作为一名战斗老兵，你是否在战场上目睹过任何无法解释或看似不可能发生的事情？
As a combat veteran, have you ever witnessed anything on the field of battle that defied explanation, or seemingly impossible?
译文简介
如果问题是关于超自然现象，那我没有目睹过，但确实有过几次“这家伙怎么能活下来？”的时刻。
正文翻译
Roland Bartetzko former German Army, Croatian Defense Council, Kosovo Liberation Army
罗兰·巴尔特茨科 前德国陆军、克罗地亚国防委员会、科索沃解放军成员
No paranormal activities, if this is what the question was about, but there were a few “how did this guy come out alive of this?” moments.
I remember a day when our enemy (the Serbs) attacked us with a number of tanks and armored personnel carriers. A friend of mine was with his squad on top of a hill where we had some defensive positions. They had a heavy machine gun there and when the enemy infantry approached, they opened fire.
如果问题是关于超自然现象，那我没有目睹过，但确实有过几次“这家伙怎么能活下来？”的时刻。
我记得有一天，我们的敌人（塞尔维亚人）用多辆坦克和装甲运兵车袭击了我们。我的一个朋友和他的小队驻守在一座小山顶上，我们在那里设有防御阵地，他们架着一挺重机枪，当敌方步兵逼近时，他们开火了。
A 12.7mm (0.50 cal.) “DShK” heavy machine gun, the type that we used in Kosovo.
我们在科索沃使用的是12.7毫米（0.50口径）的“德什卡”重机枪。
I was watching the whole thing from a safe distance, about 500 meters to their left.
It didn't take long for the Serbs to figure out from where they got shot at. In less than two minutes, they directed all their artillery fire on that little hill. They were always very good at that, especially in Kosovo.
我在他们左侧约500米的安全距离外目睹了全过程。
塞尔维亚人没多久就查清了枪声的来源，不到两分钟，他们就将所有炮火都对准了那座小山。他们在这方面向来很擅长，尤其是在科索沃。
A moment later, two tanks came out of the forest and started shooting directly at the place where my friend was standing behind the machine gun. I could see the explosions of the tank shells.
I was sure that all of our people on that hill were either dead or badly wounded. They hadn’t had enough time to retreat and now it was too late.
The fighting continued for another hour before it ebbed down and I walked back to our base. Of course, the group from the hill wasn’t there. While everyone else slowly returned from their fighting positions, these guys were still missing.
片刻之后，两辆坦克驶出森林，开始直接向我朋友所在的机枪阵地射击，我能看到坦克炮弹爆炸的火光。
我确信山顶上的战友们要么牺牲，要么受了重伤，他们根本没时间撤退，现在一切都太晚了。
战斗又持续了一个小时才逐渐平息，我走回基地时，山顶的那支小队果然不在。其他人都陆续从战斗阵地返回，只有他们还下落不明。
Just before nightfall, they finally arrived. My buddy told me what had happened: when they came under fire. They had just laid flat down on the bottom of the trench and waited. Luckily for them, the trench we had built there was quite solid. Nobody got killed or wounded, not even a scratch!
Unfortunately, they had to leave the heavy machine gun behind. We later sent a team out to get it but they ran straight into an enemy position where one of them got wounded.
Still, it could have been much worse. For me, it was a small miracle.
就在黄昏时分，他们终于回来了。我的兄弟跟我讲了当时的情况：遭到炮击时，他们只是平躺在战壕底部等待。幸运的是，我们在那里挖的战壕非常坚固，没有人伤亡，甚至连一点擦伤都没有！
遗憾的是，他们不得不丢弃那挺重机枪。后来我们派了一支小队去取回机枪，却直接闯入了敌方阵地，其中一人受了伤。
尽管如此，情况本可能会糟糕得多，对我来说，这简直是一个小小的奇迹。
Adrian Tom Lowndes Former Scout Platoon Leader, Company Executive Officer at U.S. Army (1989–1992)
阿德里安·汤姆·朗兹 前美国陆军侦察排排长、连执行官（1989–1992年任职）
As I grabbed the commander’s override joystick of the M3 Bradley’s turret, I looked through the optics and aimed the cross-hairs of the sight on the forehead of the Bedouin. He looked like an Arab version of Gandalf and he shook his staff in our direction. Just then, as if by magic, all hell broke loose.
当我握住M3“布拉德利”步兵战车炮塔的指挥官超越控制操纵杆时，透过光学瞄准镜，我将十字准星对准了那个贝都因人的额头。他看起来就像阿拉伯版的甘道夫，还朝我们的方向挥舞着手中的权杖，就在那时，仿佛被施了魔法一般，一切都陷入了混乱。
Thirty minutes earlier my Commander told me that we needed to patrol to a specific point on the map North of our position in the desert every four hours. He couldn’t tell me why, but I asked if we would have any enemy contact. He said “possibly - be alx.” Back then, my armored cavalry platoon had six Bradleys, each with a 25 mm cannon mounted on a turret, and three M1 Abrams tanks each with a 120 mm main gun. So, I broke the platoon down into sets of twos; each vehicle having a wing-man with the M1s composing three in their patrol. As the platoon leader, I thought it only right that I head the first patrol. My platoon sergeant decided to take his M3 and go as my wing-man to “keep eyes-on, sir.” I think he meant to keep an eye on me, so I didn’t do anything stupid.
三十分钟前，指挥官告诉我，我们需要每四小时前往沙漠中我方阵地以北地图上的一个特定地点巡逻。他没有说明原因，但我问他是否可能遭遇敌人，他说“有可能——保持警惕”。当时，我的装甲骑兵排有六辆“布拉德利”步兵战车，每辆炮塔上都装有一门25毫米加农炮，还有三辆M1“艾布拉姆斯”主战坦克，每辆配备一门120毫米主炮。于是我将排分成两组，每辆车都有一辆僚车，M1坦克则组成三人巡逻队。作为排长，我认为由我带领第一次巡逻是理所当然的。我的排士官决定驾驶他的M3战车作为我的僚车随行，说要“密切关注情况，长官”，我觉得他其实是想盯着我，防止我做出什么蠢事。
I climbed into the hatch, stood on the seat, looked at the map and plotted the coordinates in the GPS. It was a hot day without a cloud in the sky, and a cool breeze rolled in every now and then. The weather, coupled with a mission, and the prospect of some action got everyone in high (albeit nervous) spirits.
我爬进舱门，站在座位上查看地图，并将坐标输入全球定位系统。那天天气炎热，万里无云，时不时会吹来一阵凉风。宜人的天气、即将执行的任务以及可能发生的行动，让所有人都情绪高涨（尽管也有些紧张）。
“White One, we are Redcon 1 and ready to roll, over,” reported my Platoon Sergeant. I keyed the mic in my CVC helmet to report to my commander, “Roger that….Bulldog six we are Oscar Mike!”
I had my driver pull slowly out of the marshaling area and once clear, told him to ‘punch it!’
“白一，我们已进入一级战备状态，准备出发，完毕。”排士官报告道。我按下战车乘员头盔内置麦克风的按键，向指挥官汇报：“收到……斗牛犬六号，我们正在移动！”
我让司机慢慢驶出集结区，一旦脱离区域，就告诉他“全速前进！”
We were moving rapidly across the sand and it felt good to be moving. The terrain was completely flat without berms, and the weather was so nice that it made traveling to the patrol point enjoyable. My ‘wing-man’ stayed off to my right flank and just to the rear of my track and we moved in an echelon formation. After twenty minutes or so, just shy of the GPS coordinates of the final way-point of the mission, I saw a man and a small tent just off to the left of the patrol. I issued a fire command to my gunner, just to make sure he was still awake, especially since the gun was pointed over the right side of the vehicle.
我们在沙地上快速行驶，移动的感觉很好。地形平坦无任何护堤，天气又格外宜人，让前往巡逻点的路程都变得愉快起来。我的僚车保持在我的右侧翼后方，我们以梯队队形前进。大约二十分钟后，就在接近任务最终导航点的全球定位系统坐标时，我看到巡逻队左侧不远处有一个男人和一顶小帐篷。我向炮手下达了射击指令，只是为了确认他没有睡着，尤其是当时火炮正指向车辆的右侧。
The man kind of looked like this only his staff was much larger and gnarly:
那个男人长得大概就是这样，只是他的权杖更大、更粗糙扭曲：
“Gunner, sabot, Bedouin, twelve-hundred meters!” My driver laughed as he probably had never heard a fire command against a Bedouin before. “Cannot identify” said the gunner, meaning he couldn’t see the target. I grabbed the commander’s override joystick and slewed the turret around to line up the end of the gun tube with the Bedouin standing in the desert. How this lone man came to be in the middle of the desert is anyone’s guess.
“炮手，装穿甲弹，目标贝都因人，距离一千二百米！”司机笑了起来，他可能从未听过针对贝都因人的射击指令。“无法识别目标”，炮手说道，意思是他看不到目标。我再次握住指挥官超越控制操纵杆，转动炮塔，让炮管对准那个站在沙漠中的贝都因人。没人知道这个孤独的男人为何会出现在沙漠中央。
“Identified” said the gunner, now finally seeing the man standing there. I looked through the optics and aimed the cross-hairs of the sight right on the forehead of the Bedouin. The man looked right at me. It was if he was looking down the barrel of the gun right into my soul and for a minute it seemed almost as if time stopped. He had a large staff or walking stick in his hand that bent at the top and a long flowing beard and his hair was covered in a turban. He began moving his lips and banging his staff into the sand and then picked it up and started shaking it towards us.
“已识别目标”，炮手终于看到了那个站在那里的男人。我透过光学瞄准镜，将十字准星精准对准他的额头，而他也直视着我，仿佛正顺着炮管看穿我的灵魂，那一刻，时间仿佛都静止了。他手中握着一根顶部弯曲的巨大权杖或手杖，留着飘逸的长胡子，头上裹着头巾。他开始动了动嘴唇，将权杖重重地敲在沙地上，然后拿起权杖朝我们挥舞起来。
Just then, the engine stopped, and I lost all power to the Bradley. A yellow warning light came on, a loud alarm sounded, I felt a blast directly into my face, and then I was blinded and unable to see. This terrible smell was all around me and I knew we were in trouble, so I jumped out of the hatch. I reached in with my hands to pull my crew out of the Bradley and started to regain my vision.
就在那时，引擎突然熄火，“布拉德利”步兵战车彻底断电。黄色警示灯亮起，刺耳的警报声响起，我感觉一股气流直接冲向我的脸，随后视线模糊，什么也看不见了。周围弥漫着一股难闻的气味，我知道我们遇到了麻烦，于是立刻跳出舱门，伸手将乘员们从战车里拉出来，这时我的视力才慢慢恢复。
We all jumped to the ground and I looked over at my platoon sergeant’s vehicle. They had also exited their Bradley, but flames were darting out of the open hatch in the turret. They ran over to us while we watched in dismay as the vehicle slowly was encompassed by flames. We decided to get a good distance from both vehicles.
我们都跳到了地上，我看向排士官的战车，他们也已经撤离，但炮塔的敞开舱门里喷出了火焰。他们朝我们跑来，而我们沮丧地看着战车慢慢被火焰吞噬，于是决定远离这两辆车。
Looking around and seeing no enemy or any kind of life at all for miles around, I asked my gunner “What happened?”
He replied “Halon fire suppression went off, sir.”
环顾四周，数英里内看不到任何敌人或生命迹象，我问炮手：“发生了什么事？”
他回答：“长官，哈龙灭火系统启动了。”
We discovered that the Halon system had gone off on our Bradley. The Halon system is designed to keep the track from burning in the event of a fire. The computer must have thought that we were on fire even though there wasn’t any trace of one. Glitch? Maybe. But why wasn’t I or any of my crew disfigured or permanently blinded by the halon?
我们发现我们的“布拉德利”步兵战车上的哈龙灭火系统启动了，该系统旨在发生火灾时防止战车燃烧。显然，计算机误以为车辆着火了，尽管根本没有任何火灾痕迹。是系统故障吗？也许吧。但为什么我和乘员们都没有被哈龙造成毁容或永久性失明呢？
“What happened to you?” I asked my platoon sergeant. “How did you catch fire and why didn’t your halons go off?”
“No idea, sir. I was looking through the optics at a Bedouin and saw him shake his stick at us. Then the engine just stopped. We lost all power then we saw smoke and I ordered everyone out of the Bradley. The halons never went off. I know for a fact that both these Bradleys have just had a full inspection and have no deadlines.”
“你们那边怎么了？”我问排士官，“战车怎么着火了，而且哈龙灭火系统为什么没启动？”
“不知道，长官。我当时正透过光学瞄准镜看着一个贝都因人，看到他朝我们挥舞手杖，然后引擎就突然熄火了，车辆完全断电，接着我们就看到了烟雾，我立刻下令所有人撤离战车。哈龙灭火系统一直没启动，而且我可以肯定，这两辆‘布拉德利’步兵战车刚经过全面检查，没有任何故障问题。”
So, we had one M3 with a halon deployment and no fire and another M3 with fire and no halon deployment – at the same time an Arab Gandalf shook his staff at us.
就这样，我们的一辆M3步兵战车启动了哈龙灭火系统却没有火灾，另一辆发生火灾却未启动哈龙灭火系统，而与此同时，那个阿拉伯版的甘道夫正在朝我们挥舞手杖。
After a few minutes, the flames in the other Bradley just stopped. Strangely, none of the ordnance inside the M3 ever went off. I jumped back on top of the turret of my M3 and everything looked fine – even electrical power had been restored. I climbed back down into the hatch and grabbed the radio to call HQ for an engineer vehicle to recover my platoon sergeant’s Bradley. I then looked down into the sight and saw nothing but sand. The Bedouin with his staff and tent were gone.
几分钟后，另一辆“布拉德利”步兵战车上的火焰突然熄灭了。奇怪的是，战车内的所有弹药都没有爆炸。我跳回自己的M3步兵战车的炮塔顶部，发现一切看起来都很正常，电力甚至已经恢复了。我爬进舱门，拿起无线电向总部请求派工程车来回收排士官的战车，然后再次看向瞄准镜，里面却只剩下一片沙地，那个手持权杖的贝都因人和他的帐篷都消失得无影无踪了。
I know it just wasn’t me that saw him as my Platoon Sergeant had also said that they too had put the gun tube toward the man standing in the sand.
To this day, I have no explanation as to what caused the events of that day.
我知道不止我一个人看到了他，因为排士官也说，他们当时也将炮管对准了那个站在沙地上的男人。
直到今天，我仍然无法解释那天发生的一切。
Dan Eismann
Former Vietnam door gunner
我曾是越南战场上休伊武装直升机的机组 chief/舱门机枪手。
One day we were flying over a rice paddy that was ready for harvest. It was similar to a wheat field ready for harvest. On top of the paddy dike were bushes and small trees. We were flying about four feet in the air parallel to and about twenty yards from the paddy dike at one side of the rice paddy trying to draw fire. An enemy soldier was lying down in the rice, and he shot up through the bottom of the helicopter between the pilots and where the door gunner and I sat. It created a hole in the floor that was about three inches long running laterally. When we returned to base, I removed the section of flooring containing the hole and was amazed at what I saw. There was a corresponding lateral hole in the bottom skin of the helicopter, and bisecting those two holes was an inch-wide, aluminum push/pull tube that ran under the floor from the pilots’ cyclic levers to the hydraulic lever behind the back wall which controlled the lateral movement of the main rotor. Had the tube been severed, the pilot would have lost lateral control of the main rotor while we were flying at 80 to 90 knots four feet in the air. The tube was undamaged.
有一天，我们飞过一片即将收割的稻田，它和即将收割的麦田很相似。田埂上长满了灌木和小树，我们在离稻田一侧田埂约20码的地方，贴着地面约4英尺高平行飞行，试图引诱敌人开火。一名敌军士兵躺在稻田里，从飞行员和我与舱门机枪手座位之间的直升机底部向上射击，在地板上留下了一个约3英寸长的横向弹孔。回到基地后，我拆下了带有弹孔的地板部分，结果看到了令人震惊的一幕：直升机底部蒙皮上有一个对应的横向弹孔，而一根1英寸粗的铝制推拉管从这两个弹孔中间穿过，它从飞行员的周期变距杆延伸到后墙后方的液压杆，负责控制主旋翼的横向运动。要是这根管子被打断，当时以80到90节速度在4英尺高空飞行的我们，飞行员就会失去对主旋翼的横向控制，好在管子完好无损。
John Cibula Software Developer and Former Marine
约翰·西布拉 软件开发者、前海军陆战队成员
I have four that come to mind. None are that unbelievable but do make you go “huh?”. All from Helmand Province, Afghanistan.
我想到了四件事，它们算不上特别离奇，但确实会让人疑惑的说“哈？”，全都发生在阿富汗的赫尔曼德省。
1) My squad is in a poppy field and we are taking fire. Nothing too bad this time, a few pot shots from a roof but we are in an open field so we hit the deck and return some fire. We’re laying there assessing the situation and a barefoot kid, about 4 years old, walks through our line to get some water from the river. Doesn’t give a shit we are there and we are currently engaged, albeit it was during a lull. We never walked anywhere without mine sweeping first because of the amount of IED’s. This kid was so used to it and strolled through our ranks because he needed water.
1）我们小队在一片罂粟地里遭到了枪击，这次情况不算太糟，只是有人从屋顶零星射击。但我们身处开阔地，只好卧倒还击。我们躺在地上评估局势时，一个约4岁的光脚小孩穿过我们的防线，走向河边喝水。他完全不在乎我们的存在，也不管我们正在交火——尽管当时处于短暂停火期。因为简易爆炸装置数量众多，我们无论去哪都要先扫雷，可这个孩子对此早已习以为常，只是因为需要喝水，就从容地从我们队伍中穿了过去。
2) We took this photographer on a patrol with us. His first ever combat patrol. We hit a tree line that was mined to shit. There was a dead dog that triggered a mine and our engineer got like 4 hits. I’ve been there for awhile and knew this was a bad situation. I had that dread feeling in my stomach. The photographer was behind me. We were walking in a single file line because that’s what you do there because of the mines. Well sure enough I hear a small explosion, turn around and see our new photographer fall to the ground. We work our way to him assuming he’s hurt. Turns out he’s completely fine. We knew there had to be a malfunction because the explosion was tiny and we were right. The main charge didn’t explode. He went unconscious because of shock(he fainted). We returned and he decided not to go on any more patrols.
2）我们带了一位摄影师一起巡逻，这是他第一次参加战斗巡逻。我们遇到了一片布满地雷的树林带，之前有一只死狗触发了地雷，我们的工兵被炸中了大约4次。我在那里待了一段时间，知道情况不妙，心里有种不祥的预感。摄影师跟在我身后，由于地雷隐患，我们只能排成一列纵队行进。果然，我听到一声小小的爆炸声，回头就看到这位新来的摄影师倒在了地上。我们赶紧上前，以为他受伤了，结果发现他毫发无损。爆炸声音很小，我们断定是地雷出了故障，事实也确实如此，主炸药没有引爆。他只是因为受惊而失去了意识（也就是晕倒了）。我们返回基地后，他决定再也不参加巡逻了。
3) A guy was in a truck and accidentally shot off his grenade launcher. It bounced off the interior walls and between a few of the other guys in the truck and then landed on the ground. Luckily the round has to travel 25 meters to arm before it will explode. Phew.
3）有个人在卡车里不小心触发了榴弹发射器，榴弹在卡车内壁弹了几下，又在其他几个人中间弹过，最后落到了地上。幸运的是，这种榴弹需要飞行25米才能解除保险并引爆，真是虚惊一场。
4) I didn’t see this last one but it happened to a guy in my Company. He was on a roof providing overwatch and an AK opened up. It hit him directly in the head(wearing a helmet). He collapsed and was dragged off the roof. He woke up about 5 minutes later and walked to the helicopter. They dug the bullet out of his head in surgery. I hear he sometimes gets headaches still.
4）最后这件事我没亲眼看到，但发生在我们连的一个人身上。他当时在屋顶担任警戒，突然有人用AK步枪开火，子弹直接击中了他的头部（他戴着头盔）。他倒了下去，被人从屋顶拖了下来。大约5分钟后他醒了过来，自己走到了直升机旁。医生在手术中从他头上取出了子弹，我听说他现在有时还会头痛。
Paul Kandarian Atheist combat veteran, psych major, and cat owner
保罗·坎达里安 无神论者、战斗老兵、心理学专业学生、猫主人
I've posted this picture before but this is one of two instances were an RPG should've gone boom but didnt.
我之前发过这张照片，这是两起RPG本该爆炸却没爆炸的事件之一。
In another AO there was a soldier who was killed by an RPG. And not in the traditional sense. The RPG round hit the soldier in the chest, ripped through the plate, and killed him by sheer force not explosions. I (thankfully) don't have a picture of that incident.
在另一个作战区域，有一名士兵被RPG击中身亡，但并非传统意义上的爆炸致死。RPG弹药击中了他的胸口，穿透了防弹板，仅凭冲击力就夺走了他的生命，而非爆炸威力。幸运的是，我没有那起事件的照片。
Or having two soldiers (this douche twizzler fellow private and our new, cherry ass captain) get shot in the helmet and survive. The private caught a ricochet of an AK-74 round in the base plate. Knocked him down, but was ok.
还有两名士兵（一个是混蛋二等兵，另一个是我们新来的菜鸟上尉）头部中枪却活了下来。那个二等兵的头盔底板被一颗AK-74步枪的跳弹击中，他被打倒在地，但并无大碍。
The captain decided to stand up in a marijuana field. My buddy McCafferty told him he shouldn't do that, and that we had been ambushed a few times there and, by that time, those of us who had been there since shipping out, could feel an ambush coming. He, being a cherry, egotistical, douchey captain couldn't feel that, and would NOT take recommendations from an enlisted man. Captain turd burglar stands up. Captain turd burglar quickly falls back down. We all look at him with the “What-the-fuck!” look and notice this strip of torn up kevlar rounding his helmet. Our helmets are made to change the trajectory of bullets if hit right. Lucky fucks.
那位上尉非要在一片大麻地里站起来。我的兄弟麦卡弗蒂劝他别这么做，说我们之前在那里遭遇过几次伏击，而且我们这些从出发就待在这里的人，已经能察觉到伏击即将发生的迹象。可他作为一个菜鸟、自负又混蛋的上尉，根本察觉不到，还拒绝接受士兵的建议。这个混蛋上尉一站起来，就立刻倒了下去。我们都用“搞什么鬼！”的眼神看着他，然后发现他头盔周围的凯夫拉材料被撕开了一道口子。我们的头盔设计初衷就是，如果被子弹正面击中，能改变子弹的飞行轨迹，真是幸运的家伙们。
罗兰·巴尔特茨科 前德国陆军、克罗地亚国防委员会、科索沃解放军成员
No paranormal activities, if this is what the question was about, but there were a few “how did this guy come out alive of this?” moments.
I remember a day when our enemy (the Serbs) attacked us with a number of tanks and armored personnel carriers. A friend of mine was with his squad on top of a hill where we had some defensive positions. They had a heavy machine gun there and when the enemy infantry approached, they opened fire.
如果问题是关于超自然现象，那我没有目睹过，但确实有过几次“这家伙怎么能活下来？”的时刻。
我记得有一天，我们的敌人（塞尔维亚人）用多辆坦克和装甲运兵车袭击了我们。我的一个朋友和他的小队驻守在一座小山顶上，我们在那里设有防御阵地，他们架着一挺重机枪，当敌方步兵逼近时，他们开火了。
A 12.7mm (0.50 cal.) “DShK” heavy machine gun, the type that we used in Kosovo.
我们在科索沃使用的是12.7毫米（0.50口径）的“德什卡”重机枪。
I was watching the whole thing from a safe distance, about 500 meters to their left.
It didn't take long for the Serbs to figure out from where they got shot at. In less than two minutes, they directed all their artillery fire on that little hill. They were always very good at that, especially in Kosovo.
我在他们左侧约500米的安全距离外目睹了全过程。
塞尔维亚人没多久就查清了枪声的来源，不到两分钟，他们就将所有炮火都对准了那座小山。他们在这方面向来很擅长，尤其是在科索沃。
A moment later, two tanks came out of the forest and started shooting directly at the place where my friend was standing behind the machine gun. I could see the explosions of the tank shells.
I was sure that all of our people on that hill were either dead or badly wounded. They hadn’t had enough time to retreat and now it was too late.
The fighting continued for another hour before it ebbed down and I walked back to our base. Of course, the group from the hill wasn’t there. While everyone else slowly returned from their fighting positions, these guys were still missing.
片刻之后，两辆坦克驶出森林，开始直接向我朋友所在的机枪阵地射击，我能看到坦克炮弹爆炸的火光。
我确信山顶上的战友们要么牺牲，要么受了重伤，他们根本没时间撤退，现在一切都太晚了。
战斗又持续了一个小时才逐渐平息，我走回基地时，山顶的那支小队果然不在。其他人都陆续从战斗阵地返回，只有他们还下落不明。
Just before nightfall, they finally arrived. My buddy told me what had happened: when they came under fire. They had just laid flat down on the bottom of the trench and waited. Luckily for them, the trench we had built there was quite solid. Nobody got killed or wounded, not even a scratch!
Unfortunately, they had to leave the heavy machine gun behind. We later sent a team out to get it but they ran straight into an enemy position where one of them got wounded.
Still, it could have been much worse. For me, it was a small miracle.
就在黄昏时分，他们终于回来了。我的兄弟跟我讲了当时的情况：遭到炮击时，他们只是平躺在战壕底部等待。幸运的是，我们在那里挖的战壕非常坚固，没有人伤亡，甚至连一点擦伤都没有！
遗憾的是，他们不得不丢弃那挺重机枪。后来我们派了一支小队去取回机枪，却直接闯入了敌方阵地，其中一人受了伤。
尽管如此，情况本可能会糟糕得多，对我来说，这简直是一个小小的奇迹。
Adrian Tom Lowndes Former Scout Platoon Leader, Company Executive Officer at U.S. Army (1989–1992)
阿德里安·汤姆·朗兹 前美国陆军侦察排排长、连执行官（1989–1992年任职）
As I grabbed the commander’s override joystick of the M3 Bradley’s turret, I looked through the optics and aimed the cross-hairs of the sight on the forehead of the Bedouin. He looked like an Arab version of Gandalf and he shook his staff in our direction. Just then, as if by magic, all hell broke loose.
当我握住M3“布拉德利”步兵战车炮塔的指挥官超越控制操纵杆时，透过光学瞄准镜，我将十字准星对准了那个贝都因人的额头。他看起来就像阿拉伯版的甘道夫，还朝我们的方向挥舞着手中的权杖，就在那时，仿佛被施了魔法一般，一切都陷入了混乱。
Thirty minutes earlier my Commander told me that we needed to patrol to a specific point on the map North of our position in the desert every four hours. He couldn’t tell me why, but I asked if we would have any enemy contact. He said “possibly - be alx.” Back then, my armored cavalry platoon had six Bradleys, each with a 25 mm cannon mounted on a turret, and three M1 Abrams tanks each with a 120 mm main gun. So, I broke the platoon down into sets of twos; each vehicle having a wing-man with the M1s composing three in their patrol. As the platoon leader, I thought it only right that I head the first patrol. My platoon sergeant decided to take his M3 and go as my wing-man to “keep eyes-on, sir.” I think he meant to keep an eye on me, so I didn’t do anything stupid.
三十分钟前，指挥官告诉我，我们需要每四小时前往沙漠中我方阵地以北地图上的一个特定地点巡逻。他没有说明原因，但我问他是否可能遭遇敌人，他说“有可能——保持警惕”。当时，我的装甲骑兵排有六辆“布拉德利”步兵战车，每辆炮塔上都装有一门25毫米加农炮，还有三辆M1“艾布拉姆斯”主战坦克，每辆配备一门120毫米主炮。于是我将排分成两组，每辆车都有一辆僚车，M1坦克则组成三人巡逻队。作为排长，我认为由我带领第一次巡逻是理所当然的。我的排士官决定驾驶他的M3战车作为我的僚车随行，说要“密切关注情况，长官”，我觉得他其实是想盯着我，防止我做出什么蠢事。
I climbed into the hatch, stood on the seat, looked at the map and plotted the coordinates in the GPS. It was a hot day without a cloud in the sky, and a cool breeze rolled in every now and then. The weather, coupled with a mission, and the prospect of some action got everyone in high (albeit nervous) spirits.
我爬进舱门，站在座位上查看地图，并将坐标输入全球定位系统。那天天气炎热，万里无云，时不时会吹来一阵凉风。宜人的天气、即将执行的任务以及可能发生的行动，让所有人都情绪高涨（尽管也有些紧张）。
“White One, we are Redcon 1 and ready to roll, over,” reported my Platoon Sergeant. I keyed the mic in my CVC helmet to report to my commander, “Roger that….Bulldog six we are Oscar Mike!”
I had my driver pull slowly out of the marshaling area and once clear, told him to ‘punch it!’
“白一，我们已进入一级战备状态，准备出发，完毕。”排士官报告道。我按下战车乘员头盔内置麦克风的按键，向指挥官汇报：“收到……斗牛犬六号，我们正在移动！”
我让司机慢慢驶出集结区，一旦脱离区域，就告诉他“全速前进！”
We were moving rapidly across the sand and it felt good to be moving. The terrain was completely flat without berms, and the weather was so nice that it made traveling to the patrol point enjoyable. My ‘wing-man’ stayed off to my right flank and just to the rear of my track and we moved in an echelon formation. After twenty minutes or so, just shy of the GPS coordinates of the final way-point of the mission, I saw a man and a small tent just off to the left of the patrol. I issued a fire command to my gunner, just to make sure he was still awake, especially since the gun was pointed over the right side of the vehicle.
我们在沙地上快速行驶，移动的感觉很好。地形平坦无任何护堤，天气又格外宜人，让前往巡逻点的路程都变得愉快起来。我的僚车保持在我的右侧翼后方，我们以梯队队形前进。大约二十分钟后，就在接近任务最终导航点的全球定位系统坐标时，我看到巡逻队左侧不远处有一个男人和一顶小帐篷。我向炮手下达了射击指令，只是为了确认他没有睡着，尤其是当时火炮正指向车辆的右侧。
The man kind of looked like this only his staff was much larger and gnarly:
那个男人长得大概就是这样，只是他的权杖更大、更粗糙扭曲：
“Gunner, sabot, Bedouin, twelve-hundred meters!” My driver laughed as he probably had never heard a fire command against a Bedouin before. “Cannot identify” said the gunner, meaning he couldn’t see the target. I grabbed the commander’s override joystick and slewed the turret around to line up the end of the gun tube with the Bedouin standing in the desert. How this lone man came to be in the middle of the desert is anyone’s guess.
“炮手，装穿甲弹，目标贝都因人，距离一千二百米！”司机笑了起来，他可能从未听过针对贝都因人的射击指令。“无法识别目标”，炮手说道，意思是他看不到目标。我再次握住指挥官超越控制操纵杆，转动炮塔，让炮管对准那个站在沙漠中的贝都因人。没人知道这个孤独的男人为何会出现在沙漠中央。
“Identified” said the gunner, now finally seeing the man standing there. I looked through the optics and aimed the cross-hairs of the sight right on the forehead of the Bedouin. The man looked right at me. It was if he was looking down the barrel of the gun right into my soul and for a minute it seemed almost as if time stopped. He had a large staff or walking stick in his hand that bent at the top and a long flowing beard and his hair was covered in a turban. He began moving his lips and banging his staff into the sand and then picked it up and started shaking it towards us.
“已识别目标”，炮手终于看到了那个站在那里的男人。我透过光学瞄准镜，将十字准星精准对准他的额头，而他也直视着我，仿佛正顺着炮管看穿我的灵魂，那一刻，时间仿佛都静止了。他手中握着一根顶部弯曲的巨大权杖或手杖，留着飘逸的长胡子，头上裹着头巾。他开始动了动嘴唇，将权杖重重地敲在沙地上，然后拿起权杖朝我们挥舞起来。
Just then, the engine stopped, and I lost all power to the Bradley. A yellow warning light came on, a loud alarm sounded, I felt a blast directly into my face, and then I was blinded and unable to see. This terrible smell was all around me and I knew we were in trouble, so I jumped out of the hatch. I reached in with my hands to pull my crew out of the Bradley and started to regain my vision.
就在那时，引擎突然熄火，“布拉德利”步兵战车彻底断电。黄色警示灯亮起，刺耳的警报声响起，我感觉一股气流直接冲向我的脸，随后视线模糊，什么也看不见了。周围弥漫着一股难闻的气味，我知道我们遇到了麻烦，于是立刻跳出舱门，伸手将乘员们从战车里拉出来，这时我的视力才慢慢恢复。
We all jumped to the ground and I looked over at my platoon sergeant’s vehicle. They had also exited their Bradley, but flames were darting out of the open hatch in the turret. They ran over to us while we watched in dismay as the vehicle slowly was encompassed by flames. We decided to get a good distance from both vehicles.
我们都跳到了地上，我看向排士官的战车，他们也已经撤离，但炮塔的敞开舱门里喷出了火焰。他们朝我们跑来，而我们沮丧地看着战车慢慢被火焰吞噬，于是决定远离这两辆车。
Looking around and seeing no enemy or any kind of life at all for miles around, I asked my gunner “What happened?”
He replied “Halon fire suppression went off, sir.”
环顾四周，数英里内看不到任何敌人或生命迹象，我问炮手：“发生了什么事？”
他回答：“长官，哈龙灭火系统启动了。”
We discovered that the Halon system had gone off on our Bradley. The Halon system is designed to keep the track from burning in the event of a fire. The computer must have thought that we were on fire even though there wasn’t any trace of one. Glitch? Maybe. But why wasn’t I or any of my crew disfigured or permanently blinded by the halon?
我们发现我们的“布拉德利”步兵战车上的哈龙灭火系统启动了，该系统旨在发生火灾时防止战车燃烧。显然，计算机误以为车辆着火了，尽管根本没有任何火灾痕迹。是系统故障吗？也许吧。但为什么我和乘员们都没有被哈龙造成毁容或永久性失明呢？
“What happened to you?” I asked my platoon sergeant. “How did you catch fire and why didn’t your halons go off?”
“No idea, sir. I was looking through the optics at a Bedouin and saw him shake his stick at us. Then the engine just stopped. We lost all power then we saw smoke and I ordered everyone out of the Bradley. The halons never went off. I know for a fact that both these Bradleys have just had a full inspection and have no deadlines.”
“你们那边怎么了？”我问排士官，“战车怎么着火了，而且哈龙灭火系统为什么没启动？”
“不知道，长官。我当时正透过光学瞄准镜看着一个贝都因人，看到他朝我们挥舞手杖，然后引擎就突然熄火了，车辆完全断电，接着我们就看到了烟雾，我立刻下令所有人撤离战车。哈龙灭火系统一直没启动，而且我可以肯定，这两辆‘布拉德利’步兵战车刚经过全面检查，没有任何故障问题。”
So, we had one M3 with a halon deployment and no fire and another M3 with fire and no halon deployment – at the same time an Arab Gandalf shook his staff at us.
就这样，我们的一辆M3步兵战车启动了哈龙灭火系统却没有火灾，另一辆发生火灾却未启动哈龙灭火系统，而与此同时，那个阿拉伯版的甘道夫正在朝我们挥舞手杖。
After a few minutes, the flames in the other Bradley just stopped. Strangely, none of the ordnance inside the M3 ever went off. I jumped back on top of the turret of my M3 and everything looked fine – even electrical power had been restored. I climbed back down into the hatch and grabbed the radio to call HQ for an engineer vehicle to recover my platoon sergeant’s Bradley. I then looked down into the sight and saw nothing but sand. The Bedouin with his staff and tent were gone.
几分钟后，另一辆“布拉德利”步兵战车上的火焰突然熄灭了。奇怪的是，战车内的所有弹药都没有爆炸。我跳回自己的M3步兵战车的炮塔顶部，发现一切看起来都很正常，电力甚至已经恢复了。我爬进舱门，拿起无线电向总部请求派工程车来回收排士官的战车，然后再次看向瞄准镜，里面却只剩下一片沙地，那个手持权杖的贝都因人和他的帐篷都消失得无影无踪了。
I know it just wasn’t me that saw him as my Platoon Sergeant had also said that they too had put the gun tube toward the man standing in the sand.
To this day, I have no explanation as to what caused the events of that day.
我知道不止我一个人看到了他，因为排士官也说，他们当时也将炮管对准了那个站在沙地上的男人。
直到今天，我仍然无法解释那天发生的一切。
Dan Eismann
Former Vietnam door gunner
我曾是越南战场上休伊武装直升机的机组 chief/舱门机枪手。
One day we were flying over a rice paddy that was ready for harvest. It was similar to a wheat field ready for harvest. On top of the paddy dike were bushes and small trees. We were flying about four feet in the air parallel to and about twenty yards from the paddy dike at one side of the rice paddy trying to draw fire. An enemy soldier was lying down in the rice, and he shot up through the bottom of the helicopter between the pilots and where the door gunner and I sat. It created a hole in the floor that was about three inches long running laterally. When we returned to base, I removed the section of flooring containing the hole and was amazed at what I saw. There was a corresponding lateral hole in the bottom skin of the helicopter, and bisecting those two holes was an inch-wide, aluminum push/pull tube that ran under the floor from the pilots’ cyclic levers to the hydraulic lever behind the back wall which controlled the lateral movement of the main rotor. Had the tube been severed, the pilot would have lost lateral control of the main rotor while we were flying at 80 to 90 knots four feet in the air. The tube was undamaged.
有一天，我们飞过一片即将收割的稻田，它和即将收割的麦田很相似。田埂上长满了灌木和小树，我们在离稻田一侧田埂约20码的地方，贴着地面约4英尺高平行飞行，试图引诱敌人开火。一名敌军士兵躺在稻田里，从飞行员和我与舱门机枪手座位之间的直升机底部向上射击，在地板上留下了一个约3英寸长的横向弹孔。回到基地后，我拆下了带有弹孔的地板部分，结果看到了令人震惊的一幕：直升机底部蒙皮上有一个对应的横向弹孔，而一根1英寸粗的铝制推拉管从这两个弹孔中间穿过，它从飞行员的周期变距杆延伸到后墙后方的液压杆，负责控制主旋翼的横向运动。要是这根管子被打断，当时以80到90节速度在4英尺高空飞行的我们，飞行员就会失去对主旋翼的横向控制，好在管子完好无损。
John Cibula Software Developer and Former Marine
约翰·西布拉 软件开发者、前海军陆战队成员
I have four that come to mind. None are that unbelievable but do make you go “huh?”. All from Helmand Province, Afghanistan.
我想到了四件事，它们算不上特别离奇，但确实会让人疑惑的说“哈？”，全都发生在阿富汗的赫尔曼德省。
1) My squad is in a poppy field and we are taking fire. Nothing too bad this time, a few pot shots from a roof but we are in an open field so we hit the deck and return some fire. We’re laying there assessing the situation and a barefoot kid, about 4 years old, walks through our line to get some water from the river. Doesn’t give a shit we are there and we are currently engaged, albeit it was during a lull. We never walked anywhere without mine sweeping first because of the amount of IED’s. This kid was so used to it and strolled through our ranks because he needed water.
1）我们小队在一片罂粟地里遭到了枪击，这次情况不算太糟，只是有人从屋顶零星射击。但我们身处开阔地，只好卧倒还击。我们躺在地上评估局势时，一个约4岁的光脚小孩穿过我们的防线，走向河边喝水。他完全不在乎我们的存在，也不管我们正在交火——尽管当时处于短暂停火期。因为简易爆炸装置数量众多，我们无论去哪都要先扫雷，可这个孩子对此早已习以为常，只是因为需要喝水，就从容地从我们队伍中穿了过去。
2) We took this photographer on a patrol with us. His first ever combat patrol. We hit a tree line that was mined to shit. There was a dead dog that triggered a mine and our engineer got like 4 hits. I’ve been there for awhile and knew this was a bad situation. I had that dread feeling in my stomach. The photographer was behind me. We were walking in a single file line because that’s what you do there because of the mines. Well sure enough I hear a small explosion, turn around and see our new photographer fall to the ground. We work our way to him assuming he’s hurt. Turns out he’s completely fine. We knew there had to be a malfunction because the explosion was tiny and we were right. The main charge didn’t explode. He went unconscious because of shock(he fainted). We returned and he decided not to go on any more patrols.
2）我们带了一位摄影师一起巡逻，这是他第一次参加战斗巡逻。我们遇到了一片布满地雷的树林带，之前有一只死狗触发了地雷，我们的工兵被炸中了大约4次。我在那里待了一段时间，知道情况不妙，心里有种不祥的预感。摄影师跟在我身后，由于地雷隐患，我们只能排成一列纵队行进。果然，我听到一声小小的爆炸声，回头就看到这位新来的摄影师倒在了地上。我们赶紧上前，以为他受伤了，结果发现他毫发无损。爆炸声音很小，我们断定是地雷出了故障，事实也确实如此，主炸药没有引爆。他只是因为受惊而失去了意识（也就是晕倒了）。我们返回基地后，他决定再也不参加巡逻了。
3) A guy was in a truck and accidentally shot off his grenade launcher. It bounced off the interior walls and between a few of the other guys in the truck and then landed on the ground. Luckily the round has to travel 25 meters to arm before it will explode. Phew.
3）有个人在卡车里不小心触发了榴弹发射器，榴弹在卡车内壁弹了几下，又在其他几个人中间弹过，最后落到了地上。幸运的是，这种榴弹需要飞行25米才能解除保险并引爆，真是虚惊一场。
4) I didn’t see this last one but it happened to a guy in my Company. He was on a roof providing overwatch and an AK opened up. It hit him directly in the head(wearing a helmet). He collapsed and was dragged off the roof. He woke up about 5 minutes later and walked to the helicopter. They dug the bullet out of his head in surgery. I hear he sometimes gets headaches still.
4）最后这件事我没亲眼看到，但发生在我们连的一个人身上。他当时在屋顶担任警戒，突然有人用AK步枪开火，子弹直接击中了他的头部（他戴着头盔）。他倒了下去，被人从屋顶拖了下来。大约5分钟后他醒了过来，自己走到了直升机旁。医生在手术中从他头上取出了子弹，我听说他现在有时还会头痛。
Paul Kandarian Atheist combat veteran, psych major, and cat owner
保罗·坎达里安 无神论者、战斗老兵、心理学专业学生、猫主人
I've posted this picture before but this is one of two instances were an RPG should've gone boom but didnt.
我之前发过这张照片，这是两起RPG本该爆炸却没爆炸的事件之一。
In another AO there was a soldier who was killed by an RPG. And not in the traditional sense. The RPG round hit the soldier in the chest, ripped through the plate, and killed him by sheer force not explosions. I (thankfully) don't have a picture of that incident.
在另一个作战区域，有一名士兵被RPG击中身亡，但并非传统意义上的爆炸致死。RPG弹药击中了他的胸口，穿透了防弹板，仅凭冲击力就夺走了他的生命，而非爆炸威力。幸运的是，我没有那起事件的照片。
Or having two soldiers (this douche twizzler fellow private and our new, cherry ass captain) get shot in the helmet and survive. The private caught a ricochet of an AK-74 round in the base plate. Knocked him down, but was ok.
还有两名士兵（一个是混蛋二等兵，另一个是我们新来的菜鸟上尉）头部中枪却活了下来。那个二等兵的头盔底板被一颗AK-74步枪的跳弹击中，他被打倒在地，但并无大碍。
The captain decided to stand up in a marijuana field. My buddy McCafferty told him he shouldn't do that, and that we had been ambushed a few times there and, by that time, those of us who had been there since shipping out, could feel an ambush coming. He, being a cherry, egotistical, douchey captain couldn't feel that, and would NOT take recommendations from an enlisted man. Captain turd burglar stands up. Captain turd burglar quickly falls back down. We all look at him with the “What-the-fuck!” look and notice this strip of torn up kevlar rounding his helmet. Our helmets are made to change the trajectory of bullets if hit right. Lucky fucks.
那位上尉非要在一片大麻地里站起来。我的兄弟麦卡弗蒂劝他别这么做，说我们之前在那里遭遇过几次伏击，而且我们这些从出发就待在这里的人，已经能察觉到伏击即将发生的迹象。可他作为一个菜鸟、自负又混蛋的上尉，根本察觉不到，还拒绝接受士兵的建议。这个混蛋上尉一站起来，就立刻倒了下去。我们都用“搞什么鬼！”的眼神看着他，然后发现他头盔周围的凯夫拉材料被撕开了一道口子。我们的头盔设计初衷就是，如果被子弹正面击中，能改变子弹的飞行轨迹，真是幸运的家伙们。
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