美国国家公共电台 NPR The Delicate And Draining Task Of Tending To America's Fallen Troops

 

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

Nearly 7,000 service members have lost their lives since the U.S. went to war in 2001, first in Afghanistan, then in Iraq and other countries. Every death is followed by an elaborate choreographed¹ ritual that requires a very human touch to return the dead to their families. We're going to meet a man now who has spent his entire career doing this sensitive work - a military mortician. NPR national security correspondent Greg Myre has his story.

GREG MYRE, BYLINE²: At Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, a military transport plane brings home service members killed in Afghanistan.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: (Unintelligible).

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: (Unintelligible).

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: (Unintelligible).

MYRE: It's a part of the war the public only sees from a distance, if at all. But for Army Sergeant³ 1st Class A.G. Shaw, this work has been his life for 25 years. He's a 92 Mike, military-speak for a specialist in mortuary affairs. The job requires reverence⁴ and discretion⁵. Thanks and recognition are rare. Shaw's comfort came from a supportive grandmother.

SGT 1ST CLASS A G SHAW: In her estimation, you're doing God's work 'cause you're bringing closure to families and you're bringing folks home.

MYRE: Shaw is a big, burly man with a deep, calming voice. In a long military career that's now winding⁶ down, he's seen the impact of U.S. wars from many places and many angles. Shaw has recovered troops killed on the battlefield in Iraq. He's consoled families in the U.S. as they receive the body of a loved one. One of his most powerful memories was at a military base in Hawaii. Shaw was handling the skeletal remains⁷ of a service member killed many years earlier in Vietnam.

SHAW: I ran across a young lady who was a baby when her father went off to war. She's never had any physical contact with her father. So she wanted to touch her father.

MYRE: The container holding his remains was opened.

SHAW: She had one of the backbones⁸. And there's the way she was holding and touching⁹ and caressed¹⁰ this bone.

MYRE: The moment left a permanent imprint¹¹.

SHAW: Those five minutes where she was in prayer and in thought and she was finally touching a physical piece of her father, even though it seemed macabre¹², it did something for her. Then she washed her hands and she went home. And she was crying because I was driving the vehicle. And she was very thankful.

MYRE: At times like these, Shaw says, he's stoic¹³ on the outside and limp on the inside.

MEGHAN OGILVIE: He's seen things that none of us - the majority of us would - you know, one day of it wouldn't be able to handle.

MYRE: That's Meghan Ogilvie. She runs Dog Tag Bakery, a nonprofit group in the Georgetown section of Washington. The ground floor of the old white brick building is a working bakery filled with the fragrance¹⁴ of cakes and coffee. Those smells waft¹⁵ up to the second floor, where the group also has a classroom that trains veterans like Shaw to enter the business world.

OGILVIE: If you have good music going, I mean, A.G.'s on the - A.G.'s dancing. He's moving. He's clapping. He's singing. He has a zest¹⁶ for life, you know? He has it. And I think his service didn't allow him to always be able to show it. And maybe he has a greater, you know, passion for it because he's seen the other side.

MYRE: In a lengthy¹⁷ interview just outside Washington, Shaw isn't inclined to talk about the global politics of America's wars. He speaks about honor and pride, respect for the work, and insights gleaned¹⁸ from his job. Shaw says everyone in his profession has a number.

SHAW: A number of instances, a number of traumas¹⁹, a number of exposures before things just get too heavy.

MYRE: Shaw divides the job into three parts. All are challenging. All add to a person's number. Part one, he says, is working with the bodies. This means autopsies²⁰ and embalming²¹. It wasn't easy, especially in the beginning.

SHAW: I found it hard to look the decedents in their face. I would have a problem because I'd get to imagining this person's life. And it ticks away at you.

MYRE: In Iraq, troops were often killed by powerful roadside bombs.

SHAW: It's not like the movies. We don't die pretty.

MYRE: The second part of the mission is putting a service member's affairs in order. This includes gathering²² the belongings²³ of the deceased.

SHAW: When you're there packing their room for them, now you see what kind of person they were. It hits you.

MYRE: The third part is comforting the families. This often involves meeting at a civilian²⁴ airport and escorting the family on a lengthy car ride to collect the remains at Dover Air Force Base.

SHAW: Sometimes they want to engage you. Sometimes they're speaking amongst themselves. Sometimes it's just regular things. Did I leave the stove on? Some of these people you want to hug and you want to tell them it's going to be OK.

MYRE: But it can also be tense.

SHAW: Sometimes it's not always pleasant for the service member. You got the people, like, you will not bury him in this uniform, or why are you here? You killed him. But you have to be professional. And you take it.

MYRE: Shaw just turned 44, and this is the only real job he's had. He's done it much longer than most.

SHAW: I think I've reached my number, so I want to do something that's happier than dealing²⁵ with people's grief and sad emotions.

MYRE: Back at Dog Tag Bakery, Kyle Burns, who runs the training program, says veterans often underestimate the skills they can offer.

KYLE BURNS: I think it's epidemic²⁶ in that transition from the military to the civilian world the lacking of understanding or appreciation²⁷ for their own skill sets and their own experiences.

MYRE: But she's a big fan of Shaw.

BURNS: He has a very clear vision of the future, and he understands there's probably a lot of ways to get there.

MYRE: Shaw says he's not yet sure what he'll do after he retires on January 2, though he knows what puts him at ease.

SHAW: I do photography. So I'm going to see how far that takes me because you've got a camera, people smile at you. And you encapsulate happy times.

MYRE: He hopes to find those happy times in St. Louis, where he grew up and where he'll start a new chapter with his wife and their two teenagers. Greg Myre, NPR News, Washington.

1 choreographed   

v.设计舞蹈动作( choreograph的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• There was some carefully choreographed flag-waving as the President drove by. 总统的车经过时，人们按精心编排的动作挥舞着旗帜。
• Achim had choreographed the dance in Act II himself. 阿希姆自己设计了第2幕的舞蹈动作。 来自辞典例句

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 sergeant   

n.警官，中士

参考例句：

• His elder brother is a sergeant.他哥哥是个警官。
• How many stripes are there on the sleeve of a sergeant?陆军中士的袖子上有多少条纹？

4 reverence   

n.敬畏，尊敬，尊严；Reverence:对某些基督教神职人员的尊称；v.尊敬，敬畏，崇敬

参考例句：

• He was a bishop who was held in reverence by all.他是一位被大家都尊敬的主教。
• We reverence tradition but will not be fettered by it.我们尊重传统，但不被传统所束缚。

5 discretion   

n.谨慎；随意处理

参考例句：

• You must show discretion in choosing your friend.你择友时必须慎重。
• Please use your best discretion to handle the matter.请慎重处理此事。

6 winding   

n.绕，缠，绕组，线圈

参考例句：

• A winding lane led down towards the river.一条弯弯曲曲的小路通向河边。
• The winding trail caused us to lose our orientation.迂回曲折的小道使我们迷失了方向。

7 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

8 backbones   

n.骨干( backbone的名词复数 )；脊骨；骨气；脊骨状物

参考例句：

• Why do hummingbirds and gorillas both have backbones? 为什么蜂鸟和大猩猩都有脊骨？ 来自辞典例句
• Simply adding bandwidth to the Internet backbones is not an answer. 只是简单的在互联网骨架上增加带宽是应付不了的。 来自互联网

9 touching   

adj.动人的，使人感伤的

参考例句：

• It was a touching sight.这是一幅动人的景象。
• His letter was touching.他的信很感人。

10 caressed   

爱抚或抚摸…( caress的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• His fingers caressed the back of her neck. 他的手指抚摩着她的后颈。
• He caressed his wife lovingly. 他怜爱万分地抚摸着妻子。

11 imprint   

n.印痕，痕迹；深刻的印象；vt.压印，牢记

参考例句：

• That dictionary is published under the Longman imprint.那本词典以朗曼公司的名义出版。
• Her speech left its imprint on me.她的演讲给我留下了深刻印象。

12 macabre   

adj.骇人的，可怖的

参考例句：

• He takes a macabre interest in graveyards.他那么留意墓地，令人毛骨悚然。
• Mr Dahl was well-known for his macabre adult stories called 'Tales of the Unexpected'.达尔先生以成人恐怖小说集《意料之外的故事》闻名于世。

13 stoic   

n.坚忍克己之人，禁欲主义者

参考例句：

• A stoic person responds to hardship with imperturbation.坚忍克己之人经受苦难仍能泰然自若。
• On Rajiv's death a stoic journey began for Mrs Gandhi,supported by her husband's friends.拉吉夫死后，索尼亚在丈夫友人的支持下开始了一段坚忍的历程。

14 fragrance   

n.芬芳，香味，香气

参考例句：

• The apple blossoms filled the air with their fragrance.苹果花使空气充满香味。
• The fragrance of lavender filled the room.房间里充满了薰衣草的香味。

15 waft   

v.飘浮，飘荡；n.一股；一阵微风；飘荡

参考例句：

• The bubble maker is like a sword that you waft in the air.吹出泡泡的东西就像你在空中挥舞的一把剑。
• When she just about fall over,a waft of fragrance makes her stop.在她差点跌倒时，一股幽香让她停下脚步。

16 zest   

n.乐趣；滋味，风味；兴趣

参考例句：

• He dived into his new job with great zest.他充满热情地投入了新的工作。
• He wrote his novel about his trip to Asia with zest.他兴趣浓厚的写了一本关于他亚洲之行的小说。

17 lengthy   

adj.漫长的，冗长的

参考例句：

• We devoted a lengthy and full discussion to this topic.我们对这个题目进行了长时间的充分讨论。
• The professor wrote a lengthy book on Napoleon.教授写了一部有关拿破仑的巨著。

18 gleaned   

v.一点点地收集（资料、事实）( glean的过去式和过去分词 )；（收割后）拾穗

参考例句：

• These figures have been gleaned from a number of studies. 这些数据是通过多次研究收集得来的。
• A valuable lesson may be gleaned from it by those who have eyes to see. 明眼人可从中记取宝贵的教训。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

19 traumas   

n.心灵创伤( trauma的名词复数 )；损伤；痛苦经历；挫折

参考例句：

• She felt exhausted after the traumas of recent weeks. 她经受了最近几个星期的痛苦之后感到精疲力竭。
• Conclusion: Safety lens of spectacles can protect the occurrence of ocular traumas. 结论：安全镜片可以预防眼镜碎片所致的眼外伤。 来自互联网

20 autopsies   

n.尸体解剖( autopsy的名词复数 )；验尸；现场验证；实地观察

参考例句：

• Autopsies cannot be performed and thus no recent histological examinations have been reported. 不能进行尸体解剖，因此没有新近的组织学检查的报道。 来自辞典例句
• I told you to supervise autopsies, not to set up a lot of fancy rules. 我叫你监督解剖室，不是去制定一些空想的规定。 来自辞典例句

21 embalming   

v.保存（尸体）不腐( embalm的现在分词 )；使不被遗忘；使充满香气

参考例句：

• The corpse was preserved from decay by embalming. 尸体用香料涂抹以防腐烂。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• They were experts at preserving the bodies of the dead by embalming them with special lotions. 他们具有采用特种药物洗剂防止尸体腐烂的专门知识。 来自辞典例句

22 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。

23 belongings   

n.私人物品，私人财物

参考例句：

• I put a few personal belongings in a bag.我把几件私人物品装进包中。
• Your personal belongings are not dutiable.个人物品不用纳税。

24 civilian   

adj.平民的，民用的，民众的

参考例句：

• There is no reliable information about civilian casualties.关于平民的伤亡还没有确凿的信息。
• He resigned his commission to take up a civilian job.他辞去军职而从事平民工作。

25 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

26 epidemic   

n.流行病；盛行；adj.流行性的，流传极广的

参考例句：

• That kind of epidemic disease has long been stamped out.那种传染病早已绝迹。
• The authorities tried to localise the epidemic.当局试图把流行病限制在局部范围。

27 appreciation   

n.评价；欣赏；感谢；领会，理解；价格上涨

参考例句：

• I would like to express my appreciation and thanks to you all.我想对你们所有人表达我的感激和谢意。
• I'll be sending them a donation in appreciation of their help.我将送给他们一笔捐款以感谢他们的帮助。