《Walk in my combat boots》這本書是驚悚小說作家James Patterson 和另外一位作家Matt Eversmann 合著的一本書，蒐集的是美軍在海內外發生的個人小故事。這絕對不是James Patterson 的寫作風格，感覺比較是利用他的名聲，來宣揚美國的愛國主義。
美國入侵阿富汗，花了很多錢，也死了很多人。但是在二十年之後撤軍，留下一個爛攤子，最後還是落回到塔利班的手裏去「收拾」，那是和美國價值觀不同的團體，也是當時出兵的重要原因，然後呢？
我選擇了書中的一則故事跟大家分享，一位菲裔美籍美軍在阿富汗作戰受重傷的經過。
『阿富汗人給我們的質疑都是：你們會長期在這𥚃嗎？這兒可是阿富汗，戰爭是日常，我們一直生活在戰鬥之中。』
美國人到全世界作戰，它的士兵認為自己知道為何而戰，但是美國國內的人和當地美國認為是為他們而戰的人們呢？
舉其犖犖大者，從國共戰爭、越戰到阿富汗戰爭，美國人都為當事國留下很深的傷痕。面對台海的局勢，如果我們還完全寄望於美國，從歷史的教訓來看，那就有欠考量了啊！
畢竟，美國人只在意他們自己的利益啊！美軍在異國流下的每一滴血，縱使包裹在捍衛民主自由的外衣之下，骨子裡不是為了別人，而是為了自己。
JEDDAH DELORIA
Jeddah Deloria was born in the Philippines. When he was three months old, he immigrated with his parents to Southern California. As he was pursuing a nursing degree at a community college, his older brother urged him to join the Army. Jeddah went to the recruiter’s office at the mall and joined that day. He was a sergeant and his MOS was 11 Bravo. He served with an airborne infantry unit. Before dawn on August 22, 2007, nearly eighty Taliban tried to overrun the forward operating base called Ranch House, in Nuristan Province, Afghanistan. On December 20, 2007, while Jeddah was recovering at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, President George W. Bush presented him with the Purple Heart.
Jeddah Deloria在3個月大的時候，就跟父母移民到美國南加州。他在護士學校就讀的時候，他的哥哥鼓勵他參軍。
他在空降部隊服役，在2007年8月22日的拂曉時刻，80位塔立班的戰士攻擊了阿富汗Ranch House前端他防守的哨所，造成他的重傷。同一年的12月20日痊癒之後，小布希總統頒授了紫心勳章給他，以表彰他為國家的付出。
“…At five eight and 280 pounds, I’m definitely a chunker…I manage to drop the weight. I skirt through and go to basic, where I’m immediately put on the fat boy diet: cottage cheese and hard-boiled egg whites twice a day…When basic is over, I weigh 175. In less than a year, I’ve dropped a hundred pounds.”
我身高5呎8吋，體重高達280磅(127公斤)，讓我看看起來很大隻。我直接加入新兵訓練，並吃減肥餐：每日兩回，吃低熱量起司和熟蛋白。在新兵訓練之後，體重掉至175磅(79公斤)。
“Next stop : Airborne School. After that, I’ll be going to war.
In May of 2007, I fly out of Aviano, the air base in Italy, on a C-17 cargo plane going to Bagram, Afghanistan.”
空降學校畢業之後，在2007年5月，輾轉經義大利的美國空軍基地，搭乘C-17運輸機前往阿富汗一個叫做Bagram的戰場前線。
“We’re taken to a collection area where we wait for some other guys to show up. When they do, we’ll all fly together to Camp Blessing. From there, we’ll be flown north by helicopter to our final destination, Ranch House, which is about an hour away.”
我們在一個集合點等待，然後飛往Camp Blessing，再從那兒再搭直升機到一個小時之外的目的地Ranch House。
“Bagram is massive. The place has got actual street signs. I can’t see the wires, so I have no idea where the perimeters are. My battle buddy and I walk past a Dairy Queen. I see a billboard advertising Salsa Night at the base. Salsa Night?”
Bagram這個地方很大，甚至還有街道的標示。我沒有看到鐵絲網，所以不知道這個區域到底有多大。我和戰友走經過Dairy Queen，看到告示牌上居然貼著基地內的Salsa Night 的廣告。
“There’s a busy shopping area on Main Street. You can get your hair cut and you can buy books, magazines, and Cuban cigars. I pass by souvenir shops selling jewelry. There’s a place where you can buy Harley-Davidson bikes and other luxury vehicles and have them delivered back home. The base even has a food hall that’s open twenty-four hours. It has Burger King, Popeyes, Pizza Hut, and more, and it’s all right here in the middle of Afghanistan.”
在基地裡，主要的道路上是人來人往的購物區，你可以剪頭髮，也可以去買到書籍、雜誌、古巴雪茄。紀念品店裏賣著珠寶。有個店家你居然可以下單買到哈雷機車或其他奢侈的高檔車，並指定送貨到美國國內。基地甚至有一個24小時開放賣吃的大廳，裏面有漢堡王、大力水手炸雞、必勝客等等有名的店，而這些居然就都在阿富汗國境之中。
“Ranch House is a remote outpost located in the Hindu Kush mountains in Afghanistan’s Nuristan Province. The building looks like something from a Western -small, the front half made of wood, its backside built into the mountain. The ground is rock and smaller rocks. No dirt. I have no idea how trees can grow out here, but they do.”
Ranch House 是一個偏遠的據點，在阿富汗Nuristan省的印度喀什山脈。建築物有點西化，蠻小的，屋面有一半是木造的，屋背則深入到山的斜坡裏面。地板是岩石，或小岩塊。我不理解為什麼那樣的地方，還可以長得出樹來。
“It’s our job to persuade everyone we encounter, using our interpreters, to not support the Taliban and to help us. We promise to give them safety. Their question to us is always the same: Are you guys going to be here for the long haul? This is Afghanistan. War is constant, and people are constantly at war.”
透過翻譯，我們的任務之一是說服每個我們碰到的人，要支持我們不要幫助塔利班。我們承諾會保護他們的安全。阿富汗人給我們的質疑都是：你們會長期在這𥚃嗎？這兒可是阿富汗，戰爭是日常，我們一直生活在戰鬥之中。
“ASG, the Afghan Security Group, is a local security milia.
“This is getting bad,” they tell us. “All the intel were geling says there’s a huge Taliban crew coming this way, and theyte going to attack.”
…ANA, the Afghan National Army…
One day on a patrol, the ASG commander says to me, “Look, our guys want to leave. I want to leave, too. I want to get my family out of here.”
He’s made it crystal clear he’s not going to fight for this village…
The next day, half of the ASG is gone. The guys who have stayed behind are from the village–and the worst of their fighters.
That leaves us with the ANA. The problem is, those guys aren’t from this area. They don’t give a fuck about the village at all…”
ASG (the Afghan Security Group)是阿富汗地方自衛隊；ANA(the Afghan National Army)則是阿富汗國防軍。
當塔利班要來進攻的前夕，泰半非當地人組成的阿富汗地方自衛隊成員及家屬，都先撤走了，而阿富汗國防軍的成員也不是來自該區域，他們根本無心於保護那個區域。
“I spot a couple of Taliban guys about fifty feet away- half the length of a football field. I hold down the trigger of the 240 and let it rock. The great thing about the 240 is that you don’t need to be super accurate; all you have to do is keep the shooting tight and you’ll hit them with a wall of lead, keep them pinned down.
I’m shifting the gun to my right, laughing and yelling at them, firing and thinking I’m going to kill them all, I’m going to-
The next thing I know I’m on my back and somehow the roof of the guard shack has collapsed and, instead of crushing me to death, is now hovering eight inches above my face.”
我發現有幾個塔利班的戰士，出現在約莫是足球半埸的50呎外的距離，我扣下240機槍的板機開始掃射。240機槍的優點就是不必太費心瞄準，持續射擊所形成的彈牆，將有效壓制對方。我把機槍往右挪，一邊大笑一邊咆嘯他們，心想應該可以把他們全部都消滅掉。
接下來我突然發現自己躺在地上，掩體崩塌了，所幸沒有壓死我，懸在我臉上方8吋的地方搖搖欲墜。
“I can’t hear, but I can move my hands and feet. I look down at my right hand, and in the early morning light I can see it’s torn to shit. I can see the white meat when I move my fingers. Oh, shit. This is not good. I see white meat on either side of my right arm. This is not what I thought was going to happen. I wiggle a little bit and manage to catch a peek at what happened to the guard shack.”
我失去了聽力，但我的手和腳都還可以動。在晨光中，我看到我的右手撕裂得好嚴重。當我試著動動手指，我看得見皮下露出白白的脂肪。在左臂膀，我也看到裂開的脂肪。我動了一下身體，好查看掩體損毀的狀況。
“I touch the places where I’ve been shot. They’re wet. My hands come back covered in blood. It triggers a memory of something my squad leader once told me: If you get shot in the arm, you have another arm. If you get shot in the leg, you’ve got another leg. Don’t stop because you’re hurt, because the enemy is not going to stop until you’re dead.”
我被射中的地方用手摸起來溼溼的，而手舉起來上面沾滿了紅色的血。我想到小隊長曾經有一次告戒過我：當你的手中了槍，你要告訴自己還有另外一隻手；如果你的腿中了槍，你要告訴自己還有另外一條腿。你不可以因為受傷就停下來，因為敵人會不斷繼續攻擊直到把你打為止。
“I’m dozing off when I hear helicopters.
Thats good. Helicopters fly in to help people who are alive pilots are here to pick up the casualties. I move to the edge of the shack and sit there, watching a Black Hawk hovering a little bit out. I try to wave at it, try to say something. I try to wave the guys down.
Nothing happens.
Sometime later, I see people moving, coming up from bottom…I check my watch. Three hours have passed since I was attacked. I see Staff Sergeant Phillips, our mortar platoon sergeant,…”
我一度昏厥過去，然後我聽到了直昇機的聲音，我想這下有救了，直昇機應該是前來搭載傷兵的。我挪到掩體的邊上，然後看到一架黑鷹直升機，飛得有點遠，我拼命搖手，但是直昇機沒有理我。
後來我發現有人從山下上來，原來是機動排的士官長，…..
“I get bandaged up by one of the brigade medics and put on a bird. I’m able to sit in one of the jump seats. There are people lying at my feet. I stare at them, trying to take in everything that happened, while we fly to Asadabad. It’s hot as fuck when we arrive. I’m starting to feel pain.
They start cutting my clothes off. I’m buck naked, being carried on a litter through the desert sun. Next thing I know I’ve got four or five doctors working on me. They’re all talking, asking me questions.
One guy says, “This is going to sting.”
I’m given a catheter. It’s the most painful thing I’ve felt that day.
One doctor works on my arm, one on my shoulder, one on my leg, and the fourth is carefully at work removing debris and chunks of metal from my head.
I black out. When I wake up, I’m in Germany.”
醫護兵幫我包紥之後，讓我坐在小飛機的折疊椅上，在我腳邊躺著傷兵。飛往阿薩達巴德的途中，我環顧四周，試著打量到底都發生了什麼事情。阿薩達巴德，天啊，超級炎熱，而且我開始感到疼痛不堪。
他們開始剪開我的衣服，我赤身裸體，被用擔架抬在沙漠中艷烈的太陽下。接下來我記得的是共有四到五位醫生或護士在打理我的傷口。他們不斷交談，並且問著我話。
有位說，這會有點刺痛。
我裝了導尿管，是在那一天感到最痛楚的事。
其中有位醫生負責我的手臂，有位負責肩膀，有位負責我的腿，最後一位則小心翼翼地把我頭部的彈片和鐵塊夾出來。
後來，我昏死了過去，一覺醒來，發現自己已經到了德國。
“A doctor comes in and runs down a list of my injuries.
I have permanent blindness along the right side of my eye. Both of my eardrums were ruptured and had to be reconstructed. I have some shrapnel up and down the right side of my body. It’s not life threatening. My body, the doctor tells me, will eventually push the shrapnel to the surface, and then it can be surgically removed.
I’m told a six-millimeter fragment from an RPG is just chilling somewhere on the right side of my brain, right next to my motor movements–which explains why I’m having a hard time moving the left side of my body. I’m no longer in control of my body; it’s in control of me.”
有位醫生來告訴我受了哪些傷。
我的右眼全盲。左右兩邊的耳膜都破裂了，必須重建。我的右半邊身體的上上下下還有彈片在裏面，但那並不會致命，我的醫生告訴我，身體在新陳代謝的過程中會把它們推出到表面，那麼就可以用外科手術把它們取出來。
醫生告訴我，在我的右腦有一塊6釐米的火箭推進榴彈(RPG, Rocket-propelled grenade)碎片，令人不寒而慄，就在大腦的動作控制區旁，這也是為什麼我會感到那麼困難移動我左邊的身體了。我已經無法完全控制自己的身體，而是被那個碎片所控制了。
To get that control back, I’m going to fight like hell…
I want to go back to Afghanistan.
I’ve got to get back.
為了把那個控制感找回來，我必須拼死命的去努力…..
我想要回到阿富汗。
我必須把身體的控制權拿回來。
*：James Patterson & Matt Eversmann, “Walk in my combat boots,” 2021, Little, Brown and Company, Hachette Book Group
2023/8/29 Walk in my combat boots Damakey
