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00:01Welcome to Laguna Karib RV Resort in beautiful Fort Myers, Florida.
00:06Join us today as we learn of the sacrifices that Major John Turnbull made for our freedom.
00:13These are the faces of heroes.
00:17Many still bearing the invisible wounds of war, PTSD, and trauma.
00:24I left Vietnam, but Vietnam never left me.
00:30That's how I'm living.
00:31Why did I come back?
00:33Why are they gone and I'm not?
00:35You know, what have I done to deserve to be here?
00:41Our mission is listening and hearing, helping and healing for those who sacrificed and those who continue to sacrifice.
00:53The mission today and every day is Operation Healing Heroes.
01:00Brought to you by Great Clips.
01:09In January of 2019, Major John Turnbull led a covert team of eight special forces, men and women, into the
01:17ISIS stronghold of Manbij, Syria.
01:21Around 12 o'clock in Syrian time, around 6.30 in the morning here in the United States, the ISIS
01:29suicide bomber walked up to my team and detonated a suicide vest.
01:42The blast would kill 23 people, including four Americans and many Syrian children.
02:01How far was he from you when he detonated this?
02:05So, at the time of the explosion, I was about five feet away from him when he detonated his vest.
02:12I was very close.
02:13I was able to see the whites of his eyes, the, you know, I can describe his facial features, all
02:18the horrible things that I'll live with the rest of my life.
02:20Major Turnbull was given a zero percent chance of survival.
02:25And, after flatlining three times and enduring 22 life-saving surgeries to date, John is a walking and talking medical
02:34miracle.
02:36This is the story of a soldier, a husband, a father, and an American patriot who loves his country now
02:47more than ever.
02:48So, our story started kind of way back when we moved to a small city in Michigan.
02:56And when we moved there, we moved in with my grandparents until our house was built.
03:02And my grandparents, they basically said, you know, hey, you're going to this campground with us.
03:07If you're living under our roof, you're going to church camp.
03:10And my dad was a pastor, and I just thought, I don't want to go to church camp.
03:15I don't want to get preached to all week.
03:17I just want to go somewhere relaxing for the summer.
03:20Go to this campground.
03:21First person I meet was John.
03:24What a hunk.
03:26And so, we met when I was 12.
03:29At the time, he was 16.
03:31He was in the reserve.
03:33Well, just joining the reserves, or JROTC.
03:36And when we first met, he talked to the military.
03:40He knew that's what he wanted to do.
03:42At 16 years old, just said, I'm ready.
03:44This is what I'm going to do.
03:45And after the week that we spent together at this campground, we said goodbye.
03:51We didn't really ever think we'd see each other again.
03:54He lived three hours north of where I lived.
03:56And, of course, we were young.
03:58So, three years later, I was turning 16, and we were at our church.
04:04And I was really involved in our church's youth group.
04:08And one person who I looked up to the most in the church was a lady named Suzanne.
04:15She had asked me one Sunday, she said, hey, I'd really like you to meet my nephew.
04:19He's here today.
04:21I think you guys would hit it off as a good couple.
04:24So, I was like, yeah, okay.
04:26And as she had said that, it walks John into the church sanctuary.
04:31And I was like, hey, hold that thought.
04:34A guy who I knew a few years ago, I haven't seen him in a while.
04:37He just walked in, and I'd like to go say hi to him.
04:40And she was like, huh, funny, that's my nephew.
04:43And so, she's like, well, now you have to go to lunch with us, at least after church.
04:48And the rest is history from there.
04:51John was committed to West Point and to Samantha.
04:56Being accepted at West Point was a huge milestone.
04:59I remember the day when I received the notification that I'd been accepted.
05:05You know, when doors opened, doors closed.
05:07I like to say that, you know, that's God, you know, kind of showing you which direction to go.
05:10Well, that's a big door to open, because that's not one I was doing on my own.
05:16I knew he was going to West Point at the time, just because when he went to church that Sunday
05:21with us,
05:22the pastor made an announcement, just said, you know, hey, John Turnbull's here.
05:25He was just accepted to West Point, wanted to pray over him.
05:29And I was like, West Point, I don't really know what that is.
05:32My family was not from a military civil service family at all.
05:38And so I, being young and kind of dumb, I was like, what's West Point?
05:43And I actually had a good friend of mine.
05:46She leaned over, she goes, Sam, do you realize what West Point is?
05:48No, not really.
05:49And so she told me, you know, hey, it's Military Academy.
05:52And he goes, okay.
05:54John and I, we hung out the rest of that summer right before he went to school.
05:58And I learned a lot about what West Point is, and I had a lot of respect for it.
06:04And I thought, you know, if it's meant to be, we're going to make this work.
06:09And right before going to West Point, I let her know that my feelings for her,
06:14when we started dating, that three-year separation was a good thing in that...
06:20Having that three years apart when we were younger kind of set us up for the future
06:25in a way that we didn't even realize, because he was about to go to West Point.
06:31And at West Point, there was no phones, no communication again.
06:36And so we thought, well, we've done this once before.
06:38We'll see if we can do it again.
06:40I mean, the four years at West Point, we were only able to see each other about once or twice
06:44a year
06:45over a long weekend or spring break, so to speak.
06:48He went to West Point, and I stuck by him through the entire five years.
06:54We were able to figure out who we were, talking over the phone, through email,
06:59through correspondence, really got to know each other, and built up our relationship
07:04based on trust and, you know, shared values that we had, which really benefited us through my military career.
07:14While he was at West Point, though, I learned a lot about what the military is and what the military
07:23academy was.
07:24And there's so much respect that I gained for every cadet and every officer that was at West Point.
07:31And I thought, you know, this is a lifestyle I can see myself getting into.
07:36And so, of course, John's like, Sam, no, you're not joining the military.
07:41You're a little too outspoken for it.
07:42I stayed home, went to dental school, we had gotten engaged, and then shortly after he graduated West Point, the
07:51week after we got married.
07:54Operation Healing Heroes is brought to you by Great Clips, Laguna Karib RV Resort, and by Suzuki Marine.
08:10Operation Healing Heroes is a nonprofit organization dedicated to documenting the lives of our U.S. military veterans.
08:17In addition, we also provide financial support and treatment for post-traumatic stress.
08:22Your donation will help heal our heroes.
08:31Shortly after he graduated West Point, the week after we got married.
08:35And after a few short years and several duty stations later, Samantha would give birth to their son, Ian.
08:42Ten short days later, John was deployed to Afghanistan for nine long months.
08:50I remember being away and missing Samantha and missing Ian quite a bit.
08:55But we were so busy that you had to make time to stop and remember the things that matter.
09:02Why are we on the deployment?
09:03I mean, that's the question you always ask.
09:04Having, you know, a new wife at home and a new child, that was my reason.
09:11Like, I'm fighting for them.
09:12My guys ended up calling our platoon mama and they would always ask, like,
09:18you got any new pictures of the baby?
09:20So upon returning to the United States, I applied for special operations to be a special operation team leader.
09:28And he had said, you know, out of 100 people, maybe 10 people get selected for this.
09:34So don't get your hopes up, but I'm going to at least go try.
09:38And in my heart, I knew that life was about to change.
09:42Came back and he said, Sam, I was selected.
09:45We're moving to Fort Bragg.
09:46And I thought, well, here we go.
09:48I knew that John would be good at the job that he was about to do.
09:52So my final mission was in Iraq in 2018.
09:57It was when ISIS was at the height of their power.
10:00And so when he came home and said, Sam, I've got to go to Iraq, I thought, oh, Iraq right
10:08now?
10:09Quite a few Americans are being killed in Iraq and Syria.
10:12When I mentioned it to my wife, it created a lot of anxiety.
10:17And at one point, my wife even mentioned, she's like, something doesn't feel right about this deployment.
10:22We had everybody in our team fill out a will, preparing for the worst.
10:27If something bad were to happen, we want to make sure we're prepared for it.
10:30Not just a will, but we filled out our next of kin information,
10:34made sure everybody had their life insurance up to date and paid.
10:37So once I got to Iraq, I was, I mean, 32 years old.
10:42I was a captain in the United States Army.
10:44Two weeks into Boots on the Ground in Iraq,
10:47the commander over the fight against ISIS for special operations approached me and said,
10:52I need you to go and be a team leader for a special operations team that I'm putting together
10:58that will lead the charge against ISIS.
11:01Only eight highly trained special forces men and women became known as cross-functional team ManBitch.
11:09The team comprised of eight people, just eight.
11:11We had multiple special forces soldiers, Green Berets.
11:15I had a Naval Intelligence Senior Chief.
11:17I had a Navy SEAL on my team, like one of those guys.
11:21Tatted up, big, beefy guy.
11:23Like I had a cultural advisor that was my interpreter and translator.
11:27Put together this team.
11:29The boss gave me a mission.
11:31Go into ManBitch, begin operations that will lead to the defeat of ISIS.
11:37That's amazing.
11:38So eight people went out to go defeat ISIS.
11:42Yes.
11:43Our mission was very unique in that we did it through three big things.
11:50We restored electricity to the entire region through doing a project at a hydroelectric dam.
11:56We rebuilt medical infrastructure in the region that I was in, the area of ManBitch.
12:02And we opened schools back up for girls to return to school after an eight year prohibition put on them
12:07by ISIS.
12:08So by doing this, we removed ISIS's ability to control the people and handed that over to the local government,
12:15the Syrian Democratic Council, reinstoring the faith of the people back into their government.
12:21Everywhere the SDF and our coalition partners have removed ISIS, lives are returning to normal.
12:29Schools are opening in towns all over eastern Syria.
12:34We were still conducting lethal targeting, genetic strikes, removing the bad guy from the field of battle, removing ISIS leadership,
12:43removing ISIS fighters, and making it so they weren't even there to be able to oppress the people.
12:51So did the local Syrians appreciate the work that you were doing for their community?
12:56They were very grateful, not just the adults that we were working with, but I tell you what, the best
13:03day of my entire life thus far was the day when we opened the schools back up for girls to
13:08return to school.
13:09It was November 2018, we opened schools up, and my team was on the ground in one of the schools
13:14as the Syrians opened up the gates for the kids to come in with their backpacks on.
13:20And the smiles on the girls' faces was just, I mean, I will, something I will never forget.
13:27They came up to us, it's not hard to see the Americans standing over in the corner, you know, we
13:32provided security along with the Syrians, making sure nothing bad was going to happen.
13:35And they would come up, the girls would come over to us, they would start, they would hug us, and
13:40they would just, multiple times they'd say, thank you.
13:43I remember one young lady came over to me and said, thank you for protecting me and let me go
13:48to school.
13:49She looked at me in the eyes and she said, I love you.
13:51While the Syrian citizens were grateful to the small team of Americans, the ISIS fighters were angered at the progress
13:58that the Americans had made.
14:00Every mission we went on, we would recognize the fact that every time the girls went back to school, it
14:07was a slap in the face.
14:09Every time somebody went and turned the lights on in their residence, they knew that the coalition had done that
14:19for them, that ISIS didn't do that, that the government was taking care of them.
14:23Every time somebody was injured and was able to go seek medical aid at a hospital or medical center, every
14:29time a woman gave birth in the OBGYN at the hospital, that again, it was a slap in the face
14:36to ISIS because they had lost that ability to control the population.
14:41So I knew they were becoming very highly agitated.
14:45While we were doing all this, we were gathering information and intelligence on ISIS, being able to identify where they
14:52were, what they were doing, which led to military strikes, kinetic strikes, as we call them, or lethal targeting against
14:59the enemy.
15:00So not only were they losing their ability to control the people, but they were losing their freedom of movement
15:05in the area.
15:06They couldn't go up wherever they wanted and do whatever they wanted now because they knew that if they left
15:13their homes and somebody found out about it, and we found out about it, that we would go to their
15:18homes and we would arrest them.
15:22Operation Healing Heroes is brought to you by Great Clips, Blue Water Boat Club, and by PowerPole.
15:37So John, is it bad of me if I ask you to go play some cornhole with me or play
15:42some bags?
15:43Not bad at all, as long as you want to lose.
15:46I can't beat my son, so I figured maybe I could beat a blind guy.
15:48Okay.
15:50Hole shot.
15:52If you'd like to see more behind-the-scenes footage, follow us on social media and subscribe to our YouTube
15:57channel.
15:59If you'd like to learn more and go deeper into the subject of healing, tune in to the all-new
16:04Operation Healing Heroes podcast, Feel the Heal.
16:07Hear from veterans, first responders, doctors, nonprofit leaders, and Gold Star families as they share powerful stories of hope, healing,
16:15and resiliency.
16:16Tune in and feel the heal.
16:23Through the four months I spent in Syria, there were no times that I actually feared for my team.
16:31I was very confident in them. I had some of the greatest fighters that were in all of Syria.
16:37And the professionalism of each of them, as we walk, I mean, even in the market, when we're walking through
16:41the market, I knew we always had security.
16:44Somebody always had their eyes on the outside, eyes on the inside. We were scanning people, we were making sure
16:49everybody was taken care of.
16:51My time was drawing close to an end. I was supposed to go home January 15th, but we were doing
16:56so much good.
16:57We were, we had a positive impact in the lives of the people there. I mean, you were seeing smiles
17:03where you would never see smiles before, you know, where you only saw terror before.
17:07So I was supposed to go home January 15th. The plan was to go home January 15th. I changed that
17:12plan and I told my wife that I wasn't going to be coming home, that I was extending.
17:17He had called me on January 15th. And I'm not one who gets easily angered, but I was pretty upset
17:27with John because I was, John, no, you're supposed to be coming home tomorrow.
17:31Your orders say tomorrow. And you're telling me you're staying now for a few months. Why? Like, why would you
17:37do this?
17:38And I said, you're not even supposed to be in Syria. So your orders say, come home tomorrow. And he
17:45said, Sam, orders don't matter anymore.
17:47I am doing a job that I will never be able to do again. This is a job where I
17:53am saving lives. I'm helping people. I'm helping children. And I will never be able to do this again.
17:59That was on January 15th. And then January 16th was a day that changed my life forever.
18:05My team got together and we went into the city of Manbij. Went there. As I told my wife, we
18:12had identified problems in the area that we were going to deal with.
18:17We got a follow on mission of something terrorist within our area. So we were getting ready to move out.
18:23Met in front of our vehicles and said, all right, everybody gather around in front of my vehicle. Follow on
18:28mission. Here's what we're going to do.
18:29It's called a patrol brief. We're going to go do this. We're going to this location. Pull in security. Let's
18:34get out of here.
18:35So as we were doing that, I turned to get into my vehicle, at which point ISIS fighter had been
18:41able to sneak through our outer security being provided by the Syrians and into our inner security, our inner cordon,
18:51so to speak.
18:52And he had was able to weasel his way in between two of my service members, between a Green Beret
19:00chief warrant officer to John Farmer and our naval intelligence officer, senior chief Shannon Kent.
19:08And he was able to get right between them, ferreting his way into our group.
19:13As I was getting in my vehicle, this was noticed and somebody told me, watch out.
19:19Something's wrong. There's something that shouldn't happen.
19:22I turned just at the right moment to see this individual between John and Shannon as he detonated a suicide
19:31vest that he was wearing.
19:36In that split second, I was able to see the expressions of my teammates who were unaware that this person
19:43had come on between them, had come into our group.
19:46Both of them had were smiling at me. We had done a good thing that day. Life was good at
19:54that moment.
19:54They were happy. I know that, you know, the feelings that they were feeling because I, you know, felt pride
20:00in my team knowing what we had done during the earlier part of that day.
20:04So I turned, I saw this and that was the last thing I would see as he detonated his vest,
20:09killing both John and Shannon instantly.
20:14And that explosion would end up killing four Americans, not just Chief Warrant Officer John Farmer and Senior Chief Shannon
20:22Kent, but killed Mr. Scott Wirtz, who was a petty officer second class in the Navy.
20:29He was known as a Navy SEAL. And then the fourth person on my team that was killed was our
20:33translator, Ms. Gadir Tahir.
20:36She was affectionately known by our friends and family as Jasmine.
20:39Immediately following the explosion, John, gravely injured, was found wedged beneath a car.
20:46My three soldiers that were not killed in the explosion got to work doing triage, getting the children, getting the
20:53injured into the ambulances to get them to the hospitals.
20:56They had started collecting up body parts of the Americans so that way we could return them home to their
21:03family members to be buried.
21:04I believe within about an hour or so, I had been in an ambulance and I got to the hospital,
21:09along with my two other soldiers that were gravely injured.
21:14They were able to conduct some triage, but they weren't as sophisticated enough to keep us alive.
21:21Myself in particular, they weren't able to keep me alive.
21:24Right, I was nucleated, so blown out. My face was, it received a lot of trauma to my face.
21:29I wasn't very coherent. I remember small things and it was more feelings than sights and sounds.
21:38My eardrums were perforated, so I couldn't hear very well either.
21:41I'm worried because something had happened. I can't see. I can't hear. I hurt real bad.
21:45What is going on? Are my guys okay? I've got to get to my soldiers.
21:48So I'm worried about this. The whole time there's just a peace over me like, it'll be okay. Whatever's going
21:54on.
21:55First, God's got this. God will take care of me.
21:58And I believe that God was there in that moment. God was giving me peace. Hey, it'll be okay.
22:02John was taken by helicopter to an American base inside of Syria.
22:06They got me in there. The doctor takes a look at me and said, nope. There's nothing we can do
22:11for this guy. If he stays here, he's dead.
22:14There's 0% chance John Turnbull is going to survive 24 hours. 0% chance. It's not going to happen.
22:20Impossible. He's going to die.
22:28The Semper Fi Fund is dedicated to providing immediate financial assistance and lifetime support to our nation's critically wounded, ill,
22:37and injured service members, veterans, and military families.
22:43If you'd like to recognize a special veteran in your life and see them featured on our website, log on
22:49to OperationHealingHeroes.org and click on the recognize button.
22:54Operation Healing Heroes is brought to you by Battle Born Batteries, Laguna Karib RV Resort, and by Wiley X.
23:10Just before his medical evacuation flight from Syria to Iraq, John would flatline the first of three times.
23:19I coded, meaning my heart stopped beating and I stopped breathing. The doctor actually annotated it in my medical records
23:25as a time of death, you know, 16th of January 2019.
23:28Planes getting ready to take off. A young medic takes over and was like, watch this doctor and started performing
23:33CPR on me.
23:34For John, this was one of many God-given miracles that were set to take place.
23:39He had to perform CPR the entire flight until they transferred me to this new hospital in Baghdad. That flight
23:46was four hours long.
23:47Oh, my God.
23:48So I had a young soldier perform CPR on me for four hours. That whole flight, keeping me, I mean,
23:54he saved my life. He kept me alive through chest compressions and breathing for me.
23:59So that was the first time I died. Died again two more times when I was in Iraq, coded, as
24:05the doctors would say.
24:06Every time I crossed over into death, there was a reason I was brought back.
24:11At the time of the explosion, my wife will tell you she knew about it. There's a connection that, you
24:18know, science doesn't know about.
24:20We don't know about, you know, the connection between a husband and wife. And she knew something was going on,
24:25something was wrong.
24:26She started to get text messages. She started to get news feeds. They released a video of the explosion, ISIS
24:33did, from, of all things, a camera I had set up.
24:36I watched this video, and I will never forget saying, there's no way anybody survived that at all.
24:45You see one little boy run out from this huge fireball, and that was it.
24:51She just spent the whole morning crying and praying. She just was, God help me, God help me, God help
24:57John.
24:58And she would call, make these phone calls, called our pastor. Pastor, something's going on. I don't know what it
25:02is. John needs help.
25:05And so what did they do is like, hey, we know one way we can help. Let's get, let's get
25:08the church together. Let's start praying.
25:10Pray, pray, pray, pray, pray. My mom and dad got ahold of their pastor. They started praying right away.
25:16And I know without a doubt that those prayers that we got are what saved my husband's life because in
25:23my heart I knew John was there and John was hurt.
25:27And I had several moments that morning where I just had this wave of not peace, definitely not peace, but
25:37a little frustration and a feeling of extreme emptiness where I said, John's gone.
25:46And come to find out, John had passed away three times that morning. I tried to push it out of
25:51my mind, of course, and said, no, that's not him. He's going to be fine. You just have to, you
25:57have to have the faith.
25:59Approximately eight hours after the explosion, John was now in Baghdad, Iraq, undergoing emergency surgery to remove a piece of
26:07shrapnel lodged in his iliac artery.
26:11The surgery was performed by the only American surgeon in the entire Middle East qualified to perform this delicate life
26:19-saving surgery.
26:21How cool is it that all these things will lie? Coincidence? I don't believe in coincidence. I believe in, I
26:28mean, divine appointment. God does these things.
26:31And that was the same doctor that was on staff that night that I arrived in Baghdad, Iraq, when they
26:37found the piece of shrapnel.
26:38He was the doctor that was on call that was in the room, actually. And that doctor also was a
26:44professed atheist before this.
26:47And he told me three months later when we were talking face to face and back at Walter Reed that
26:53he's like, John, before you came in my room, he's like, I didn't believe in God.
26:56He's like, after that, I'd sit back and I wondered, wow, how great is God that he would have this
27:02explosion.
27:03He would have John Turnbull get injured in such a way that I was the only person that could work
27:08on him.
27:09And that that piece of shrapnel would stay in my artery for eight hours through chest compressions on a medical
27:15evacuation flight through, you know, Syrian hospital to this hospital, all these different things.
27:22It stayed in there long enough just for this doctor to see it.
27:25It was impossible that that shrapnel would stay in my artery and wouldn't come out.
27:30And the only way he could think of it is actually staying in there was God holding on to it
27:35just to show him and say, hey, this is this is how much I love you.
27:38I want you to see this.
27:40That doctor said it changed his life forever and that in that moment he became a believer, not only in
27:45God, but in Jesus Christ.
27:47And he thanked God, said, thank you for showing me that you are real, that you are powerful, you are
27:53mighty, a great healer, and that you will protect us.
27:58After multiple surgeries and months later, John would struggle with depression.
28:04God is there and God has been with me this whole time.
28:06I became very depressed. I'd lost my soldiers. I'd lost my eyesight and my depression was taking over.
28:12I asked God for help.
28:13I had a knock on my door and I had a young woman come in and she said she was
28:17a chaplain at the hospital.
28:19And she's like, can I pray with you? I was like, yes, ma'am, let's pray.
28:23So we started praying and we prayed all night together and she prayed for peace, gave me peace, gave me
28:28some serenity, hope for the future.
28:31And then she left.
28:32It was just absolutely amazing, just wonderful thing.
28:36This young woman coming in, just praying with me.
28:38The next day I wanted to thank her.
28:41I had to have my wife meet this woman that came into my room and prayed with me.
28:44So we called and we made the request.
28:46Can we have the girl that came into my room last night and prayed with me, come and visit us.
28:50The chaplain came into my room, the chaplain in charge of all the chaplains.
28:54I was like, I want the female chaplain that was here last night who prayed with me to come back
28:59into my room.
28:59I want her to meet my wife because she really touched my soul, really helped me out in a time
29:04I needed help.
29:05And the chaplain that was in charge of all the chaplains said, excuse me, I first have to tell you,
29:10I was the only chaplain on call last night.
29:13And secondly, we don't have any female chaplains here in our hospital.
29:20Operation Healing Heroes is brought to you by St. Croix Rods, Thorn Brothers, and by Hoist Hydration.
29:40Well, we absolutely got a beautiful day. I'm so glad that I was able to get you out here fishing.
29:44We're so blessed to be able to come down here, enjoy the sunshine a little bit.
29:49Nice, John. How's all you, buddy? Nice trout. Nice job, dude.
29:57Leaving their cold Michigan winter behind, the warm sun and warm waters of Lemon Bay provided a welcome escape for
30:07John and Samantha.
30:11Sam, I got to believe that this was like nearly impossible for you to endure everything that you've been through.
30:17Yeah, it was pretty hard. So they told me initially that John, when I got to Germany, that he basically
30:27was going to be a vegetable the rest of his life.
30:31They told me that half of his face was gone. He lost all of his teeth, lost his hearing.
30:38He, and he was paralyzed on his left side. And because of that, you know, you kind of lose hope.
30:44Yeah. And you just think, well, is this worth it? Is this the type of life that I would want?
30:50And I had to put myself in John's shoes for a little bit. And they had even told me, you
30:55know,
30:55he's so bad that he's on full life support. How would you like to proceed? And how do you make
31:03that decision?
31:05Decision. Yeah.
31:06And I just said, you know what? God's got him this far so far. If it's his time to go,
31:11he'll do it, not me.
31:12Right. And that was a really hard day. And, you know, you question everything and you question, you know, why
31:20me? Why now?
31:22And I had asked my chaplain, I just said, you know, I really need some prayer right now because I
31:28don't know how to continue on.
31:30This is really difficult. It's hard to take in. And I don't feel like God's present anymore.
31:38And being raised in the church and having your faith be doubted, I just had to pray about it.
31:46And so our chaplain started praying. And in the middle of his prayer, I stopped him and I said, whoa,
31:54time out for a second.
31:56I just saw something that I haven't noticed before on John. And we had been there about a week at
32:01the time.
32:02And I just said, you know, where did this come from? And I looked at John's hand and on his
32:10hand is the perfect shape of a cross.
32:12It's fire red. And the chaplain had said, you know, if you ever doubted your faith, now's the time to
32:18stop that.
32:19Despite being engulfed in a fireball, standing a mere five feet away from the suicide bomber, John's body was absent
32:28of a single burn, except for the burn on his hand that served as a reminder that God was with
32:35John and Samantha then and now.
32:39From that moment on, I mean, all his recovery became faith based 100 percent and definitely was a pivotal point
32:46in our lives, especially mine.
32:48And to ever doubt faith, it was very, very silly of me to ever do so.
32:52It was just in that moment we knew that God had spared his life for some reason and what it
32:59was, we didn't really know.
33:00And when I told John about his hand, he said, you know, if this had to happen for one person's
33:07life to be saved, I will do it over and over again.
33:11Through all that, though, they had said one of the worst diagnoses I thought was that they said your husband's
33:18never going to remember you and he won't remember your son.
33:21He probably won't remember his parents, but we can't make that call until, you know, he actually wakes up and
33:27we'll do some assessment on him.
33:29And the day, a few days later came, they wanted to test John on his reflexes for paralysis and all
33:37that stuff.
33:37And I said, well, since he's off, going to be off medication, is it OK if I talk to him?
33:43And they said, well, sure, it can't hurt, but, you know, just see what happens and just don't get your
33:50hopes up.
33:50He woke up a little bit. First thing he did was started reaching for everything on him to pull it
33:57off.
33:57And so I grabbed his hand and I just said, hey, John, it's me. I'm here.
34:03You know, we're in Germany. You don't have to be worried. Everything's fine.
34:09But this is Sam. Do you know who I am?
34:11And he squeezed my hand three times, which is kind of a love, corny love story between us where when
34:19we weren't able to tell each other, I love you, we would squeeze each other's hand.
34:24And I mean, I stopped and, of course, tears started and I cried a little bit and I just said,
34:30you know, everything's going to be OK.
34:31John remembers who I am. And the doctors, they couldn't believe it, of course.
34:35And they're like, wait, what? And so it was very, very special moment.
34:40But it was also one of those moments that I said, you know, you guys may be physicians, but you're
34:46not the ultimate physician.
34:49Operation Healing Heroes is brought to you by Recon Boats, SKB cases, and by the Al Lynch Foundation.
35:09The sacrifices that you've made for our freedom, hindsight, is it worth it?
35:15Yes, I would say it's definitely worth it.
35:19America's worth it. The citizens of this country are worth it.
35:22The freedom is worth it. I would do it over again a thousand times.
35:27It is definitely worth it.
35:31Well, I want to say for all the things that you've done for us and that you continue to do
35:36to give back to all the other veterans.
35:39I can't say thank you enough, but I definitely want to give you a little bit of a token of
35:43our appreciation, if you don't mind.
35:45And right here behind you, I'm just going to reach behind you. You're not getting fresh.
35:49Yeah, you are. I promise you, I'm not getting fresh.
35:52I have a fishing rod here for you that says, in appreciation of your sacrifice and service, John Turnbull.
36:01And it's got our logo, the Operation Healing Heroes logo along with the American flag and all the branches of
36:07service on there.
36:08That's for you. And I also would like to give you a jersey, an Operation Healing Heroes jersey that says
36:21John on the front, Turnbull on the back.
36:23And it's the jersey that I'm wearing right now that lists all of our local sponsors.
36:28And I just can't say thank you enough.
36:33Obviously, we know that God was not done with you and we've...
36:35Not done yet.
36:36Throughout this story, we've heard so many times about how God basically put you back on this earth to continue
36:41your journey of healing others.
36:43But I'm honored that you allowed us to do this with you.
36:48So with the advances of modern medicine, are you optimistic that maybe there's better days ahead for you?
36:54So one thing I would like to reiterate was that very first time when I arrived in that Syrian hospital,
36:590% chance John's going to survive.
37:02I kept getting that number over and over and over again.
37:040% chance of survival.
37:060% chance John can make it.
37:090% chance initially that I would be able to stand up.
37:12100% chance I was paralyzed on my left side, giving me 0% chance I could move on my
37:17left side.
37:18They also gave me 0% chance I would remember anything.
37:22I had shrapnel go into my brain and they said it would wipe out my memory.
37:26So I wouldn't remember my wife.
37:28I won't remember my son.
37:29I won't remember what happened.
37:32I'm here.
37:34I mean, I did die, but I got better.
37:370% chance of standing up.
37:39I mean, I'm moving my left side.
37:41Here's my left side.
37:42So you guys can see.
37:43I mean, I have a feeling in it.
37:450% chance I would remember my wife.
37:48First thing I remember my wife, she's a dental assistant.
37:51She stuck her fingers in my mouth to check my teeth.
37:54I remember my wife.
37:55So we kept getting these 0% chances of survival, 0% chance of surviving that wound in the iliac.
38:01It happened.
38:02So I started to wonder what happens when you're given 0% chance and it happens.
38:08I mean, that's impossible.
38:10It can't happen.
38:11So I like to say when given 0% chance and it happens, that's 100% God.
38:16God stepping in.
38:17We know science, medicine, but we don't know the great healer.
38:21We don't know the maker of heaven and earth.
38:24And God can do some extraordinary things.
38:26So continue to get these 0% chance ultimatums and they happen.
38:32So I, during, to ask him about modern, you know, advances in modern medicine.
38:37Well, when they were working on my left eye, they, I sat down with the doctor and afterwards
38:44I was like, I can't see out of it.
38:46And they're like, I know we cut large chunks of it out and your optic nerve is broken and damaged.
38:52We can't fix it.
38:53She's like, there's John, there's like, I'm like, okay.
38:56So what do we do?
38:57You know, the cords broke between the TV and the VCR.
39:00You know, you, you splice it, wrap things together, wrap some electrical type around
39:04it and you're good to go.
39:05How, what do we got to do to see again?
39:06She's like, John, you're never going to see again.
39:09There's 0% chance that you'll ever see again.
39:13I remember I actually was, I offended the doctor because in that moment I go, great.
39:19You just invited God into this fight.
39:22Right.
39:22So one day I'm going to see again.
39:25One day when I can see again, I told her, I was like, I'm going to come into your office.
39:29I'm going to look you in the eye.
39:30I'm going to say, see how great my God is because it is going to happen.
39:35A few years ago, Pittsburgh university published a research.
39:39We can fix damaged optic nerves.
39:41I was like, great, let's do it.
39:44You know, let's fix that wire, wrap some electrical tape around it and let's get going.
39:48But my eyeball was so damaged that they had to take a large part of it out.
39:52A lot of the seeing, the tools they are used to see, retina, cornea, stuff like that,
39:58had to be removed to save my life.
40:01So now I was like, well, we can fix the damaged optic nerve, but what's next?
40:05Well, now I'm working with NYU, New York University research individuals,
40:11a guy's trying, he wants to do the first eye transplant.
40:14He's already performed an eye transplant, but the individual has no function out of the eye.
40:18So now his goal is rather than just cosmetic, it's like, John, let's do some research.
40:24Let's figure out a way to connect a donor eyeball to your brain.
40:28We're going to get you seeing again.
40:29So I'm in the research process right now working with these guys.
40:33So we will see again.
40:35And the doctors even said, he's like, John, we're going to do it.
40:37We're going to find a way, and you're going to see again.
40:40So that 0% chance is looking mighty good to me, because again, 100% God.
40:45You've invited God into this situation, into this scenario, and there's nothing my God can't do.
40:51As to your question, yes, I will see again.
40:54And if there's any ISIS fighters left, I'm coming for you.
41:00As you just learned, Major John Turnbull is well underway in his healing journey.
41:05However, Operation Healing Heroes will always be here for him to provide additional support if needed.
41:15If you'd like to personally thank a veteran that you've seen in one of our episodes, or nominate a veteran
41:20to be featured in a future episode,
41:22log on to our website, OperationHealingHeroes.org, and click on the nominate button.
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