对于米歇尔·蒂金斯来说，失去的痛苦往往在每一天的开始时最为严重，当她再次意识到她将在没有丈夫的情况下面对它时。
RUSS BYNUM, JACK BROOK For Michelle Tietjens, the pain of loss often hits hardest at the start of each day, when the realization dawns all over again that she’ll be facing it without her husband.
她说：“早上醒来，我总是需要一点时间才能开始工作。”“因为你重温了它--他不在这里，也不会回来了。”来自内布拉斯加州贝尔维尤的陆军预备役一等兵Noah Tietjens于2025年夏天第三次部署到中东。甚至在他离开之前，他的妻子就对美国和以色列轰炸伊朗核设施后潜在的报复感到不安。她的丈夫试图将风险降到最低，以免家人担心。
“Waking up in the morning it always takes me a little bit to get going,” she said. “Because you relive it – that he’s not here and he’s not coming back.”Sgt. 1st Class Noah Tietjens, an Army reservist from Bellevue, Nebraska, deployed for the third time to the Middle East in the summer of 2025. Even before he left, his wife felt uneasy about potential retaliation after the United States and Israel bombed Iranian nuclear sites . Her husband tried to minimize the risks to keep his family from worrying.
但情人节过后，这位42岁的中士不再在周末给家里打电话，而是只通过短信交流。
But after Valentine’s Day, the 42-year-old sergeant stopped calling home on the weekends, instead communicating solely by text message.
“他知道当他和我说话时，他无法把事情从自己的声音中抹去，”他结婚二十多年的妻子米歇尔·蒂詹斯（Michelle Tietjens）说。2月28日，美国和以色列对伊朗进行空袭，以纪念战争开始，几个小时后，她的丈夫通过短信联系了她。
“He knew he couldn’t keep things out of his voice when he was talking to me,” said Michelle Tietjens, his wife of more than two decades. Her husband checked in by text in the hours after the U.S. and Israel pounded Iran with airstrikes to mark the start of the war on Feb. 28.
第二天，当伊朗袭击了驻扎美军的中东基地时，诺亚·蒂詹斯停止回复妻子的信息。她看手机就知道他根本没有读过。
The next day, as Iran attacked Mideast bases housing U.S. troops, Noah Tietjens stopped replying to his wife’s messages. She could tell by looking at her phone that he hadn’t even read them.
她很快得知，她的丈夫是在科威特的民用港口和炼油厂舒艾巴港被伊朗无人机杀害的六名美国士兵之一，这是“史诗之怒行动”中对美军造成的最致命袭击。
She soon learned that her husband was one of six U.S. soldiers killed by an Iranian drone at Port Shuaiba, a civilian port and oil refinery in Kuwait, in the deadliest confirmed attack on U.S. troops in Operation Epic Fury.
七个多月过去了，米歇尔·蒂詹斯和其他阵亡或受伤士兵的家人仍然在承受丧亲之痛的现实和受伤的终生影响。一些人告诉美联社，他们对3月1日袭击事件的问题仍未得到解答感到愤怒。
More than seven months later, Michelle Tietjens and the families of other soldiers killed or wounded are still absorbing the reality of their bereavement and lifelong effects of their injuries. Several told The Associated Press they’re angry as questions remain unanswered over the March 1 attack.
美军陆军拒绝就美联社关于袭击舒艾巴港的报道置评，称尚未向遇难者家属通报此次袭击调查的结果。五角大楼也拒绝置评。
The Army declined to comment on the AP’s reporting on the Port Shuaiba strike saying it had not yet briefed the families of those killed on the outcome of its investigation into the attack. The Pentagon also declined to comment.
“我们都非常沮丧、难过和愤怒。”米歇尔·蒂耶廷斯告诉美联社，“我们一直在等答案，却始终得不到。”丈夫去世后，米歇尔·蒂耶廷斯休息了五周才返回工作岗位，希望工作能让生活恢复一些正常的感觉。
“We’re all really frustrated and upset and mad,” Michelle Tietjens told the AP. “We’re still waiting for answers and not getting any.”After her husband’s death, Michelle Tietjens took five weeks off before returning to her job, hoping work would restore some sense of normalcy.
然而，每一天都会让她想起丈夫。他曾帮助她开设武术课，喜欢钓鱼，也会和13岁的儿子一起看日本动画。
But each day brings reminders of the husband who helped her teach martial arts classes and who enjoyed fishing and watching Japanese animation with their 13-year-old son.
诺亚·蒂耶廷斯原本计划在11月服役满20年后从美国陆军后备役退役。最终，他却在去世后被追晋为士官长。
Noah Tietjens had planned to retire from the Army Reserve once he reached 20 years of service in November. Instead, he was promoted posthumously to the rank of master sergeant.
米歇尔·蒂耶廷斯仍在适应独自抚养孩子的生活。她说，儿子成绩不错，还在踢足球，但她有时担心儿子会把太多事情藏在心里。“我从没想过，有一天会独自抚养儿子。”她说。8月，她收到了丈夫去世后授予他的勋章。
Michelle Tietjens is still reconciling being a solo parent. She said her son is earning good grades and playing soccer, but she sometimes worries he’s keeping too much to himself. “I never thought I would be raising my son by myself,” she said. In August, she received a medal awarded to her husband following his death.
“当他们把丈夫的铜星勋章交给我时，那名将军甚至不敢直视我的眼睛。”蒂娜·马赞也讲述了自己的哀伤经历。1991年，她17岁，丈夫罗伯特·马赞驻扎在德国时，两人相识。“从那以后，我们就一直在一起。”她说。
“When they gave me his Bronze Star,” she said, “the general could not even look me in the eye.”Tina Marzan has her own story of grief. She met her husband, Chief Warrant Officer 3 Robert Marzan, when she was 17 and he was stationed in Germany in 1991. “We’ve been together ever since,” she said.
和诺亚·蒂耶廷斯一样，罗伯特·马赞也是舒艾巴港无人机袭击中的遇难者之一。“你知道，就仿佛自己的一部分不见了。”他的妻子说。
Like Noah Tietjens, Robert Marzan was among those killed by the drone strike on Port Shuaiba. “It’s just, you know, the other part of you is missing,” his wife said.
驻扎在该港口的约80名士兵中many人，包括马赞和蒂耶廷斯，都来自总部位于爱荷华州、于2025年8月部署到科威特的第103远征保障司令部。马赞的妻子说，54岁的罗伯特·马赞已在这个部队服役近20年。
Many of the roughly 80 soldiers stationed at the port, including Marzan and Tietjens, were from the Iowa-based 103rd Expeditionary Sustainment Command that deployed to Kuwait in August 2025. Robert Marzan, 54, had served in the unit for nearly two decades, his wife said.
他在部队里被视为一位父亲般的人物，这对夫妻还经常邀请其他人到家中参加烧烤、晚宴和万圣节派对。
He was seen as a father figure in the unit, and the couple often invited others to their home for barbecues, dinners and Halloween parties.
他的遗孀表示，罗伯特·马赞始终把军队使命放在首位，并在长达36年的军旅生涯中随时准备牺牲自己的生命。
Robert Marzan always put his Army mission first, his widow said, and was willing to sacrifice his life throughout his 36-year military career.
因此，当她听到唐纳德·特朗普总统在9月4日称这场冲突为“小事一桩”时，她感到非常震惊。
So it landed hard when she heard President Donald Trump, on Sept. 4, call the conflict “small potatoes.”
蒂娜·马赞说：“我觉得轻描淡写这件事根本不对。他应该表现出更多的尊重。”受伤士兵的家人也面临着不同的挑战。
“I just don’t think it’s right that it’s played down,” Tina Marzan said. “He should be more respectful.”Families of the wounded have different challenges.
霍莉·哈尔伯曾盼望着丈夫能随第103部队从科威特归来——这是他两年内的第二次部署——这样她就不用再独自抚养他们两个年幼的孩子，生活地点位于艾奥瓦州安克尼。
Holly Halbur had been eager for her husband to return from Kuwait with the 103rd — his second deployment in two years — so that she would no longer be raising their two young children alone in the Ankeny, Iowa.
当她得知丈夫、中校蒂姆·哈尔伯在舒艾巴港的无人机袭击中受伤时，她意识到丈夫的归家之旅将截然不同。
When she heard her husband, Lt. Col. Tim Halbur, was wounded in the drone strike on Port Shuaiba, she realized his homecoming would be very different.
一位陆军官员曾告诉霍莉·哈尔伯，她45岁的丈夫伤势并不严重。但后来她得知，丈夫很可能永远无法完全恢复主导手臂的活动能力，这让她大失所望。爆炸导致他的前臂四处骨折，包括肘部。
An Army official had told Holly Halbur that her 45-year-old husband wasn’t seriously injured. But she was later dismayed to learn that her husband would likely never regain full mobility in his dominant arm. The blast shattered his forearm in four places, including his elbow.
他在马里兰州的沃尔特·里德医疗中心住了好几个月。他说，那里为他提供了“出色”的护理，帮助他部分恢复了受伤手和手臂的功能。然而，他不得不等待数周才能安排后续预约，并表示自己很沮丧，因为直到10月底才能重新开始创伤后应激障碍的治疗。
He spent months in the Walter Reed Medical Center in Maryland, where he says he received “excellent” care that helped him regain some use of his injured hand and arm. He has had to wait weeks to line up further appointments and said he’s frustrated that he cannot resume receiving therapy for his post-traumatic stress until the end of October.
蒂姆·哈尔伯说：“我希望自己不用等这么久。当你需要倾诉时，能有一位专业人士倾听，总是件好事。”他的归来也给他们的家庭带来了新的挑战。
“I wish I didn’t have to wait as long,” Tim Halbur said. “It’s always nice to have that professional that you can talk to when you need to.”His homecoming also has posed new challenges for their family.
霍莉·哈尔伯说：“这可能是目前最困难的部分——现在得重新摸索，比如，我们彼此到底是谁。”
“This might be the hardest part so far — trying to now figure out, like, who each other is again,” Holly Halbur said.
他们已经结婚十年了。霍莉·哈布尔（Holly Hanblur）在她未来的丈夫被派往阿富汗期间给他寄了一份他最喜欢的Chex Mix麦片的护理包后，他们变得亲密起来。当她后来也参军时，他让她宣誓入伍。但过去两年，他们大部分时间都分开住，蒂姆·哈布尔被部署到海外。
They’ve been married for a decade. They became close after Holly Halbur sent her future husband a care package of his favorite Chex Mix cereal while he was deployed in Afghanistan. He swore her in when she, too, later joined the Army. But the past two years they have lived mostly apart, with Tim Halbur deployed overseas.
现在他回来了，他试图帮忙做家务。但他经常需要妻子的帮助来完成更换割草机电池或移动重物等任务。
Now that he’s back, he tries to help with household chores. But he often needs his wife’s assistance for tasks like changing the lawn mower’s battery or moving heavy objects.
霍莉·哈布尔说：“当我们弄清楚这个问题时，我们都必须对彼此更加仁慈，因为这对我们俩来说都将是艰难和令人沮丧的。”_拜纳姆从佐治亚州萨凡纳报道，还有来自新奥尔良的布鲁克。
“We’re both going to have to have, like, grace upon grace for each other as we figure this out,” Holly Halbur said, “because it’s going to be hard and frustrating for both of us.” ___ Bynum reported from Savannah, Ga., and Brook from New Orleans.