The USS Dwight D. Eisenhower may be one of the oldest aircraft carriers in the U.S. Navy, but it’s still fighting — despite repeated false claims by Yemen’s Houthi rebels.
The Houthis and online accounts supporting them repeatedly have alleged they hit or even sank the carrier in the Red Sea as it leads the U.S. response to the rebels’ ongoing attacks targeting both commercial vessels and warships in the crucial waterway.
That’s put its leader, Capt. Christopher “Chowdah” Hill, and his social media profile directly in what has become an increasingly bizarre internet front line as the campaign goes on. And while he shrugs off his posts, they represent the new level of information warfare the Navy is having to fight as it faces its most intense combat since World War II and tries to keep the morale of the nearly 5,000 personnel aboard the Eisenhower high and munitions ready as their deployment stretches on.
“I think it’s been about two or three times in the past six months we’ve allegedly been sunk, which we have not been,” Hill told The Associated Press during a recent visit to the carrier. “It is almost comical at this point. They’re attempting to maybe inspire themselves through misinformation, but it doesn’t work on us.”
艾森豪威尔号航空母舰可能是美国海军最古老的航空母舰之一，但它仍在战斗——尽管也门胡塞叛军一再提出虚假声明。
胡塞叛军及其在线账户多次声称，他们在红海击中甚至击沉了这艘航空母舰，而这艘航空母舰正主导美国对叛军持续袭击这一关键水道上的商船和军舰的回应。
随着宣传越演越烈，这艘航空母舰领导人，克里斯托弗·“乔达”·希尔舰长和他的社交媒体身份被直接推入越来越奇怪的互联网前线。虽然他对帖子不以为然，但这些帖子代表海军必须打的新层次信息战，因为该舰面临着自二战以来最激烈的战斗，随着部署的延长，要尽量保持艾森豪威尔号上近 5,000 名人员高昂士气和弹药准备就绪。
希尔告诉在最近一次访问这艘航母的美联社：“我认为在过去六个月里，我们被击沉大概有两三次，但实际上并没有发生。”“现在的情况几乎很可笑。他们可能试图通过错误的信息来激励自己，但这对我们不起作用。”
