首先登船的是新晋父亲们。当“亚伯拉罕·林肯”号航母于周四驶入圣迭戈港口时，数十名在航母艰苦的322天离家任务期间迎来新生儿的海军水手和海军陆战队员冲向他们从未抱过的孩子。
First off the ship were the new dads. When the USS Abraham Lincoln pulled into port in San Diego on Thursday, dozens of sailors and Marines whose babies were born during the carrier’s grueling 322 days away from home sprinted to meet the children they had never held.
他们在十一月从同一码头起航，原以为五月、六月，甚至年底就能回家——然而特朗普总统一次又一次延长他们的部署，并下令航母对伊朗发动打击并实施海上封锁。
They had shoved off from this same dock in November, thinking they’d be home by May, then June, then the end of the year — as President Donald Trump repeatedly extended their deployment and ordered the aircraft carrier to strike Iran and enforce a naval blockade.
在军人家庭向《MS NOW》透露长期部署期间的恶劣条件和心理健康困境后，他们于八月在一次激烈的市政厅会议上直面海军高层。海军随后改变计划，提前数月让“林肯”号返航。
After military families told MS NOW about the poor conditions and mental health struggles service members were experiencing during the long deployment, they confronted Navy leaders in a fiery town hall in August. Navy leaders then changed plans and turned the Lincoln home months earlier.
三月伊朗对巴林一座关键美军基地的轰炸扰乱了海军为“林肯”号补给的能力，导致食物短缺、肥皂和牙膏等基本用品供应受限，士气低落。海军已承认在航母编队部署期间发生了八起自杀未遂。
Iran’s bombing in March of a key U.S. base in Bahrain disrupted the Navy’s ability to resupply the Lincoln, leading to demoralizing shortages of food and limits on basic supplies like soap and toothpaste. The Navy has acknowleged there were eight suicide attempts in the carrier group during their deployment.
这些艰辛让周四在北岛海军航空站的庆祝活动更加感人。自黎明前就与家人等待的孩子们举着自制标语，挥舞美国国旗，敲响铃铛，欢呼着迎接他们的父母终于归来。
Those hardships made Thursday’s celebrations at Naval Air Station North Island all the more heartfelt. Children who had waited with their families since before sunrise held homemade signs, waved American flags, rang bells and cheered as their mothers and fathers finally came home.
凯西·蒙特罗索从弗吉尼亚跨州赶来，只为让她六个月大的女儿第一次亲眼见到父亲。她在舰船进港时说：“这十个月真的非常艰难——尤其是怀孕、生孩子的时候。” “我们只想让他终于见到自己的女儿。” “林肯号的这段经历成为了一个具体的例证，正如许多军事策划者警告的那样：与伊朗的战争会把美国拖入一场持久冲突，并在整个美军内部产生严重的连锁反应。”
Kathy Monterroso traveled across the country from Virginia so her six-month-old daughter could see dad in person for the first time. “It’s been a rough, rough 10 months for sure — especially pregnant, having a baby,” she said, as the ship came into port. “We’re just excited for him to finally meet his daughter.”The saga of the Lincoln has become a tangible illustration of what many military planners had warned: A war with Iran would draw the United States into a prolonged conflict, with severe reverberations across the entire U.S. military.
发动战争的决定不仅影响了加油站的油价或美国武器的库存，也给那些被派去参战的人们带来了深切的个人代价。身穿制服的士兵们——以及这些服役人员的家人——经历了数月的分离，忍受了恶劣的条件，并做出了将产生持久影响的牺牲。
The decision to go to war didn’t just affect the price at the pump or the stockpiles of U.S. weapons. It exacted a deeply personal toll on the people sent to fight it. The people wearing the uniforms — and the families of these service members — spent months apart, endured brutal conditions and made sacrifices that will have lasting consequences.
就在“林肯”号抵达的前一天，国防部长皮特·赫格塞思登上了这艘船，慰问了水手和海军陆战队员。赫格塞思承认，正是他两次签署命令，让这艘航母在海上停留了更长时间。
The day before the Lincoln arrived, the sailors and Marines were visited on the ship by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Hegseth acknowledged that he was the one who signed orders twice to keep the carrier longer at sea.
他说，船员们“在以为即将回家时，却两次被延长任务时间，而我们还要求他们承担更多。你们知道他们做了什么吗？他们确实做了更多。这并不容易，补给也不轻松，海上局势充满冲突，他们身处西部，击落来袭目标——那是一个极其危险的地方。”
The crew, he said, was “two times extended when you thought you were going home, and we asked you to do more. And you know what you did? You did more. And it wasn’t easy, and there wasn’t easy resupply, and there were contested seas, and you were in the west, shooting down incoming — it was a dangerous place to be.”
他还表示，媒体“试图将‘亚伯拉罕·林肯’号变成某种象征——或是功能失灵的象征，或是士气低落的象征，或是任务失败的象征。”但赫格塞思说：“我知道事实恰恰相反。”他接着告诉船员们，这艘船因数月来与伊朗的作战行动而获得了总统单位嘉奖。
He said the media “tried to turn the USS Abraham Lincoln into some sort of a symbol — a symbol of dysfunction, or a symbol of low morale, or a symbol of a failed mission.”But, Hegseth said, “I know it’s the exact opposite.”Hegseth went on to tell the crew that the ship had received a presidential unit citation for its months in combat against Iran.
赫格塞思称，在此次部署期间，该航母执行了3693次战斗出动任务，投下了137万磅炸弹，发射了450枚“战斧”巡航导弹，击落了77架攻击无人机，摧毁了21枚反舰巡航导弹，并“击退了四艘快速攻击艇和携带爆炸物的多瓦尔船”。当“林肯”号于11月21日离开圣地亚哥时，这艘航空母舰原计划前往印太地区进行常规轮换。
During the deployment, Hegseth said, the carrier flew 3,693 combat sorties, dropped 1.37 million pounds of bombs, launched 450 Tomahawk cruise missiles, shot down 77 attack drones, destroyed 21 anti-ship cruise missiles, and “defended against four fast attack craft and explosive-carrying dhows.”When the Lincoln left San Diego on Nov. 21, the aircraft carrier had been scheduled to do a regular rotation in the Indo-Pacific.
但这一计划在1月份突然改变——根据在线的船舶动态追踪数据，“林肯”号被重新派往中东。
But that plan suddenly changed in January when — according to online trackers of ship movements — the Lincoln was redirected to the Middle East.
当特朗普于2月28日下令对伊朗发动首次空袭时，这艘军舰正是当时位于该地区的两艘航空母舰之一。
The warship was one of two aircraft carriers that were in the region when Trump ordered the first airstrikes on Iran on Feb. 28.
当时，特朗普总统说这场军事行动只会持续几周。但五个月后，林肯号仍在那儿，对霍尔木兹海峡实施海上封锁，通过拦截无人机和对伊朗境内的战略目标发动打击来保护航运。到七月，林肯号创下了现代纪录，连续在海上航行的天数最多。
At the time, President Trump said the military campaign would take a few weeks. But five months later, the Lincoln was still there, imposing the naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, protecting shipping by intercepting drones and launching strikes on strategic targets inside of Iran. By July, the Lincoln had beat a modern day record for most continuous days at sea without a port call.
通常航空母舰每四到六周就会停靠一次港口，但在林肯号服役的5000名水手和海军陆战队员已经208天没有离开舰船。
Typically aircraft carriers stop every four to six weeks, but the 5,000 sailors and Marines serving on the Lincoln hadn’t gotten off the ship in 208 days.
家属在八月初告诉《MS NOW》，船上出现了食品短缺、基本卫生用品缺乏、邮件收发不稳定、轮班时间长且没有休息，他们对亲人的身心健康极度担忧。
Families told MS NOW in early August that there were food shortages on the ship, a lack of basic hygienic supplies, the mail wasn’t coming in consistently, the shifts were long and without breaks, and they were extremely worried about their loved ones’ physical and mental health.
“有段时间他只能吃半杯米饭和两块玉米饼——几乎没有别的东西。他还跟我说不能洗澡，”尼科尔·康拉德（她的儿子在舰上服役）当时对《MS NOW》说。
“There was a time where he was only eating half a cup of rice and two tortillas — like there hasn’t been a whole lot. He did tell me about not being able to shower,” Nicole Conrad, whose son was serving on the ship, told MS NOW at the time.
随着返航日期已经推迟两次且没有明确的结束时间，军人家属称士气极其低落。
With the return date already pushed out twice and no clear end in sight, the morale, according to the military families, was extremely low.
八月初，约400名舰上军人的亲属在两场连续的市政厅会议上向海军领导人——包括代理海军部长洪曹——提出质询，一场在圣迭戈海军基地的岛屿俱乐部现场举行，另一场则线上进行。家属要求就舰上条件和返航时间表给出答案。
In early August, approximately 400 loved ones of service members on the ship confronted Navy leaders — including Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao — in two back to back town halls, one in-person at the Island Club on the naval base in San Diego and one held virtually. Families demanded answers about the conditions and the timeline of the ship’s return.
海军领导人表示他们不知道舰船何时返回，但称伊朗已摧毁了美国海军第五舰队在巴林的后勤枢纽，导致补给航空母舰的工作受阻。
Navy leaders said they didn’t know when the ship was coming back, but did say that Iran had destroyed much of the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet logistical hub in Bahrain, which disrupted efforts to resupply the aircraft carrier.
这是一次惊人的承认，政府此前从未提及，显示出伊朗在战争期间造成的破坏以及对美军的影响。
It was a stunning admission that the administration had not previously acknowledged, and it showed the damage Iran had inflicted during the war and the impact it was having on U.S. troops.
8月3日，也就是部署开始八个月半后，一名19岁的初级水手从“林肯”号航母上跳下。他的妻子向MS NOW表示，这是一次自杀尝试。由于涉及敏感的心理健康问题，这位妻子在与MS NOW交谈时要求匿名。她分享了他跳船前发给她的最后一条短信。
On Aug. 3, eight and a half months into the deployment, a 19-year-old junior enlisted sailor jumped off the Lincoln in what his wife described to MS NOW as a suicide attempt. The wife spoke to MS NOW on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive mental health issues. She shared his final text to her before he jumped off the ship.
“我觉得这艘船终于让我撑不住了，”这名水手写道，“我不觉得这次任务结束后我还能继续执行下一次部署，甚至不确定我能不能完成这次任务。”她的丈夫在2月出海期间，她生下了一个女儿。她说，自部署进行到一半时，她就一直为他担心。当时他开始发短信告诉她，自己感到抑郁，并且作为航母飞行甲板的飞机机械师，长时间轮班工作、毫无休息，让他精疲力尽。
“i think the boat is finally getting to me” the sailor wrote. “i don’t think i can do another deployment after this and i dont even know if i can finish this deployment.”The wife, who had a baby girl in February while her husband was at sea, said she had been worried about him since halfway through the deployment when he started texting her saying that he was depressed and exhausted from working long shifts with no breaks as an aircraft mechanic on the carrier’s flight deck.
后来，这名水手被从航母上医疗后送返回圣地亚哥，但随后发现他因跳船行为而面临纪律处分指控。当时，美国海军表示，“林肯”号上并未出现自杀意念的增加。
Later, that sailor would be medically evacuated from the ship back to San Diego, only to discover that he was facing disciplinary charges for jumping off the ship. At the time, the Navy said there hadn’t been an increase in suicidal ideations on the Lincoln.
几周后，海军代理部长曹在致国会的一封信中称，“林肯”号航母打击群——包括该航母、其搭载的航空中队以及随行的驱逐舰——中有八名军人曾试图自杀。曹写道，另一名军人曾在3月试图从“林肯”号上跳下，并已被医疗后送。
Weeks later, in a letter to Congress, Acting Secretary of the Navy Cao, said eight service members from the Lincoln Carrier Strike Group — which included the carrier, the squadrons embarked on it and the accompanying destroyers — had attempted to take their lives. Another service member had attempted to jump from the Lincoln in March and had been medically evacuated, Cao wrote.
随着事件不断发酵并引起国际关注，8月13日，国防部长赫格塞斯在访问巴拿马期间被问及，他对军事家庭所描述的“林肯”号上状况有何回应。
As the story intensified and drew international attention, Defense Secretary Hegseth was asked on Aug. 13 during a trip to Panama what his response was to the military families’ descriptions of conditions on the Lincoln.
“这完全被曲解了，”赫格塞斯说。“听着，我们确保每艘船、每个船员、每位舰长在每一时刻都能得到我们能提供的一切。”第二天，一名记者问总统唐纳德·特朗普，他是否担心林肯号上服役人员的心理健康，以及部署是否已经持续太久。“不，不，不。根本不够久，”特朗普说。
“It’s completely misrepresented,” Hegseth said. “Listen, we made sure that every ship, every crew, every captain has everything that we can provide them at every single moment.”The next day, a reporter asked President Donald Trump if he was concerned about the mental health of service members on the Lincoln and if the deployment had gone on too long. “No, no, no. Not nearly long enough,” Trump said.
美国各地的民众开始为林肯号集结声援，向船员们表达支持。从堪萨斯到加利福尼亚、从宾夕法尼亚到爱荷华的高速公路上都能看到标语。退伍军人发起了捐赠活动，组织并寄送慰问和关怀包给船员。
Americans from coast to coast began to rally around the Lincoln to show the crew their support. Signs were spotted on highways from Kansas to California and Pennsylvania to Iowa. Veterans began donation drives to put together and send morale and care packages for the crew.
参议员理查德·布卢门塔尔（康涅狄格州民主党）、克里斯汀·吉利布兰德（纽约州民主党）和鲁本·加尔戈（亚利桑那州民主党）等立法者开始质询部署的条件以及对船员造成的压力。
Lawmakers like Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., Kristen Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., began to ask questions about the conditions and the strain the deployment was having on the crew.
随后，8月15日，美国中央司令部最高指挥官、负责伊朗战争日常行动的布拉德·库珀上将登上林肯号，宣布他们将返回。
Then, on Aug. 15, Adm. Brad Cooper, United States Central Command’s top commander who was responsible for the day to day operations of the Iran war, boarded the Lincoln and announced that they would be going home.
次日，库珀在《华尔街日报》发表社论写道：“历史将把这次部署记为现代时代最具作战强度和影响力的行动之一。”海军领导人表示，通常驻扎在日本横须贺、用于对抗朝鲜、中国和俄罗斯等国的美国航空母舰乔治·华盛顿号，将在中东接替林肯号。
In an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal the next day, Cooper wrote: “History will record this deployment as one of the most operationally intense and consequential of the modern era.”Navy leaders said the USS George Washington, which is typically based in Yokosuka, Japan and used as a deterrent to countries like North Korea, China and Russia in the Indo-Pacific, would relieve the Lincoln in the Middle East.
乔治·华盛顿号的部署表明计划出现突变，因为海军领导人在圣迭戈的市政厅上曾告诉军人家属，泰迪·罗斯福号将是替补舰——而该舰仍需数周才能起航。
The deployment of the USS Washington indicated a sudden shift in plans, as Navy leaders had told military families in the San Diego town hall that the USS Theodore Roosevelt would be the replacement — which was still weeks away from pushing off.
这也引发了严重疑问：美国在该地区的敌对势力是否能利用舰船调动的变化进行战略性利用，因为海军在伊朗战争中可部署的舰船已显不足。
It also raised serious questions about whether U.S. enemies in that part of the world could strategically capitalize on the change in ship movements because the Navy was running out of deployable ships to use in the Iran war.
当水手埃利亚斯·加西亚从圣地亚哥的军舰上走下来时，他说，在“林肯”号上的部署“很艰难——物资短缺、食物短缺，还有种种问题”。但他表示，正是信仰让他坚持下来并“咬牙挺过”，舰上的战友们也给了他支持，而知道母亲正在家中等待他，同样给了他力量。
As he walked off the ship in San Diego, sailor Elias Garcia said his deployment on the Lincoln “was difficult — like the shortages, the food shortage and all that.”But, he said, his faith kept him going and “pushing through,” as well as his shipmates — and so did knowing his mom was waiting for him back home.
他说，他的母亲正是那些公开谈论舰上状况的家属之一。他认为，母亲和其他军人家庭向海军领导层提出质疑，帮助“林肯”号更快地返航。“妈妈们真是奇迹般的存在，对吧？”如今，“西奥多·罗斯福”号及其航母打击群正驶向中东。
His mom, he said, was one of the family members speaking out about the conditions on the ship. He said he believes that his mom and other military families confronting Navy leadership helped get the Lincoln home faster. “Moms are miraculous, right?”Now, the USS Theodore Roosevelt and its carrier strike group are en route to the Middle East.
海军领导人在社交媒体上的一段视频中表示，他们已从“林肯”号的部署中吸取教训，并将这些经验应用于“罗斯福”号的部署，包括在舰体内部空间储备更多食物和物资。
Navy leaders said in a video on social media that they have learned lessons from the Lincoln’s deployment that they are applying to the Roosevelt’s deployment, including stocking more food and supplies in the cavities of the ship.
这艘军舰上的5000名水手和海军陆战队员很快就能知道，这些措施是否真的奏效。
The 5,000 sailors and Marines on that ship will soon find out if that is true.