.

The dispute follows Hastie’s warning to supporters that he would no longer accept what he described as “slander” from One Nation over his evidence in the Ben Roberts-Smith defamation case.

Addressing journalists in Canberra on Wednesday, Hastie called on Hanson to either stand by or remove a social media post that he claims repeatedly described him as a traitor.

“Yesterday, I said that Pauline Hanson and One Nation had called me a traitor to my own country,” Hastie said.

“Today, Barnaby Joyce and Pauline Hanson both denied it… I’m calling them lying cowards.”

Hastie insisted he had evidence to back his claims, pointing to an episode of Hanson’s cartoon series Please Explain.

‘I have the receipts here. On July 23, Pauline Hanson posted and pinned to her X account a cartoon which, eight times, calls me a traitor,’ he said.

The episode features cartoon versions of Hastie and Anthony Albanese discussing criticism he receives online.

At one point, the animated Hastie character says: ‘All I did was testify against Ben Roberts-Smith and support your evil hate speech legislation after promising not to.’

Cartoon Albanese replies: ‘Yeah right. That is pretty traitorous, actually.’

The cartoon later shows the Hastie character calling himself a ‘stupid traitor’, while another character adds: ‘I feel bad for the traitor.’

In one of the video’s final lines, a character claims: ‘Hastie’s a paranoid traitor. He’ll believe anything.’

Mr Hastie said One Nation had politicised the ongoing case, in which Mr Roberts-Smith faces five charges of the war crime of murder, ‘to the detriment of everyone involved, including Ben Roberts Smith’.

The former SAS officer said the accusation was deeply offensive given his military service and the service of other veterans.

‘I’m proud of my service in uniform and in this Parliament. It’s a slur on me. It’s a slur on other veterans who have given evidence under oath in the Federal Court,’ he said.

Hastie then issued a direct challenge to Hanson and Joyce.

‘I’m calling on Pauline Hanson and Barnaby Joyce: don’t be weak, don’t be cowards. Own it and explain why I’m a traitor, and why other veterans are traitors, or delete it. Your choice.

‘Pauline Hanson and Barnaby Joyce are trashing my service record, they called me a traitor to my own country. 

‘But it’s not just about me, it’s about other veterans. Are they saying the same thing of the other 26 combat veterans who gave evidence under oath in the federal court – are they also traitors to their country.

‘I’m calling on Pauline Hanson and Barnaby Joyce to own this cartoon. Step into the house or outside the house, I don’t really care, use parliamentary privilege or don’t, explain why I and other veterans and indeed serving members of the ADF who think war crimes are wrong are traitors to their country.

‘I stand with a lot of Australians who believe in the rule of law, who believe that Australian soldiers should be held to high standards of battlefield conduct. 

‘And Pauline Hanson and Barnaby Joyce, who never ever served a day in our uniform overseas on operations, they don’t get to define ANZAC day or ANZAC or the values that underpin our defence force.

‘I won’t stand by while my name is slandered by One Nation, or my family’s name is slandered; while veterans who are struggling with moral trauma and thousands of other ADF service members are also slandered by connection with this.’