B1 · Intermediate
12 min
militarynaval historytravelgeopoliticsmental health
Nine Months and No Shore Leave
Cinco mil personas sin tierra a la vista
The USS Abraham Lincoln just finished nine months at sea during the Iran war, dogged by mental health crises and supply shortages before the USS George Washington arrived to relieve it. Fletcher and Octavio dig into what it actually means to live and travel inside a floating city of five thousand people.
El portaaviones USS Abraham Lincoln acaba de terminar nueve meses en el mar durante la guerra con Irán, con problemas de salud mental y escasez de suministros a bordo. Fletcher y Octavio hablan de lo que significa vivir y viajar en una ciudad flotante de cinco mil personas.
7 essential B1-level terms from this episode, with translations and example sentences in Spanish.
| Spanish | English | Example |
|---|---|---|
| portaaviones | aircraft carrier | El portaaviones tiene casi cinco mil personas a bordo. |
| despliegue | deployment | El despliegue duró nueve meses en el mar. |
| reemplazar | to replace, to relieve | El George Washington llegó para reemplazar al Lincoln. |
| suministros | supplies | Había escasez de suministros en el barco durante la guerra. |
| llevar + tiempo + gerundio | to have been doing something for a period of time | Llevo dos años estudiando español. |
| logística | logistics | La logística es más difícil durante una guerra. |
| vulnerable | vulnerable | Los portaaviones son muy grandes y vulnerables. |
Nine months.
I kept coming back to that number this week.
Nine months at sea, on a ship, during a war, and then somebody finally shows up to take your place.
Sí, es una historia muy interesante.
Yes, it's a very interesting story.
El portaaviones USS George Washington llegó al Oriente Medio esta semana para reemplazar al USS Abraham Lincoln.
The aircraft carrier USS George Washington arrived in the Middle East this week to replace the USS Abraham Lincoln.
El Lincoln estuvo nueve meses en el mar.
The Lincoln was at sea for nine months.
So the George Washington shows up and the Lincoln crew can finally go home.
But what came out alongside that news is what caught my attention: reports of serious mental health problems on the Lincoln, and supply shortages, all during this Iran war deployment.
Claro.
Right.
Un portaaviones como el Lincoln tiene casi cinco mil personas a bordo.
An aircraft carrier like the Lincoln has almost five thousand people on board.
Es una ciudad pequeña.
It's a small city.
Y estas personas vivieron en ese barco durante nueve meses sin poder salir.
And these people lived on that ship for nine months without being able to leave.
A small city that moves.
That's the part that gets me.
Because when we talk about travel, we usually mean going somewhere.
But these sailors were traveling constantly and arriving nowhere.
Es verdad.
That's true.
Y nueve meses es mucho tiempo.
And nine months is a long time.
Normalmente, un despliegue en un portaaviones dura seis o siete meses.
Normally, a deployment on an aircraft carrier lasts six or seven months.
Pero la guerra con Irán cambió todo.
But the war with Iran changed everything.
Right.
Standard deployment is around six to seven months, and they went well past that.
Which, if you're keeping score at home, means families waiting, contracts stretched, people stuck in a floating environment with no real break.
Fletcher, ¿tú sabes cómo es la vida en un portaaviones?
Fletcher, do you know what life on an aircraft carrier is actually like?
No es como un crucero turístico, claro.
It's not like a tourist cruise, obviously.
I've been on one, actually.
Years ago, I was embedded with a carrier group for a piece I was writing.
And the thing that hits you immediately is the noise.
The jets launching off the deck, the steam catapults.
It is extraordinarily loud, around the clock.
Sí, y las habitaciones son muy pequeñas.
Yes, and the rooms are very small.
Los marineros duermen en literas muy juntas.
Sailors sleep in bunks very close together.
No tienen privacidad.
They have no privacy.
Y trabajan muchas horas cada día.
And they work many hours every day.
The bunks are called racks.
Three high, stacked into every available corner.
Some crews call them coffin racks because of the dimensions.
You pull a curtain and that's your world for the night.
Y en estas condiciones, nueve meses es muy difícil para la salud mental.
And in these conditions, nine months is very hard on mental health.
Es normal que la gente tenga problemas.
It's normal for people to have problems.
Ansiedad, depresión, mucho estrés.
Anxiety, depression, a lot of stress.
And this isn't the first time we've seen this with a carrier.
The George Washington, the same ship that just arrived to relieve the Lincoln, had a cluster of suicides back in 2019 that prompted a serious congressional investigation.
Sí, eso fue muy serio.
Yes, that was very serious.
Creo que siete marineros murieron en un año.
I think seven sailors died in one year.
El Congreso investigó las condiciones del barco.
Congress investigated the conditions on the ship.
Era viejo, necesitaba muchas reparaciones, y los marineros vivían en condiciones muy malas.
It was old, it needed many repairs, and sailors were living in very bad conditions.
Seven deaths in seven months.
And now that same ship is the one being sent to relieve a crew that's reportedly in its own mental health crisis.
There's something almost poetic about that, and not in a good way.
Bueno, el George Washington recibió muchas reparaciones después de eso.
Well, the George Washington received many repairs after that.
Estuvo cuatro años en el astillero.
It spent four years in the shipyard.
Costó más de dos mil millones de dólares.
It cost more than two billion dollars.
Ahora es diferente.
Now it's different.
Two billion dollars and four years.
That's a lot of money and time to make a ship livable.
Though I suppose when you're talking about housing five thousand people for months at a stretch, you'd better get the plumbing right.
Exactamente.
Exactly.
Pero el problema del Lincoln no es el barco en sí.
But the Lincoln's problem is not the ship itself.
Es el tiempo.
It's the time.
Nueve meses es demasiado.
Nine months is too much.
Y durante la guerra con Irán, el Lincoln no pudo entrar en muchos puertos para descansar.
And during the Iran war, the Lincoln couldn't enter many ports to rest.
That's the piece I want to dig into, because port calls matter enormously for crew welfare.
When a carrier pulls into a port, even for a few days, people get off, they walk on ground that isn't moving, they call their families from somewhere quieter.
It sounds small but it's psychologically huge.
Sí.
Yes.
Y en una zona de guerra, los puertos son difíciles.
And in a war zone, ports are difficult.
No puedes ir a cualquier ciudad.
You can't go to just any city.
La seguridad es muy importante.
Security is very important.
Entonces los marineros llevan muchas semanas sin salir del barco.
So sailors go many weeks without leaving the ship.
Let me bring in the supply shortage angle, because that detail surprised me.
People picture an aircraft carrier as essentially self-sufficient.
It's nuclear powered, it carries its own aircraft.
Why would there be shortages?
El portaaviones necesita comida, medicamentos, repuestos para los aviones, todo.
The aircraft carrier needs food, medicine, spare parts for the aircraft, everything.
Normalmente, otros barcos llevan estas cosas al portaaviones en el mar.
Normally, other ships bring these things to the carrier at sea.
Pero cuando hay una guerra, la logística es más difícil y más peligrosa.
But when there is a war, logistics are more difficult and more dangerous.
It's called underway replenishment.
These supply ships pull alongside the carrier while both are moving, and they transfer fuel, food, ammunition, parts, all through lines and cables strung between vessels doing twenty knots.
It's genuinely remarkable engineering.
Pero cuando hay una guerra activa en Irán, con misiles y drones en la región, es más difícil organizar estos reabastecimientos.
But when there is an active war in Iran, with missiles and drones in the region, it is more difficult to organize these resupply operations.
Y cuando falta comida o medicamentos en un barco con cinco mil personas, los problemas llegan muy rápido.
And when there is a shortage of food or medicine on a ship with five thousand people, problems arrive very quickly.
Octavio, let me ask you something.
From a European perspective, from a Spanish perspective, how do you see this whole idea of carrier deployments as foreign policy?
Because Spain has a carrier, Portugal has naval history.
This isn't an exclusively American obsession.
España tiene el Juan Carlos I, que es un portaaviones pequeño.
Spain has the Juan Carlos I, which is a small aircraft carrier.
Pero no es comparable con el Lincoln o el George Washington.
But it is not comparable to the Lincoln or the George Washington.
Los portaaviones americanos son enormes, son otra categoría.
American aircraft carriers are enormous, they are another category.
En Europa pensamos que son una muestra del poder americano, casi como una embajada flotante.
In Europe we think of them as a display of American power, almost like a floating embassy.
Floating embassy.
That's actually how American strategists describe them too.
When there's a crisis somewhere, the first question in Washington is: where's the nearest carrier?
It's a reflex.
Sí, pero ese reflejo tiene un precio humano.
Yes, but that reflex has a human price.
La historia del Lincoln muestra que los marineros pagan este precio.
The Lincoln's story shows that sailors pay this price.
Nueve meses, problemas de salud mental, problemas con los suministros.
Nine months, mental health problems, supply problems.
Eso no es abstracto.
That is not abstract.
Son personas reales.
They are real people.
And families back home.
I keep thinking about what a nine-month deployment actually means for a twenty-two-year-old who has a kid they've never met.
Or a marriage that's been running on phone calls and delayed messages.
Es duro.
It's hard.
Y esto pasó también con la guerra de Irak y con Afganistán.
And this also happened with the Iraq war and with Afghanistan.
Los despliegues largos siempre crean problemas para las familias y para los soldados cuando regresan a casa.
Long deployments always create problems for families and for soldiers when they return home.
I spent time with units coming home from Afghanistan and the adjustment is its own ordeal.
But at least soldiers touched ground regularly, even in a combat zone.
There's something specifically claustrophobic about being on a ship for nine months with no exit.
Fletcher, hay algo irónico aquí.
Fletcher, there is something ironic here.
Hablamos de viajes, de moverse por el mundo.
We talk about travel, about moving through the world.
Pero estas personas viajaron miles de kilómetros y nunca pudieron explorar ningún lugar.
But these people traveled thousands of kilometers and could never explore anywhere.
El viaje era el objetivo, no el destino.
The journey was the objective, not the destination.
You know, that's a genuinely interesting inversion.
Most of us travel to arrive somewhere.
These crews are traveling specifically so they never arrive, so they stay mobile and threatening and present.
The not-arriving is the whole point.
Exactamente.
Exactly.
Y esta situación en el Lincoln nos dice algo importante sobre el futuro de la guerra con Irán.
And this situation on the Lincoln tells us something important about the future of the war with Iran.
Si los Estados Unidos necesitan portaaviones en la región durante mucho tiempo, el problema humano va a continuar.
If the United States needs aircraft carriers in the region for a long time, the human problem is going to continue.
There are eleven carrier strike groups in the American fleet.
That sounds like a lot until you account for maintenance cycles, transit time, and training rotations.
At any given moment, maybe three or four can actually be deployed.
Iran knows this arithmetic too.
Sí, y por eso esta guerra es muy cara para los Estados Unidos, no solo en dinero sino también en personas.
Yes, and that is why this war is very expensive for the United States, not only in money but also in people.
Cuando el Lincoln llegó a casa, los marineros necesitaron mucho tiempo para recuperarse.
When the Lincoln finally reaches home, the sailors will need a lot of time to recover.
Eso también tiene un coste.
That also has a cost.
Let me ask you something that might sound naive: does Spain, does Europe generally, feel any of this pressure?
Any expectation to share this kind of naval burden in the Middle East?
Hay presión de los Estados Unidos, sí.
There is pressure from the United States, yes.
Siempre.
Always.
Pero Europa no tiene los mismos barcos, ni el mismo dinero, ni la misma tradición de hacer esto.
But Europe doesn't have the same ships, nor the same money, nor the same tradition of doing this.
España participa en operaciones de la OTAN, pero no es lo mismo.
Spain participates in NATO operations, but it's not the same thing.
Which has been a source of real friction inside NATO for decades.
Europeans benefiting from American power projection while being less than enthusiastic about funding or manning it.
That argument is much louder now than it was five years ago.
Es verdad.
That's true.
Pero también hay una pregunta más grande: ¿Son los portaaviones el futuro?
But there is also a bigger question: Are aircraft carriers the future?
Con los misiles modernos y los drones, algunos expertos dicen que los portaaviones son demasiado grandes y demasiado fáciles de atacar.
With modern missiles and drones, some experts say that aircraft carriers are too big and too easy to attack.
Son muy caros y muy vulnerables.
They are very expensive and very vulnerable.
The Pentagon has been wrestling with that question for twenty years and not really answering it.
The carriers keep getting built because nobody wants to be the person who decommissioned the last one right before it was needed.
Mientras tanto, los marineros del Lincoln están en algún lugar del océano Índico, mirando el mar todos los días.
Meanwhile, the sailors of the Lincoln are somewhere in the Indian Ocean, looking at the sea every day.
Eso sí que es un viaje que nadie quiere repetir.
That really is a journey nobody wants to repeat.
Alright.
Before we go, something you said a few minutes ago caught my ear and I haven't been able to let it go.
You said the sailors "llevan muchas semanas sin salir del barco." Now I got the meaning, but that construction, llevan, feels different from how I'd say it in English.
What's happening there?
Ah, sí.
Ah, yes.
En español usamos 'llevar' para decir cuánto tiempo hace algo.
In Spanish we use 'llevar' to say how long someone has been doing something.
Por ejemplo: 'Llevo tres horas esperando.' En inglés dices 'I have been waiting for three hours.' Pero en español es más directo: llevo, llevas, lleva.
For example: 'Llevo tres horas esperando.' In English you say 'I have been waiting for three hours.' But in Spanish it's more direct: llevo, llevas, lleva.
So if I wanted to say I've been studying Spanish for two years, I would say...
llevo dos años estudiando español?
Did I get that right?
Perfecto, Fletcher.
Perfect, Fletcher.
Y la tripulación del Lincoln: 'lleva nueve meses en el mar.' Es simple, es natural.
And the Lincoln's crew: 'lleva nueve meses en el mar.' It's simple, it's natural.
Los hispanohablantes usan esta estructura todo el tiempo.
Spanish speakers use this structure all the time.
Es muy útil.
It's very useful.
Llevo dos años estudiando español y todavía cometo errores.
But at least that one I'll remember.
Thanks to five thousand sailors stuck at sea giving me a very vivid example sentence.