美国国家公共电台 NPR After Combat, A Veteran Finds Solace In Sheep Farming

 

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

It's time now for StoryCorps. Mickey Willenbring has always been a fighter. She grew up being shuffled¹ between the foster care system and family on Indian reservations in the upper Midwest. When she was 20, she joined the Army. But her biggest fight was not on the battlefield. She came to StoryCorps to remember.

MICKEY WILLENBRING: I enlisted² as a 62 Bravo (ph), which is a construction equipment mechanic. And I was one of the first women out of my entire battalion³ to get crew-served weapons certified⁴. In other words, I got really big frickin guns and fully⁵ automatic grenade launchers. I've been deployed⁶ multiple times. The big one was to Iraq. We were actually part of the initial force to go in, and I can't even describe the chaos⁷. There were tanks still smoldering⁸ on the road that we had to move in order for our convoys⁹ to come through. We had just gotten through, like, the worst part of that.

And all of a sudden, I see this herdsman walking his dang sheep along the road. And I was just like, damn, son; it don't matter what's smouldering or who's in charge or who's not in charge; the animals still need to be fed. It was the end of the deployment¹⁰, and my luck ran out. I ended up severely¹¹ injured. I got medevaced out. And I had PTSD so badly that I could not deal with living in a city anymore. So I started looking for a piece of land to farm. For me, I had to find my own way to heal. And that was the sheep. The animals help. The animals insulate. I can tell my own mood, where I'm going, if I'm getting too dark or if I'm going too south by how the sheep react to me. And I can walk myself back from the cliff.

There's a Navajo saying. It's dine be iina, and it means sheep is life. The sheep are your children, your mother, your grandmother. They are your charges, but they also take care of you. When you're in combat, danger could come at any particular moment from any direction. With farming, it does have a lot of drama. But it's also something that is about creation - about life over death rather than death over life.

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MARTIN: That was Mickey Willenbring. She has owned and operated the Dot Ranch¹² sheep farm in Oregon for more than eight years. She says she hasn't had a major PTSD episode since she started the farm. Her interview will be archived along with hundreds of thousands of others at the Library of Congress.

1 shuffled   

v.洗（纸牌）( shuffle的过去式和过去分词 )；拖着脚步走；粗心地做；摆脱尘世的烦恼

参考例句：

• He shuffled across the room to the window. 他拖着脚走到房间那头的窗户跟前。
• Simon shuffled awkwardly towards them. 西蒙笨拙地拖着脚朝他们走去。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 enlisted   

adj.应募入伍的v.（使）入伍， （使）参军( enlist的过去式和过去分词 )；获得（帮助或支持）

参考例句：

• enlisted men and women 男兵和女兵
• He enlisted with the air force to fight against the enemy. 他应募加入空军对敌作战。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

3 battalion   

n.营；部队；大队(的人)

参考例句：

• The town was garrisoned by a battalion.该镇由一营士兵驻守。
• At the end of the drill parade,the battalion fell out.操练之后，队伍解散了。

4 certified   

a.经证明合格的；具有证明文件的

参考例句：

• Doctors certified him as insane. 医生证明他精神失常。
• The planes were certified airworthy. 飞机被证明适于航行。

5 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

6 deployed   

（尤指军事行动）使展开( deploy的过去式和过去分词 )； 施展； 部署； 有效地利用

参考例句：

• Tanks have been deployed all along the front line. 沿整个前线已部署了坦克。
• The artillery was deployed to bear on the fort. 火炮是对着那个碉堡部署的。

7 chaos   

n.混乱，无秩序

参考例句：

• After the failure of electricity supply the city was in chaos.停电后，城市一片混乱。
• The typhoon left chaos behind it.台风后一片混乱。

8 smoldering   

v.用文火焖烧，熏烧，慢燃( smolder的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The mat was smoldering where the burning log had fallen. 燃烧的木棒落下的地方垫子慢慢燃烧起来。 来自辞典例句
• The wood was smoldering in the fireplace. 木柴在壁炉中闷烧。 来自辞典例句

9 convoys   

n.（有护航的）船队( convoy的名词复数 )；车队；护航（队）；护送队

参考例句：

• Truck convoys often stop over for lunch here. 车队经常在这里停下来吃午饭。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• A UN official said aid programs will be suspended until there's adequate protection for relief convoys. 一名联合国官员说将会暂停援助项目，直到援助车队能够得到充分的保护为止。 来自辞典例句

10 deployment   

n. 部署,展开

参考例句：

• He has inquired out the deployment of the enemy troops. 他已查出敌军的兵力部署情况。
• Quality function deployment (QFD) is a widely used customer-driven quality, design and manufacturing management tool. 质量功能展开(quality function deployment,QFD)是一个广泛应用的顾客需求驱动的设计、制造和质量管理工具。

11 severely   

adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地

参考例句：

• He was severely criticized and removed from his post.他受到了严厉的批评并且被撤了职。
• He is severely put down for his careless work.他因工作上的粗心大意而受到了严厉的批评。

12 ranch   

n.大牧场，大农场

参考例句：

• He went to work on a ranch.他去一个大农场干活。
• The ranch is in the middle of a large plateau.该牧场位于一个辽阔高原的中部。