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Operation Healing Heroes S04E11
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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, go 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, well, just joining the reserves, or J-R-O-T-C.
03:37And when we first met, he was like, he talked to 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.
04:57Being accepted at West Point was a huge milestone.
04:59I remember the day when I received the notification that I'd been accepted.
05:04You know, when doors open, doors close.
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,
05:21the 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?
05:49No, not really.
05:50And so she told me, you know, hey, it's Military Academy.
05:53I 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.
06:02And 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
06:26in 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.
06:53We were able to figure out who we were talking over the phone, through email, through correspondence,
07:00really get to know each other, and built up our relationship based on trust and, you know,
07:09shared 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.
07:35And so, of course, John's like, Sam, no, you're not joining the military.
07:41You're a little too outspoken for it.
07:43I stayed home, went to dental school.
07:46We had gotten engaged.
07:48And then shortly after he graduated West Point, the week after we got married.
07:55Operation Healing Heroes is brought to you by Great Clips, Laguna Karib RV Resort,
08:03and 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.
08:43Ten 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.
09:15And they would always ask, like, you 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.
09:53So 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.
10:05I thought, oh, Iraq right now?
10:09Quite a few Americans are being killed in Iraq and Syria.
10:13When 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.
10:22But we 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, the commander over the fight against ISIS for special operations,
10:51approached me and said, I need you to go and be a team leader for a special operations team
10:57that I'm putting together that will lead the charge against ISIS.
11:02Only eight highly trained special forces men and women became known as cross-functional team ManBitch.
11:09A 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.
11:23I 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' ability to control the people and handed that over to the local government,
12:16the 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, connect 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.
12:58Not just the adults that we were working with, but I tell you what, the best day of my entire
13:04life thus far was the day when we opened the schools back up for girls to return 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, and it's not hard to see the Americans standing over in the corner, you know,
13:31we provided 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, and they would start, they would hug us,
13:40and they 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.
13:48She 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.
14:01Every mission we went on, we would recognize the fact that every time the girls went back to school, it
14:08was 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,
14:34that again, it was a slap in the face to ISIS because they had lost that ability to control the
14:41population.
14:42So 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,
14:54which led to military strikes, kinetic strikes as we call them, or lethal targeting against the 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,
15:16and we found out about it, that we would go to their homes 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.
15:50Hole 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.
16:48We were scanning people, we were making sure everybody 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 had a positive impact in the lives of the people there.
17:01I mean, you were seeing smiles where you would never see smiles before, you know, where you only saw terror
17:05before.
17:07So I was supposed to go home January 15th. The plan was to go home January 15th.
17:11I changed that plan, and I told my wife that I wasn't going to be coming home, that I was
17:16extending.
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,
17:28John, no, you're supposed to be coming home tomorrow, your orders say tomorrow, and you're telling me you're staying now
17:35for a few months.
17:36Why? Like, why would you do this? And I said, you're not even supposed to be in Syria, so your
17:42orders say come home tomorrow.
17:44And he said, Sam, orders don't matter anymore. I am doing a job that I will never be able to
17:50do again.
17:51This is a job where I am saving lives, I'm helping people, I'm helping children, and I will never be
17:58able 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.
18:09Went there, as I told my wife, we had identified problems in the area that we were going to deal
18:16with.
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.
18:27Follow-on mission. Here's what we're going to do. It's called a patrol brief.
18:30We're going to go do this, we're going to this location, pull in security, let's get out of here.
18:35So as we were doing that, I turned to get into my vehicle, at which point an ISIS fighter had
18:41been able to sneak through our outer security being provided by the Syrians,
18:47and into our inner security, our inner corridor, so to speak, and he was able to weasel his way in
18:56between two of my service members,
18:58between a Green Beret Chief Warrant Officer 2, John Farmer, and our Naval Intelligence Officer, Senior Chief Shannon Kent.
19:08He 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,
19:18watch out, something'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 in between them, had come into our group.
19:46Both of them were smiling at me. We had done a good thing that day. Life was good at that
19:54moment.
19:54They were happy. I know the feelings that they were feeling because I felt pride in my team, knowing what
20:02we 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,
20:22but killed Mr. Scott Wertz, who was a petty officer second class in the Navy.
20:29He was known as a Navy SEAL.
20:30And then the fourth person on my team that was killed was our translator, Ms. Gadir Tahir.
20:36She was affectionately known by our friends and family as Jasmine.
20:39Immediately followed 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.
21:21Well, myself in particular, they weren't able to keep me alive.
21:24Right, I was nucleated, so blown out.
21:26My face was, it received a lot of trauma to my face.
21:29I wasn't very coherent.
21:32I 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.
21:43I can't see, I can't hear.
21:44I hurt real bad.
21:45What is going on?
21:46Are my guys okay?
21:47I've got to get to my soldiers.
21:48So I'm worried about this.
21:50The whole time, there's just a peace over me.
21:51Like, it'll be okay.
21:53Whatever's going on.
21:55First, God's got this.
21:57God will take care of me.
21:58And I believe that God was there in that moment.
22:00God was giving me peace.
22:01Hey, it'll be okay.
22:02John was taken by helicopter to an American base inside of Syria.
22:07They got me in there.
22:08The doctor takes a look at me and said,
22:09Nope.
22:10There's nothing we can do for this guy.
22:12If he stays here, he's dead.
22:14There's 0% chance John Turnbull is going to survive 24 hours.
22:180% chance.
22:19It's not going to happen.
22:20Impossible.
22:20He's going to die.
22:28The Semper Fi Fund is dedicated to providing immediate financial assistance and lifetime support
22:34to our nation's critically wounded, ill, and 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,
22:48log on to OperationHealingHeroes.org,
22:51and click on the recognize button.
22:54Operation Healing Heroes is brought to you by Battle Born Batteries, Laguna Karib RV Resort,
23:03and by Wiley X.
23:10Just before his medical evacuation flight from Syria to Iraq, John would flatline the first of three times.
23:18I coded, meaning my heart stopped beating.
23:21I stopped breathing.
23:22The doctor actually annotated it in my medical records as a time of death, you know, 16th of January 2019.
23:28Planes getting ready to take off.
23:30A young medic takes over and was like, watch this doctor, and started performing CPR 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.
23:45That flight was four hours long.
23:47Oh my God.
23:48So I had a young soldier perform CPR on me for four hours.
23:52That whole flight keeping me, I mean, he saved my life.
23:55He kept me alive through chest compressions and breathing for me.
23:59So that was the first time I died.
24:01Died again two more times when I was in Iraq.
24:04Coded, as the 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.
24:16There's a connection, a connection that, you know, science doesn't know about.
24:20We don't know about, you know, the connection between a husband and wife.
24:23And she knew something was going on, something was wrong.
24:26Started to get text messages.
24:28She started to get news feeds.
24:30They released a video of the explosion, ISIS did, 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.
24:55She just was, God help me, God help me, God help John.
24:58And she would call, make these phone calls, called our pastor.
25:00Pastor, something's going on.
25:02I don't know what it is.
25:03John needs help.
25:05And so what did they do is like, hey, we know one way we can help.
25:08Let's get, let's get the church together.
25:09Let's start praying.
25:11Pray, pray, pray, pray, pray.
25:12My mom and dad got ahold of their pastor.
25:15They started praying right away.
25:16And I know without a doubt that those prayers that we got are what saved my husband's life.
25:22Because in my 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.
25:50I tried to push it out of my mind, of course, and said, no, that's not him.
25:54He's going to be fine.
25:55You just have to, you have 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
26:19saving surgery.
26:20How 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 Syrian hospital to this hospital, all these different things.
27:22It stayed in there long enough just for this doctor to see it. It was impossible that that shrapnel would
27:27stay 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. That doctor said it changed his life forever.
27:42And that in that moment, he became a believer, not only in God, 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.
27:59After multiple surgeries and months later, John would struggle with depression.
28:04God is there and God has been with me this whole time. I became very depressed. I'd lost my soldiers.
28:08I'd lost my eyesight and my depression was taking over. I 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. It was just absolutely amazing, just wonderful thing.
28:36This young woman coming in, just praying with me. The 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.
29:19Operation 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. That'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.
30:17It was pretty hard. So they told me initially that John, when I got to Germany, that he basically was
30:27going to be a vegetable the rest of his life.
30:28Um, they told me that half of his face was gone. He lost all of his teeth, lost his hearing.
30:37He, and he was paralyzed on his left side.
30:41And because of that, you know, you kind of lose hope. Yeah.
30:44And 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, um, they had even told me,
30:55you know, he's so bad that he's on full life support.
30:59How would you like to proceed? And, um, how do you make that decision?
31:05Decision. Yeah.
31:14Decision.
31:27Decision.
31:29Decision.
31:30Decision.
31:31Decision.
31:31Decision.
31:32Decision.
31:32Decision.
31:32Decision.
31:33Decision.
31:34Decision.
31:35Decision.
31:35Decision.
31:35Decision.
31:35Decision.
31:35Decision.
31:35Decision.
31:35anymore. And being raised in the church and having your faith be doubted, I just had to
31:45pray about it. And so our chaplain started praying and in the middle of his prayer, I
31:51stopped him and I said, whoa, time out for a second. I just saw something that I haven't
31:58noticed before on John. And we had been there about a week at the time. And I just said,
32:04where did this come from? And I looked at John's hand and on his hand is the perfect shape of
32:11a
32:11cross. It's fire red. And the chaplain had said, if you ever doubted your faith, now's the time to
32:18stop that. Despite being engulfed in a fireball, standing a mere five feet away from the suicide
32:25bomber, John's body was absent of a single burn, except for the burn on his hand that served as a
32:33reminder that God was with John and Samantha then and now. From that moment on, I mean,
32:40all his recovery became faith-based 100 percent. And definitely was a pivotal point in our lives,
32:47especially mine. And 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,
32:59we didn't really know. And when I told John about his hand, he said, you know, if this had to
33:05happen
33:06for one person's life to be saved, I will do it over and over again. Through all that though,
33:12they had said one of the worst diagnoses I thought was that they said, your husband's never going to
33:18remember you. And he won't remember your son. He probably won't remember his parents, but we can't
33:24make that call until, you know, he actually wakes up and we'll do some assessment on him. And the day,
33:30a few days later came, they wanted to test John on his reflexes for paralysis and all that stuff.
33:37And I said, well, since he's off, going to be off medication, is it okay if I talk to him?
33:43And they
33:43said, well, sure, it can't hurt. But, you know, just see what happens and just don't get your hopes up.
33:50He woke up a little bit. First thing he did was start reaching for everything on him to pull it
33:57off. And so I grabbed his hand and I just said, hey, John, it's me. I'm here. You know, we're
34:03in
34:04Germany. You don't have to be worried. Everything's fine. But this is Sam. Do you know who I am? And
34:12he
34:12squeezed my hand three times, which is kind of a love, corny love story between us where
34:19when we 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,
34:30everything's going to be okay. John remembers who I am. And the doctors, they couldn't believe it,
34:34of course. And 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,
34:45but you're not the ultimate physician. Operation Healing Heroes is brought to you by
34:53Recon 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. America's worth it. The citizens of this country
35:21are worth it. The freedom is worth it. I would do it over again a thousand times. It is definitely
35:28worth it. Well, I want to say for all the things that you've done for us and that you continue
35:36to do to give back to all the other veterans. I can't say thank you enough, but I definitely want
35:41to give you a little bit of a token of our appreciation if you don't mind. And right here
35:46behind you, I'm just going to reach behind you. You're not getting fresh. Yeah, you are.
35:50I promise you I'm not getting fresh. I have a fishing rod here for you. That's, uh, it says,
35:57uh, in appreciation of your sacrifice and service, John Turnbull. And it's got, uh, our logo,
36:03the Operation Healing Heroes logo, along with the American flag and all the branches of service
36:07on there. Um, that's for you. And I also would like to give you a, a Jersey, an Operation Healing
36:19Heroes Jersey that says, uh, John on the front, Turnbull on the back. And it's, uh, it's the
36:25Jersey that I'm wearing right now that lists all of our local sponsors. And, uh, I just can't
36:30say thank you enough. Um, obviously we know that God was not done with you and we've not
36:36done yet. Throughout this story, we've heard so many times about how God basically put you
36:40back on this earth to continue your journey of healing others. But I'm honored that you
36:45allowed us to do this with you. So with the advances of modern medicine, are you optimistic
36:50that maybe there's better days ahead for you? So one thing I would like to reiterate was,
36:57um, that very first time when I arrived in that Syrian hospital, zero percent chance John's
37:01going to survive. I kept getting that number over and over and over again, zero percent chance
37:05of survival. Zero percent chance John can make it. Zero percent chance, uh, initially
37:11that I'd be able to stand up. A hundred percent chance I was paralyzed on my left side, giving
37:15me zero percent chance I could move on my left side. Um, they also gave me zero percent chance
37:20I would remember anything. I had shrapnel go into my brain and they said it would wipe out
37:26my memory. So I wouldn't remember my wife. I wouldn't remember my son. I wouldn't remember
37:30what happened. I'm here. Uh, I mean, I did die, but I got better. Uh, zero percent chance
37:38of standing up. I mean, I'm moving my left side. Here's my left side. So you guys can
37:42see, I mean, I have feeling in it. Zero percent chance I would remember my wife. First thing
37:49I remember my wife, she's a dental assistant. She stuck her fingers in my mouth to check my
37:53teeth. I remember my wife. Uh, so we kept getting these zero percent chances of survival, zero
37:59percent chance of surviving that wound in the iliac. It happened. So I, I started to wonder
38:04what happens when you're given zero percent chance and it happens. I mean, that's impossible.
38:10It can't happen. So I like to say when zero percent, when given zero percent chance and
38:14it happens, that's a hundred percent God, God stepping in. We, we, we know science, medicine,
38:19medicine, but we don't know the great healer. We don't know the maker of heaven and earth
38:23and God can do some extraordinary things. So continue to get these zero percent chance
38:28ultimatums and they happen. So I, during asking about modern, um, you know, advances in modern
38:35medicine. Well, when they were working on my left eye, uh, they, uh, I sat down with the
38:43doctor and afterwards I was like, I can't see out of it. And they're like, I know we cut large
38:48chunks of it out and your optic nerve is broken and damaged. We can't fix it. She's like, there's
38:54John, there's like, I'm like, so what do we do? You know, the cords broke between the TV
38:59and the VCR, you know, you, you splice it, wrap them things together, wrap some electrical
39:03type around it and you're good to go. How, what do we got to do to see again? She's like,
39:07John, you're never going to see again. There's zero percent chance that you'll ever see again.
39:13Um, I remember, uh, I actually was, I offended the doctor because in that moment I go, great.
39:19You just invited God into this fight. Right. So one day I'm going to see again. One day when
39:26I can see again, I told her, I was like, I'm going to come into your office. I'm going to
39:29look you in the eye. I'm going to say, see how great my God is? Uh, because it is going
39:34to happen. A few years ago, Pittsburgh university published a research. We can fix damaged optic
39:41nerves. I was like, great, let's do it. You know, let's fix that wire, wrap some electrical
39:46tape around it and let's get going. But, uh, my eyeball was so damaged that they had to
39:50take a large part of it out. A lot of the seeing, the tools they are used to see retina,
39:56cornea,
39:57stuff like that, or had to be removed to save my life. So now I was like, well, we can
40:02fix
40:03the damaged optic nerve, but what's next? Well, now I'm working with, uh, NYU, New York university
40:09research individuals. A guy's trying, he wants to do the first eye transplant. He's already
40:14performed an eye transplant, but the individual has no function out of the eye. So now his
40:19goal is rather than just cosmetic, it's like, John, let's do some research. Let's figure out
40:25a way to connect a donor eyeball to your brain. We're going to get you seeing again. So I'm
40:30in the research process right now, working with these guys. So we will see again. And the
40:35doctors even say, he's like, John, we're going to do it. We're going to find a way. And
40:38you're going to see again. So that 0% chance is looking mighty good to me, because again,
40:44100% God, you've invited God into the situation, to this scenario, and there's nothing my God
40:50can't do. As to your question, yes, I will see again. And if there's any ISIS fighters
40:56left, I'm coming for you.
41:00As you just learned, Major John Turnbull is well underway in his healing journey. However,
41:06Operation 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
41:20veteran to be featured in a future episode, log on to our website, operationhealingheroes.org
41:25and click on the nominate button.
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