19岁的飞机机械师从“林肯”号航母的甲板上给妻子发了这条短信。当时，该舰正深入执行一场看不到尽头的战斗部署。
The 19-year-old aircraft mechanic sent that text to his wife from the decks of the USS Abraham Lincoln, deep into a combat deployment with no end in sight.
几周后的8月3日——部署的第255天——他开始狂奔，随后纵身跃过航母边缘的舷侧通道，从伊朗南部近海高约67英尺处坠入海中。当时他脚穿军靴，身上仍穿着水兵在飞行甲板上必须随时穿戴的制式“防浮衣”。
Weeks later, on Aug. 3 — the 255th day of deployment — he started sprinting and launched himself over the catwalk at the edge of the ship, falling 67 feet into the sea off Iran’s southern coast. He was still in his boots and standard-issue “float coat” that sailors must wear at all times on the flight deck.
几个月来，这名水兵一直通过短信表示自己情绪低落，并因长时间连续值班、无法休息而身心疲惫。他因无法经常与妻子、尚在襁褓中的女儿和3岁的儿子通话而感到沮丧。此外，他还产生了自杀念头。
For months, the sailor had been texting that he was depressed, exhausted by long shifts without breaks. He was frustrated that he couldn’t talk regularly with his wife, infant daughter or 3-year-old son. And that he was having suicidal thoughts.
妻子称，这次跳海是企图结束自己的生命。她是从丈夫的一名中队战友那里得知此事的。近五天后，美国海军才通知她。
His wife described the jump as an attempt to take his life. She learned about it from one of his squadron mates. Nearly five days passed before the Navy notified her.
接下来发生的事让她深感震惊。她原本希望海军能帮助丈夫，但丈夫却面临纪律处分，并被指控伪造伤势，以逃避此次部署。
What came next shocked her. She had wanted the Navy to help him. Instead, he faced discipline and was accused of faking an injury to get out of the deployment.
跳海五周后，他正与所在部队指挥官通电话，接受纪律处分听证。这名水兵已被医疗后送至圣迭戈，而他的指挥官仍留在航母上。他被裁定犯有“从舰艇跳下”罪，并于9月10日受到口头训诫。
Five weeks after the jump, he was on the phone with his commanding officer for a disciplinary hearing. The sailor had been medically evacuated to San Diego, while his commanding officer was still aboard the carrier. He was found guilty of “jumping from a vessel,” and on Sept. 10 was given an oral reprimand.
下一步，他将出席退伍审议委员会会议。委员会将决定他是否应当被海军退役，以及退役性质应被认定为“荣誉退役”“非荣誉退役”还是“一般退役”。这一认定将影响他能否获得美国退伍军人事务部提供的援助。妻子表示，这名水兵不打算与海军就其退役决定作斗争。
Next, he will face a separation board that will decide if he should be discharged from the Navy, and whether that discharge should be characterized as “honorable,” “other than honorable” or “general.”That determination will shape what help he can access from the Department of Veterans Affairs. The sailor doesn’t plan to fight his separation from the Navy, his wife said.
MS NOW最早于8月下旬报道了针对他的指控，由此引发了有关海军如何对待遭遇心理健康危机的水兵的疑问。海军面临公众的强烈反弹。此后，对他的指控被调整，使其避免了最初可能面临的严厉处罚。
MS NOW first reported the charges against him in late August, raising questions about how the Navy treats sailors in mental health crises. The Navy faced a public backlash. The charges were later changed, and he avoided the harsher punishment he had initially faced.
这名水兵在“林肯”号航空母舰上所经历的种种困境以及他面临的精神健康问题，并非个例。
The sailor’s troubling experience and mental health challenges on board the Lincoln were not isolated incidents.
9月22日，代理海军部长洪超在致国会的信中承认，在伊朗战争期间，“林肯”号航空母舰战斗群中有八起自杀未遂事件。该战斗群包括这艘航空母舰、其搭载的舰载机中队以及为其提供护航的驱逐舰。
In a letter to Congress on Sept. 22, Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao acknowledged eight suicide attempts in the Lincoln Carrier Strike Group during the Iran war deployment. The group includes the carrier, its embarked squadrons and its escort destroyers.
据海军官员称，2月份伊朗对巴林境内一个重要海军补给基地的袭击导致舰上的生活条件进一步恶化，食物和物资严重短缺。据舰上水兵的家属描述，水兵们常常需要排长队才能获得食物——这些食物往往仅包括几片玉米饼和半杯米饭；舰上的管道系统出现故障，淋浴设施也长满了霉菌。工作时间常常超过12小时，休息时间极少。
Conditions aboard worsened after Iranian strikes in February hit a key Navy resupply base in Bahrain, causing food and supply shortages, according to Navy leaders. At times, sailors waited in long lines for meals that were sometimes just a couple of tortillas and half a cup of rice, according to descriptions of the deployment from family members of the sailors on board. Plumbing systems broke and the showers were moldy. Shifts often stretched past 12 hours, with few days off.
在《MS NOW》媒体报道了这些关于恶劣工作条件、物资匮乏以及水兵们极度疲劳的问题后，海军方面迅速决定提前将另一艘航空母舰调往“林肯”号所在区域以缓解其压力。
After MS NOW reported on the concerns among military families about poor conditions, low supplies and fatigue aboard the Lincoln, Navy officials scrambled to reroute an aircraft carrier to relieve the Lincoln earlier than previously planned.
上述关于这名水兵的行为以及海军应对措施的信息，基于对该水兵妻子的独家采访、他们之间的短信往来，以及与海军对他的纪律处分相关的文件（其中包括《MS NOW》从负责该水兵事务的海军军官处获得的官方记录）。该水兵本人拒绝接受采访，因为他没有公开发言的授权。
This account of the sailor’s actions and the Navy’s response is based on exclusive interviews with his wife, their text messages as well as documents related to the Navy’s disciplinary actions against him, including a “memorandum of record” reviewed by MS NOW from the officer of the deck on the day he jumped. The sailor declined to be interviewed because he wasn’t authorized to speak publicly.
根据《MS NOW》查阅的相关文件，该水兵最初被指控违反了《军事司法统一法典》中的两条规定：第一条是第83条（“装病”），即“军人故意假装生病或自残以逃避工作或职责”；第二条是第86条（“未经许可擅离岗位”，即军人在未获得许可的情况下未出现在指定的工作岗位上）。
Initially, according to charging documents reviewed by MS NOW, the sailor faced two violations of articles of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. The first was Article 83, for “malingering,” which is defined as a service member “intentionally faking an illness or hurting themselves to avoid work, duty or service.”The second was Article 86, “absence without leave,” which means that a service member failed to be at their required place of duty without proper authority.
这名水兵面临的纪律听证会被称为“舰长非司法惩处听证会”。海军撤销了诈病指控，改以第87条“跳舰罪”起诉，该条款禁止现役军人故意从武装部队操作或使用的舰艇上非法跳入水中。擅离职守指控得以保留。
The disciplinary hearing the sailor faced is called a “captain’s mast.”The Navy had dropped the malingering charge. It replaced it with Article 87, “jumping from a vessel,” which prohibits service members from wrongfully and intentionally jumping into the water from a vessel operated or used by the armed forces. The absence-without-leave charge remained.
这名水兵的妻子说，指挥官认定他犯有跳舰罪，但不构成擅离职守。
The commanding officer found him guilty of jumping from a vessel but not of absence without leave, the sailor’s wife said.
最初的指控文件警告称，如果被判有罪，他的薪饷可能会被扣发。他的妻子表示庆幸这种情况没有发生。她和丈夫都是19岁，有一个7个月大的女儿和一个3岁的儿子需要照顾。
His original charging documents warned that his pay might be docked if he was found guilty. His wife said she was grateful that didn’t happen. She and her husband are both 19 years old and have a 7-month-old baby girl and a 3-year-old boy to care for.
在纪律处理过程中，这名水兵得到了值班军官关于他落水后船员反应的官方记录。
During the disciplinary process, the sailor was given the officer of the deck’s official account of the crew’s response after he went overboard.
值班军官写道，该水兵跳舰的“动机未定”，但情况“显得可疑”。军官指出，该水兵在白天身穿救生衣跳舰，“落水后几乎立即挥手求救”。
The officer wrote that the sailor’s motives for jumping were “undetermined” but that the conditions “appear suspect.”The officer noted that the sailor jumped in daylight while wearing a float coat, and that “he almost immediately waved for help when he landed in the water.”
“另一方面，”军官写道，“这次部署一直很艰难，出现跳舰者并不令人意外。值得注意的是，从飞行甲板到水面有67英尺（约20.4米）的落差。他竟然没有明显受伤，实属罕见。”备忘录描述了一次大规模的直升机救援。考虑到水温，备忘录称在水中的生存时间为15分钟，浪高约为5英尺（约1.5米）。在救援人员到达前，该水兵已在水中漂浮了45分钟。
“On the other hand,” the officer wrote, “this has been a difficult deployment and it is unsurprising that we might have a jumper. Of note, it is a 67 foot drop from the flight deck to the water line. It is remarkable that he did not have any apparent injuries.”The memo described an extensive helicopter rescue. Given the water temperature, it said, survival time in the water was 15 minutes, and waves appeared to be 5 feet high. The sailor was in the water for 45 minutes before rescuers reached him.
他的妻子感到沮丧，因为那名军官暗示，既然她丈夫跳海时穿着救生衣，就说明他并非处于精神健康危机之中。她说，所有在航母飞行甲板工作的人都必须穿戴救生衣，而他觉得如果脱下来会显得可疑。他告诉她，要是他先脱掉救生衣再跑去跳海，大概率会被拦住，她说部署期间已有其他人这样被阻止过。
His wife was frustrated that the officer implied that her husband wasn’t in a mental health crisis because he jumped wearing a life preserver. Everyone who works on a carrier’s flight deck is required to wear a float coat, she said, and he felt it would have looked suspicious to take it off. He told her that if he had removed it and then run to jump, he probably would have been stopped, as she said others had been during the deployment.
“他在‘挥手求救’”这种说法不成立，她说。他是在溺水。他清楚从那个高度跳下去极其危险，这么做是为了结束生命。
He was not “waving for help,” she said. He was drowning. He knew that jumping from that height would be incredibly dangerous, and he did it to take his life.
“这更多只是假设和人们的看法，我会说——带有偏见的看法，”她谈到那份备忘录时说。
“This is more so just assumptions and people’s opinions, I would say — biased opinions,” she said of the memo.
自8月返回圣地亚哥以来，她丈夫只进行过一次心理健康就诊，被开了一种抗抑郁药和一种抗焦虑药，她说。跳海后他还患有严重的背痛，被开止痛药。她说，无论是哪个问题，预约都很难。他定于10月去看海军医生处理这两个问题，预计届时会获得转诊给一位民间心理健康治疗师。
Since returning to San Diego in August, her husband has had one mental health appointment, where he was prescribed an antidepressant and an anti-anxiety medication, she said. He has also had severe back pain since the jump, and has been prescribed pain medication. Getting appointments for either problem has been difficult, she said. He is scheduled to see Navy doctors for both in October, when he is expected to receive a referral to a civilian mental health therapist.
“我觉得他作为一个人已经变了，但我也确实觉得他下舰后好多了，”她说。
“I think that he has changed as a person, but I also do think he’s been doing a lot better since being off the boat,” she said.
她说，丈夫的指挥军士长曾告诉她，海军会在整个过程中支持他们的家庭，“结果却是给我丈夫定罪——惩罚他。”“那么支持在哪里？海军对我们的承诺在哪里？因为完全没有发生过，”她说。
She said her husband’s command master chief told her the Navy would stand by their family throughout the process, and “instead, they pressed charges against my husband — they punished him.”“So where is the support? Where is the Navy being there for us? Because that has not happened at all,” she said.
MS NOW联系海军置评，询问为何水手可能因这类事件面临纪律指控。一名海军官员表示，无法对特定现役军人的人事或医疗记录发表评论。
MS NOW contacted the Navy for comment about why sailors may face disciplinary charges for incidents like this. A Navy official said they couldn’t comment on a specific service member’s personnel or medical records.
“水手依据《统一军事司法法典》（UCMJ）承担责任，但自杀念头和自杀未遂本身并非可惩罚的不当行为。它们需要以安全为首要考量的响应、临床护理和指挥链支持。任何单独的不当行为指控均依据其自身事实单独考量，并寻求适当的法律意见，”该官员在声明中写道。
“Sailors are accountable under the UCMJ, but suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts are not, themselves, punishable misconduct. They require a safety-first response, clinical care, and command support. Any separate allegation of misconduct is considered on its own facts with appropriate legal consultation,” the official wrote in a statement.
8月，在该水手跳海后，负责监督伊朗战争军事行动的美国中央司令部司令布拉德·库珀上将在社交媒体上发帖称，林肯号“目前与心理健康相关的案例属于最低水平之一”。曹某本周的信件给出了更完整的说明。信中称，另一名水手曾在3月试图从林肯号跳海。他的战友阻止了他，他也被医疗后送至圣地亚哥。
In August, after the sailor jumped, Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of U.S. Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Iran war, posted on social media that the Lincoln “currently has among the lowest cases related to mental health.”Cao’s letter this week gave a fuller accounting. It said another sailor tried to jump from the Lincoln in March. His shipmates stopped him, and he too was medically evacuated to San Diego.
在创下现代以来连续在海上航行天数最长、未进港补给的纪录后，林肯号正驶返圣地亚哥母港。
The Lincoln is now steaming home to San Diego after setting a modern-day record for the most consecutive days at sea without a port call.
该水手的妻子表示，她认为海军之所以没有判定丈夫犯有原指控的罪名、扣发薪水或降职，仅仅是因为她发声了。她希望他们的故事能改变军队对待心理健康的方式。她说：“非常感激，知道世上仍有真正好心人关心正在经历这些的现役军人及其家属，这让我非常欣慰。”但她也看到一些退伍军人和现役军人称林肯号的水手以及她的丈夫“软弱”。她说，网上许多人辩称，人手短缺、工时过长和精疲力竭是每次部署都伴随的，水手试图跳海并不罕见。
The sailor’s wife said she believes that the Navy didn’t find him guilty of the original charges, dock his pay or demote him only because she spoke out. She hoped their story would change the way the military treats mental health. She said she was “very grateful, and it was very comforting knowing that there are still really good people in the world who do care about our service members and families who are going through this.”But she had also seen some veterans and service members call the Lincoln’s sailors, and her husband, “weak.”Many people online, she said, argued that shortages, long hours and exhaustion come with every deployment, and that it isn’t unusual for sailors to try to jump overboard.
“糟糕的部署和受到极不人道的待遇并不正常，我认为军队，主要是海军，已经将这种现常态化得太过分了。他们把受到不人道对待视为常态，”这名水手的妻子说。“没人应该受到那样的对待，尤其是本应保卫国家的现役军人……这绝对永远不应该成为常态。”
“Crappy deployments and being treated very inhumanely is not normal, and I think the military, mainly the Navy, has normalized that way too much. They have normalized being treated inhumanely,” the sailor’s wife said. “No one should be treated like that, especially our service members who are supposed to be protecting our country. … That should never ever be normalized.”