March 29, 2023 • 56 mins
Major Jonathan Turnbull is a 2010 graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point. He was injured in a suicide bombing while on duty in Syria and was given a ZERO percent chance to survive. Major Turnbull joins Tudor to discuss his family, his thoughts on how the US exited Afghanistan, a side of Donald Trump that very few get to witness, and his book Zero Percent Chance. The Tudor Dixon Podcast is part of the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Podcast Network - new episodes debut every Monday, Wednesday, & Friday. Learn more at TudorDixonPodcast.com
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, this is Buck Sexton and you're listening to the
Tunor Dixon Podcast, part of the Clay Drivers and Buck
Sexton podcast Network. Welcome to the Tutor Dixon Podcast, where
we bring you stories of great Americans. And I've met
some amazing people across the state of Michigan, and I
just feel like I need to share those people with you.
Some of them have become a part of me. And
(00:23):
you know, when someone finds a permanent home in your heart,
you know that that story just needs to be told.
And my guest today is definitely one of those people.
From the moment I met him, you could just feel
I think what I can only describe as this intense
energy coming from him. He's an American hero, a leader,
a top military strategist, a loving father, loyal husband, and
(00:47):
strong man of faith. I want to welcome the author
of Zero Percent Chance and Purple Heart recipient Major Jonathan
Turnbull to the podcast. John, Welcome to the podcast. Thank
you man. I'm really excited to be here. Well, I
am so excited to have you. I want to talk
about your book and I'm going to hold it up here.
This is such an amazing piece of work because I
(01:12):
think what people need to understand is this is truly
the raw, unedited story of what it is to serve
in so many ways, It's not just your story of
what you've gone through, but it really is the story
of how a military family handles these missions. I love
the way you start out the book talking about your childhood,
(01:33):
and something stuck out to me that I want to
go through because your parents actually took you out of school.
You said you weren't doing well in school, and if
it were today's world, you'd be medicated. You would have
been told you had add and you would be medicated
and you'd be a different person. But the add part
of you, that part of you that has that get
up and go is what drove you to really become
(01:54):
this American hero. Is that right? So tell me a
little bit about that. Your parents. Parents are incredibly adorable
and sweet people. Your mom is so awesome. She I
think I met her before I met you, and she
was clearly just completely in love with you and talked
about you in such an amazing way. But she was
your champion very young. So tell me how she made
(02:17):
that decision and what that was like for you. Because
you said, instead of traditional book learning, you kind of
learned by doing. Yes. My mom was a big believer
in like a hands on approach to learning, and as
you mentioned, like a struggling in school. Attended a public
school until fourth grade. Again, it's fifth grade. When my
(02:40):
mom and my dad sat down, we had the conversation, like,
how are we going to continue education? You continue in
the public school, which was not working for me, or
do we find a way that does work and make
me more successful that way? So that we decided, I mean,
there's always a path to success, there's always an answer
(03:04):
for whatever questions we have. You just have to sometimes
you have to dig deep and figure it out. And
I know it's a tough question for them to tackle,
but they decided the best bet was to pull me
out into homeschool me and that their method of teaching.
We did. I mean, we got into books. My mom
was a librarian. She's been working at the library. She
(03:24):
still works at the library. She's been there for as
long as I can remember. Love's Book. So our daily school,
we'd go to the library. She'd be like, pick a book,
sit down, start reading. You know, I'll come back in
a little bit of time. And it was great but
it wasn't just this hands on approach reading books. I
mean we did, we did. We got into mathematics and
(03:49):
other core subjects, but when we got into things like
geography and history. My mom's a historian, love's history, and
one thing I took after was history. She said, all right,
I remember one of my very first ones, Gettysburg. We
were learning about the Civil War. What can we learn
about Gettysburg? You know, we watched the movies. I loved
(04:11):
watching the old fashioned Blue and Gray, and then we
watched Little Roundtop and you know these great movies. Read
the books about them, about Joshua Chamberlain and Battle for
a Little round Top and Steve. And then she's like,
all right, you've read about it, let's go see it.
So I filled up the car, and by this time
(04:33):
my mom was homeschool and my sister as well. We
drove to Gettysburg and we spent two or three days
walking the battlefields. It wasn't just Gettysburg. At one point,
she decided, when we were learning about out west, and
we read all the lord Engles Wilder books and maybe
started reading quite a bit about the mountain Men, and
(04:53):
you know, the westward expansion of the United States. So
we jumped in the car again and we drove out west.
We went and we saw the Grand Canyon. I got
to see um Yellowstone, Old Faithful, We visited Mount Rushmore,
and I mean so my parents were very big into
this hands on approach. The biggest thing they did for
(05:15):
me was learning about our heritage, where my family came from.
And my family originally came from Scotland prior to the Revolution,
fought with Bonnie Prince Charlie during the Jacobite Rebellion, and wow,
that is very cool. And when England over came the Scots,
(05:37):
they kicked out a lot of them and our family
was one of them they kicked out, and they sent them,
you know, send them to this the New World America.
Not a bad not a bad deal, I don't think, um,
but my family. The Outlander story, I don't know if
you've ever seen it's but that really is. That's that's
the Outlander story, which I think a lot of people
connect to. But so, did that then lead you to
(06:00):
say I want to follow in those footsteps and I
want to fight as well. I want to be out
there as a as a hero for my people. Absolutely
one thing that definitely sparked it, and try and practice brevity.
Everybody's seen the movie Braveheart with mel Gibson, y'oll freedom,
he holds his sword up. It's great, well, great movie.
(06:24):
The King King Robert the Bruce in that movie. Later,
after William Wallace was executed, Robert the Bruce won a
great battle, won a victory over England. England granted Scotland,
you know, their right to rule their own country, and
King Robert the Bruce was crowned the King. He was
later riding on a hunting trip with a bunch of
(06:47):
his knights, and during this hunting trip, of all things,
a Scottish cow charged him, knocked him from his horse
and started to gore him on the ground, at which
point one of the young squires jumped off his horse
and grabbed the cow by the horns, turned it, killed
the bull, but saved the King's life. The young man's
(07:07):
name was William Rule, and King Robert the Bruce knighted
him Turnbull and gave him lands in Scotland. So that's
where the name Turnbull comes from. Because a young man
turned the bull, and but my family they started out fighting.
That young man fought in the Scottish Rebellion or War
for Independence. Later on, like I said that, when the
(07:29):
Jacobite Rebellion happened, my family rose up in the rebellion,
joined the other clans and fought the English. Got cast
out of Scotland, moved to North America once again not
a bad deal, and in seventy six rolls around another
chance the English. So my family joined up. They were
true patriots, fought and many of the battles my mom
(07:52):
is very read into the lines that our family did.
They fought, their family again, fought in War of eighteen
well down in Louisiana joined my family were Louisiana's lived
north of New Orleans, passed through until the next big war,
the I mean Civil War. My family fought again the
(08:13):
Civil War unfortunately fought for the wrong side in my opinion,
lost that one, and they were deported from the South
to northern northern parts of Texas. So I'm still south,
but Texas and then parts of Michigan. They started moving
up to Michigan, and my grandfathers were both ardent patriots.
(08:38):
My paternal grandfather he fought in Vietnam and after Vietnam
moved his family from Texas to Alpina up here in
northern Michigan where he retired from the Air Force and
became a pastor. So they my dad's side of the
family stayed here forever. This background, it really it really
(08:59):
goes to who you are and how you became this
leader in our armed forces. And I want to get
to a little bit about your story because it's just
so amazing what you were able to do, and I
think that we can't really understand it without what you
just told us. So because reading your book, I am
(09:20):
in my heart, I'm saying, how do you become this
person that says I am going to continue to go
mission after mission? And you discuss that in detail about
what it is to leave your family behind and the
strength of a military spouse, but then that desire to
go out there and just continue with the mission, and
oftentimes you volunteered to go out and do these missions.
(09:41):
So tell us a little bit about your service and
this last deployment that you had so quick run down
to meet my service. I mean, you've heard my backstory.
I knew I was going to do something. I was
either going to be a police officer. I mean, what
kid doesn't want to be a soldier. I mean either
a marine or in the army. I mean, it's pretty awesome.
(10:03):
I remember nine to eleven was a really important day
for me. In two thousand and one. I was working
at our local pool. I was a lifeguard because it's awesome,
and my boss comes running and said, John, get into
the office real quick, and I thought I was in trouble.
I was like, oh, no, she's angry about something. So
I go in and I remember it clear as day
(10:23):
the second that I walked and right as a second
plane hit the second Trade Center and watched him collapse,
and my boss is like, we're at war. We just
got attacked. And I knew at that moment. I was like,
I'm not going to stand for this. Well, I mean,
I will stand, but I'm not going to allow injustice
to be made. I will go and protect freedom. I
(10:43):
want to promote justice and the American way of life.
So I raised my right hand, and I swore to
support and defend the Constitution of the United States of
America against all enemies, foreign and domestic. I swore to
bear two faith and allegiance to the same, the same
both of that every soldier takes joined the Army in
two thousand and five, when I graduated high school, was
(11:06):
accepted to the United States Military academ at West Point,
which I think I'm required to say, go Army beat Navy. Um,
we love, we love our Navy veterans as well. But
you know, football's football's football is what it is. But
I graduated from West Point in twenty ten, commissioned a
second lieutenant, and we'll do quick history on that. Second
lieutenant was an armor officer, went to third in three
(11:28):
Division in Fort Stewart, Georgia, where I got my you know,
first experience leading soldiers, great experience. My short term there
ended with a deployment in Afghanistan in two thousand and
twelve to twenty and thirteen, up in Regional Command North,
a beautiful area where a lot was happening, but there's
(11:52):
a lot more like under the water than it's at surface.
Value at surface is going out. A lot of infrastructure
are being done. Stuff people were working to improved the
way of life of the civilians, the local afghanis, to
make it so that they can have a better life.
Their kids can go to school there. You know, women
(12:12):
can work, something that was unheard of there. So I
think that's something that I want to tap into a
little bit because a lot of people are obviously talking
about Afghanistan and the removal of our troops there. But
you were, You saw what was going on, what was
happening on the ground. There was more than just fighting
an enemy. It was building and building a country. And
(12:34):
it was I mean the ad age, old adage, you know,
you know, give a man of fish he eats for
a day, give them, you know, teach a man to fish.
The same thing. We were there. We were teaching them.
We were not just in teaching encouraging them. Okay, you
don't have to take this. Stand up, you don't have
to you know, you don't have to be pushed around, bullied.
(12:55):
Stand up, put your foot down, say no, and act
and not just And we weren't doing it just with
the military and the police, the Afghan police or the
Afghan border guards. But we were in the houses of
the people, talking with the wives, talking with the mothers. Uh.
I went to schools and you would talk with the kids.
(13:17):
Girls weren't allowed to tend school. The same thing with
my final deployment, girls weren't allowed to tend schools. So
it said why not, And they're like bad people say
they can't go. It's like, well there's you know, new
kids are on the block. We're here. Let's change this us,
you know, remove the fear that these terrorist organizations impose
(13:37):
upon that, you know, commendate people, good innocent people. If
we can remove the fear, we can give them, you know,
a leg up, they can stand up, and it promotes freedom,
promotes justice in the area where they haven't seen any
of this, you know, gives them a chance. That's or
looking for giving them a chance. And same thing in Afghanistans.
(13:58):
When you look at what happened been in Afghanistan, what
does that what kind of feelings does that bring up
inside of you? Because now we're hearing that these girls
are no longer allowed to attend school, that things have
really very quickly reversed. So how do you feel about that?
You're you're getting all fired up. I love it. It
was It's very very difficult to see, and I compare
(14:21):
it quite a bit with the fall of Saigon in Vietnam,
and I spent a lot of time with their veterans.
That's one way I can cope now, you know, sit
down with our Vietnam veterans with Gulf wour guys. I mean,
I love our World War two vets. Not many out there,
so if you get a chance to talk to them,
you know, hear what they have to say, because they're amazing.
But yeah, we stepped away. It was a betrayal not
(14:47):
just to the Afghan people, but to every American that
has served over there. But I feel because I mean,
we lost, we lost some great people. I mean the
I mean the feelings that I have for it, like
can't be expressed. I mean, I'll get all choked up here,
so I'll take a couple of deep breasts. But I
(15:08):
mean men fought and died men and when fought and
died to defend America. Defend America from that, you know,
the evil, this evil regime known as the Taliban terrorist organization.
And for for us just to pack it up and
walk away, we should we should be embarrassed. And I
(15:31):
have people come up to me and apologize for what
our politicians did, and it makes I mean, it is
a step in the right direction. I like that people
recognize what has happened. But at the end of the day,
remember we were talking about it when I was still
in the army when Um the withdrawal was happening, and
we're like Biden, Biden's President Biden stuff and said, there's
(15:53):
no way to leave this country. We can't do it, um,
And I disagreed with them. I think that there there's
only one way that you can withdraw from a country
such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and that's once we've won.
And it makes me think of another silly thing everybody
(16:16):
knows about. If at first you don't succeed, try try again.
But I would also change it. If at first you
don't succeed, redefine success, so that way you do succeed,
I mean, redefine your parameters. This is what we need
to have happened with Afghanistan. I would have encouraged the president.
If I was on his staff, I would have said,
(16:37):
just the president, you know, how we leave. The country
is secured. They're running all their own missions. Their police
are investigating, you know, they're doing police work. Their soldiers
are defending their borders, defending the interior. And it gets
to the point where, you know, we shake hands with
them and we say thank you, and we go to
Kabbal International Airport and we you know, we have our
(17:01):
soldier's board. American Airlines or a you know, a regular airline,
Get on the airplane, fly back to the United States.
A lot of clapping, a lot of cheering. But if
we can do that, if we have that much stability
in a region, that in my book is called winning,
and we were there, we were working on this. The
(17:24):
program is called Village Stability Operations, and that's not classified,
can be googled, but it was working with the people
doing just that, giving them a leg to stand on, like, hey, guys,
you know, here's a shoulder to cry on, shoulder to
lean on. If you need help, We're here. You know.
You guys go and fight. If you need something a
(17:46):
little you know, a little extra, here's my phone number,
give me a call, and you know we'll we'll back
you up. What I'm hearing you say right now is
exactly what attitude that I hear in your book. It's
this encouragement. That's why you are such an incredible leader,
(18:06):
and that's why I believe that you were chosen for
the missions that you were chosen for and the ones
that you volunteered for. I know they were saying, well,
you were the person we wanted, and you can see
why you went on from fighting the Taliban, you were
also fighting Isis. So Isis was really eliminated and you
had a big role in that. But that was where
(18:30):
you were injured as well, because you were targeted. They
were mad that you were so successful. And I think
that's what people need to really understand that when our
servicemen go over there and they have a heart like yours,
and you had a team of people, and one of
those people on your team was Shannon Kent. We I
think a lot of our viewers are a lot of
our listeners know her story from her husband who ran
(18:51):
for Congress, Joe Kent. But you were there that day,
and I think that when you talk about that day
in the book, when you talk about the bombing, you
talk about it in such detail because you even talk
about Shannon's hair being pulled up and you looking at
her and one of the last images in your mind
of her is her smiling because of what you were
(19:12):
able to accomplish. Just before that suicide bomber walks up,
who you describe as a demon, And so I want
to talk a little bit about that because fighting Isis
was a part of you that was you wanted to
do that because you knew that that was what we
needed to keep people here safe. But not only were
you keeping people in the United States safe, you were
(19:34):
creating a community over there that was allowing people to
get medical attention, was allowing people to have energy, allowing
women to be educated. And this happened. Tell me a
little bit about that day. Yes, So the three things
that you mentioned were three big things we had done
for I wrapped in Syria in September of twenty eighteen,
and I had four months yeah, sorry, counting on my fingers,
(20:00):
four months to fight ISIS. And my boss, he was
a colonel in charge of all special operations in Syria
to fight against ISIS, he gave me a simple command,
go and defeat ISIS. Like I'm one guy. I like,
all right, let's do this. You put my boot put
my boots on, grabbed my rifle, jumped on the airplane
(20:21):
and picked up. We met my team who was there
already assembled. They just needed a team leader. We did
three big things, like you mentioned. The first big thing
was we restored a hydroelectric damn, storing power to all
of Northeast Syria, parts of Turkey, Iraq and Jordan. The
last count was was about five hundred thousand people. We
(20:41):
were stored power to which was a great thing. I mean,
you flipped the light switch on, you knew who had
turned it on. Not necessarily. It wasn't not John Turnbull,
it wasn't the United States of America. It was coalition
working with the Syrian Democratic Council. But your local government,
your government has got this, your government's turned the power on.
(21:04):
So that was the first big one. He also said health.
The health sector was very poor, so we rebuilt an
entire hospital focusing on emergency systems, gave them ambulances, working
with the British and the French, so restored the whole
health sector in my area that had about ten to
(21:25):
twenty thousand people, so now they could go receive medical attention,
and which was really big for me because I had
I had a son and he was six years old
at this time, and I couldn't imagine what how do
you you know, what do you do as a mother
when you give birth? And they're like, oh, you know,
we just at home. I'm like, you don't go to
(21:46):
the hospital, And they're like, what's a hospital? I'm like, hah,
here we go. So helping them, give them step up.
And then, as you said, the final thing really blew
my mind. We were visiting schools and I was trying
to help the kids out, and at one point we
learned no girls attended the school in northeast Syria. So
he said why not. They're like, ISIS won't allow it?
(22:06):
Like isis isn't in charge? You're in charge, Like talking
to the government. You're in charge. You make the rules,
like let's spit in the eye of isis open schools
back up to girls. One school in a small village
called the Dot opened their doors up for girls. Had
forty five girls returned to school one day, just overnight.
(22:27):
Click girls return to school. Wow, it was a beautiful day.
Always remember the day because it also was November fifteenth,
which as Michiganders we know it's a very important religious day,
a gear season, but not just gear season for me.
I sat there while when the doors opened up and
these kids flooded into these schools, and girls would come
(22:49):
up to me, and we went to the school actually
that I was bombed at. Remember sitting there and they
come up to me, They're like, thank you and so
they'd be shook round in Arabic. Thank you NICKI John,
Captain John, thank you, thank you for letting us come
to school. And they loved it. High fives, the hugs.
I taught him how to fist bump, like hey, in America,
(23:10):
we fist bump. They're like, oh, that's so cool, really cool,
until you have the ambassador for the whole region come
out and all the kids run up to him with
their fists up like this, and he jumped in my
car freaking out, like they're not going to beat you up.
They want fist bumps. Is good, But so we restored power,
pride him, housing, the housing, health Department, hospital, open schools,
(23:33):
back up for kids to return to school. These three
big things Isis was they were attacking the people and
creating chaos and holding it over them. That way, they
were able to control the people through these three things.
So by doing it, we removed the grip of Isis
over the people and we returned that control to the
(23:54):
local government, Senior Democratic Council. Iis didn't like it, I mean,
and we were also doing the army stuff. I'll finding
bad guys and arresting them and things like that. Actually
truly helping the missions. That these three things were great
because you know ten twenty thirty fifty years out, you know,
terrorst organizations will always rise up in these regions. We
(24:17):
want it, so, you know, they go into a village
and they're like, hey, let's go and fight America. The
West always they're really bad. I want one of these
kids to be like, hold on, America, let me go
back to school. America turned our electricity back on, and
the West made it so my mom could go to
the hospital when she was having problems. So why are
(24:39):
they bad? So we have this long outlook and it's great.
So I just didn't like this. Also, we were removing
them from our region physically and so on the day
on January sixteenth and twenty nineteen, but four months into
my deployment, and my wife will tell you the day
after I was supposed to return home, because supposed to
(25:00):
return in January fifteenth, but we're doing such a great job.
My boss said, would you like to stay? And I
said yes, How else can I affected this amount of
change in the world and make the world a better place?
And to quote oh Oh, Kingdom of Heaven with Orlando Bloom,
one of his phrases in there, what is a man
(25:21):
if he does not try to make the world a
better place? And I think that's very true. Who who
are we if we do not try to make the
world better place? So I had a chance, so I
volunteered to stay. We went to one of the schools.
We're going to go and talk with the kids to
see if there were any bad guys around, because kids know,
and you know, we're American military were really good at
(25:42):
dealing with bad guys. And went to the school, did
all the fifth pumps with all the little girls at school,
and that's why Shannon was so happy. We went back
to our trucks to get ready after the end of
our mission. So finished our routine combat patrol, get back
to our trucks and we're going through a simple patrol
brief where we were going, how long it is going
(26:03):
to take, what we're gonna do, why we were doing it,
and just you know, just kind of given clearing the field,
let everybody knows what's going on. At which time the
suicide bomber walk up and just I mean, the luck
of this individual should not have happened. We had security.
(26:25):
You know, I can't explain how it happened, if he
sneaked through or if he was you know, he wasn't
a genie, just poofy was there, but something like that.
But I do remember yet getting getting ready, getting my vehicle.
It was remember seeing Shannon's smiling because she was going
to tell her boys, Mommy has done something really good.
Girls from back to school. Kids are happy and healthful
(26:46):
and safe. And at the same time, I remember seeing
a chief corn Officers Special Forces guys with the toughest
of the tough. His name is John Farmer. Guy. I'm
pretty sure eight nails for breakfast. He was just that tough,
just big guy. He was bouncing on his feet back
and forth, making a little twirly motion with his finger bouncing.
I can rebody language. He had to go to the
(27:07):
bathroom and trolling his finger. He was saying, turnbull, hurry
it up, let's go so I can go back home,
go to the bathroom, and I can call my wife
and my kids and tell them how their daddy's a hero.
And it was at the exact time that the suicide
bomber walked between them both and detonated his vest, and yeah,
(27:28):
ruined first day of my life. Ruined the lives of
four families, And rather than focusing on that negative and
sad stuff, I decided to focus on the positive things.
I decided my mission was now to cheer up the families,
because you can't replace that kind of loss. It's it's
horrible and I don't want to replace it. But rather
(27:51):
than focusing on that, I remember that, as mentioned in
my book, my linguist who was killed, her name was
Goodeer to hear her to as Jasmine, just easier to saying.
She kind of looked like the princess anyway, but she yes,
there's a picture, so I beautiful woman. But I always
(28:11):
remember her mom was like we met her and she
was crying, and she asked me to said, John, why
are you here? And why is my daughter not here?
What did she do that made somebody want to kill her?
And again, rather than focusing on the negatives, we spent
a whole day together. And I actually get to spend
(28:32):
the opportunity with her in April. I'm really excited. I'm like,
rather than focusing on the bad things, let me tell
you how she lived, let me tell you about how
fiery and feisty her daughter was. And I talked about
in the book not Given Way all my secrets, But
my favorite thing was we were talking about we were
going into a room that hadn't been a bathroom that
(28:55):
hadn't been opened since ISIS had left the area, since
we had removed them. They boarded it up and they
wrote mines on the door, so saying that the room
was had bombs in it. So we're brief in it,
and I had explosive ordinance to Marines, got by name it,
Darius and Jared. They're briefing and as we're talking through
(29:18):
it Jasmine stuff, She's like, all right, guys, before we
go in, She's like, make sure you partner up with
the EOD guys, because I don't want any of you
to kick off a booby trap. I remember, I was like,
wait a minute, sorry for the profanity. Best I did
anybody just hear that? Like what it's like? Did you
guys just hear Jasmine? She said booby And she slapped
(29:39):
me and told me to grow up. But fun things
like that, like and you do mention that you make
a lot of people laugh in the bug, which you do.
You are very I got it. Have some fun and
if we can't laugh at the situations, especially the situations
we find ourselves in, and what's the point. So that's
(29:59):
why I wrote the book for this woman's name was Amina,
Jasmine's mom, and then for a little tiny girl who
right after while I was in the hospital, she heard
she was John Farmer's daughter who I mentioned earlier, the
Special Forces guy. Her name is Priscilla. Remember her asking me,
Uncle John, you're my daddy's boss. I was like, yep,
(30:21):
I'm your daddy's boss. She's like, can you order him
to come home for Christmas? I missed my daddy. I
was like, oh God, and like I don't know what
to do. And her mom is the most amazing woman ever.
She's just like, John, just be tough. She's like, you'd
be tough, you'd be tough for my John. John won't
(30:41):
want you to cry. John wants you to to be strong.
I'm like, yes, ma'am. And so I wrote the book
as a series of letters to the family members, being like,
once again, let me tell you how they lived. The
funny things, happy things, the things did run working out
on the play is going through the mentioned Joe Kent earlier.
(31:03):
I remember sitting down with them while I was at
the hospital again. He sat down with us so we
were able to talk with him, and I was like, hey,
did she send home? I mean, I'm gonna probably low
ball the number, but like a thousand scarves. And he's like, oh,
dear Lord, Yes, she sent home boxes and boxes and scarves.
And I'm like, we're sorry. She would go into town
(31:24):
and she picked up food for us, like hamburgers or
something fantastic. Is always Shoma, but the best you could find.
She'd bring it to us, and she wouldn't let us pay.
She was she was like a like a mother figure.
She had to take care of her take care of
her boys, so she was always there given us food
and she wouldn't loves to pay for it. But she
(31:46):
loved scarves, so we would buy her scarves from the
local market and we would pay her in scarves and
sales Campan. I was like, sorry, Joe about all those scarves. Yeah,
I helped the Serian economy quite well with the scar
of making and give em. But that was the point.
And then I was like, I want Shannon's boys, Josh
(32:06):
and Colton. I want them when they grew up, because
they were I mean they were babies when Shannon was
killed very little ones, and I want them if they
don't remember their mom, I want them to have something
they could be like that was my mom. And the
same thing with Priscilla and her brother Preston, who are
now eight or nine years old of them when they
(32:28):
grew up too. If they can't remember, like I don't
remember what my daddy was like, let me tell you
what your daddy was like. And it's this book. Zero
percent chance it was written for these four families. Saw
multiple letters. We ended up putting them together chronologically to
outline the deployment. But then it gets into after the explosion.
Explosion which killed four Americans, killed Chief one Officer John Farmer,
(32:54):
Chief Petty Officer Shannon Kent, killed Petty Officer second Class
Scott Wurtz, and Miss Gadeer to Hear also known as
Jasmine to our friends and family. These four people. It
also killed nineteen Syrians that day. So we traveled with
eight soldiers on my team. Immediately half of my team
(33:14):
was killed. Myself, I was blown to the ground. My
right eye. You can see the flap I have over here.
It's a skip and flap holding my face together. Right
eye was blown out of my head. My left eye
was punctured pretty badly. Shrapnel wounds were really gross, and
I'll go the word ikey. Two other soldiers were also wounded,
(33:36):
a guy by the name of Devin, and then another
guy by the name of Jail. And then we had
one soldier who was uninjured physically, uninjured, spiritually and mentally.
Was That's where his assault came because he had to
pick up body parts after the explosion. Falls being said.
A few hours later, Americans landed. We called in an
(33:58):
immediate METAVAC request for help medical evacuation MEDIVAC. Helicopter landed.
Is my boss, that colonel I told you about earlier,
who is in charge of the whole area. He landed,
big early American like probably one of the greatest leaders.
I've ever met a person. When I grew up, I
want to be just like him. Great person landed. They
(34:20):
found me, They found me two guys that were wounded,
and they evacuated us to another spot in Syria than
to a rock. I went from a rock to Turkey,
or we're not to Turkey, excuse me, to Germany. And
after a few weeks in Germany the past I went
to read National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, right
outside of BC, where I spent well, I think I
(34:44):
want to stop you here because I think it's important
to mention that what you did to bring medical services
to that area in Syria actually saved your life as well,
because it was one of the ambulances that you brought
in that you actually were taken out. In correct. Yes, yeah,
so the way things I mean, we didn't. You never
plan for things, but you always the sun sus said,
(35:07):
you know, you pray, pray for the best, prepare for
the worst. Paraphrasing it's a really bad paraphrase, but you understand,
I mean the reason we write death letters home and stuff.
But yes, I was we provided ambulance of service to
the region. Um, the British actually provided the ambulances and
(35:33):
then so we were put I was put into it ambulance.
I was taken to the hospital that we rebuilt, and
we worked with the Germans. The Germans provided a whole
bunch of equipment, extra machines, ultrasound machines, surgical equipment, all
the stuff you needed. Uh. And then American State Department,
our State Department provided brought doctors and who taught triage
(35:56):
so who lives, who dies? How do you fix up
wounds for this? And also how to package up people
in case things are so bad they can't stay there
that they need to go somewhere else. So I was
in an ambulance and went to the er in this
hospital where the equipment we had brought in. They worked
on us. The doctors who had the training from American
doctors fixed me up and I came in landed in
(36:22):
a specially made area. I'm gonna make it try and
make it sound really cool. Special Forces guys set up
a helicopter landing Zone HLZ for hot extract. Hot means
stuff happening. There's combat, things are bad, but it's safe.
Number help black Hawk helicopter to land. People got out,
(36:42):
And I try to make it sound really cool. It
was a soccer field, but I mean, I mean, it's
pretty amazing to think about it. And at this time,
I'm just gonna hold up your book one more time,
because at this time, this is when you hear the
doctor say he gives you a zero percent chance. Then
(37:03):
that's why you named the book zero percent. Ye. Through
the through the two years I spent in my recovery,
I was giving a zero percent chance so many times.
And I'm not going to bash any of her doctors,
and I'm not gonna I'll make fun of them though
they weren't wrong. I on my flight from Syria to Iraq,
my heart rate went to zero and my respirations went
(37:24):
to zero, which I guess medically that's considered dead. I
even have a time of death written in my medical records.
Not good for the life insurance policy, but that's not
here there. So I died. The surgeon was amazing. The
(37:44):
surgeon was like, all right, Termbull's dead. There were other
people in the airplane. Work on these other guys, fix
them up. This guy, you know as a flight surgeon,
has been to college for upteen years and you know,
the best of the best. But there was a young
man on that flight, and let's go with his first name.
(38:04):
His name was first name is Cory. A specialist, so
not an officer, not even even ann commission officer, a
low ranking soldier. I was a medic, and he got
it under his skin. He's just like, oh yeah, He's like,
let me show you what you're You know, your your
pad didn't teach you and he's like, not breathing whatever,
(38:26):
So would you breast heart not beating the trust com
that's called CPR. This young man and I ingest, but
this young man did CPR on me for four hours,
the whole flight it took to get from Syria into
a rock and by the time we landed, I was
breathing on my own and my heart rate had turned.
(38:46):
So it was Corey, in my opinion, was an angel
sent by God, or he was for sure an individual
sent by God given the stamina to perform CPR for
four hours. Like who does that stamina? The stubbornness, termination,
to nacity, all these you know, adjectives to describe this guy,
(39:09):
and they wheeled me off and again that you know.
The doctor gave his report to or the flight surgeon,
season gave his report to the hospital doctor and Baghdad,
and the hospital doctor and Baghdad. His name was Kyle.
I asked what was wrong with this guy because he's like,
you're pretty ugly. I'm like, I've always been ugly. He's like, nah,
(39:30):
you're you were missing your face and I was like,
that's pretty bad. But he said the flight surgeon said,
turnbull died on the flight over. He's like he's not
gonna make it. He's like, I'm giving him zero percent
chance of surviving twenty four hours. So Kyle, you know,
cracked his knuckles and we can't drink downrange. So I
(39:50):
mean he said it's a phrase, but said here, hold
my beer and started to work on me. And I
later was able to meet Kyle in my hospital room.
And while he was in my room, Samantha, my wife,
was there, and remember him telling her. He was like,
you can't be here and she's like, oh, I can't.
He's like, no, you can't be here. She's like, I'm sorry,
are you guys gonna talk like secret stuff? I can leave.
(40:12):
He's like no, no, no, no no no. He's like no,
you like, there's no way you can be here because
there's no way John's here. He's like he's dead. Like
John couldn't have survived. He's saying what I saw, there's
no way John survived. And this guy opened up to
me and said, John, there's one reason why he survived.
And we have a few seconds to get mushied about it.
(40:34):
He's like, before the explosions, like John, I was an atheist.
I didn't believe in God. I was a doctor, you know,
like a surgeon, a great certain there's no God. He's like,
but this bomb happened, I had a piece of TRAPM
I go into my iliac artery in my groin. This
doctor happened to specialize in of all things arteries and
(40:58):
you know, arterial repair, artery stuff, stuff with your arteries.
He was the one doctor in the middle league, in
the middle league, especially in our of our conflict, the
one doctor that could save my life with my artery
being torn open. So he's like, John, I we fixed
(41:21):
you up. And they sat back and I was like,
how did you know? This explosion happened to this one guy?
And he was flown all over these different places and
he comes to me by by chance. He's like, no,
such things a chance. It's like if it weren't for
(41:42):
the Father above, He's like, I would have never you
would have never come to me. You'd have just died
with anybody else, you would have died. It's like socited
to sit back. He's like, in that moment, it's like
I became a Christian. I remember some of the Bible
stories that I heard about Jesus and how Jesus helped
everything out. And he's like in that one moment I
knew there was a god. He's like, I prade necessary
(42:03):
sorry for what you know, for denying you all this time.
It's like thank you. It's like, John, you were injured.
It's like I don't want to see injured, just from
but it's like, thank you. You've saved me, You've saved
my family. He's like, and I can go on living.
He's put that so just absolutely amazing. But he still
couldn't believe. He kept touching me, like he kept like
(42:24):
hitting men. I'm like, what are you doing. He's like,
seeing if you're real. I'm like, I'm real. He's like,
you're not to head, Like I don't think so. I
mean like I lost my eyesight so I can't see,
so I can't really verify that I'm here on earth.
But I mean, like sounds, smells, We're good. But it
(42:45):
was amazing, Um, all these people were coming like and
that's the second part of the book. He's talking about
the people that came together America. Americans are amazing. We're amazing.
What makes some amazing is that we care and we
care about each other. I think that you probably saw
(43:07):
a side of President Trump that people talk about what
we don't really hear about. So I definitely want you
to share that my caveat is everything I'm about to say,
and everything that I have said is unclassified to the
best of my knowledge. Yeah, so now we're all covered.
So and I say, when listening in, this is all unclassified,
(43:27):
so you don't have to listen. But President Trump came
to visit me a few days after the explosion, came
to the hospital. I was in the ICU, and I
was really sick. My wife said that I was fluens
were coming out of me, not just both ends, but
(43:47):
like literally out of me, like all and gushing, and
it was it was ikey. President Trump met with my
two soldiers that were also wounded, and that they just
kept talking about this guy, kept talking about Captain John Turnbull,
their leader. Like, mister President, you've got to meet him.
He loves you and he thinks you're awesome. So President Trump,
(44:08):
you know, came up to my room in the ICU,
and in order to gain access to a room, you
have to ask permission to enter. My wife, Samantha was there,
and so he's like, may I enter your husband's room?
This woman, she says no, and he was taking quite
a bit back and he's like, no, She's like, it's president.
(44:31):
In all honesty, John has I had the flu type
whatever influenza. I had ecola. I was coughing up blood.
I had chunks of metal coming out of me. My
gups were played open. Say, John's in a bad place.
He had a breathing tube. And even she's like, if
I law you in there to meet him and he
can't talk with you, he'll be crushed. Say so, mister president,
(44:55):
can you please come back? My wife turned him away.
All but it gets better. He comes back. Yeah, she's
she's amazing. Um. But in November of twenty yeah, it's
twenty twenty. So November of twenty twenty, during his re
election campaign. I had my very last surgery. I had.
(45:16):
I've all stuff done and I mean you can see eyeball,
it's a prospect. Had an ear replacement, the cochlear implant.
I had my bilateral incision on my stomach, a abdominal
wall reconstruction. That was some pretty rough shape. But as
my last surgery, yeah, I'd made it. I defeated the
odds a zero percent chance, zero percent chance. When I survived,
(45:41):
it's one hundred percent got at work. So, you know,
like as I was all excited, we're getting ready to
leave the hospital, and I didn't, you know, have doctors
signed my report card, you know, my hall pass, so
to speak. And one of them said, no, you're not
allowed to leave. And I was like why not. He's like,
I'm giving you a direct order. You cannot leave until
(46:03):
the state and time tomorrow morning at nine o'clock or
whatever time it was. I would needs you to report
the gymnasium. Do not bring a cell phone, Do not
bring any cameras, don't bring any recording devices, iPads, any
of that stuff. Computers to show up, just in your
clothes and we'll beat. Something's going to happen. You're like,
all right, cool. So my wife and I walk down
(46:24):
to the gym. It's the place I love because I'm
an army guy, like working out. When to the gym,
they ram the pipe cleaners up my nose, you know,
checking for COVID, COVID clean They I walked through a
metal detector. Yeah, pipe cleaners look like COVID because I'll
SAYD my nose, where you done having stuff in there? Deep?
(46:46):
But we go in there, get padded down, no cell phones,
no technology. Wait around with about twenty or so other
veterans or soldiers that were there being treated. When President
Trump walks into the room, we're all like, Who's what's
going on? Very first thing President Trump says, he's like,
I bet you guys wonder why I say you can't
have cell phones? Camera's eyes. It's like, you're not gonna.
(47:09):
I don't want you to have any recording devices for this.
He's like, you don't see any news agency here. Nobody's
taking pictures except for official White House photographers are taking pictures.
But he's like, I have a reason. It's like, this
isn't about re election, you know, Donald Trump's re election campaign.
He's like, I don't want the American people to see
(47:31):
all over the news look at him going and schoozing
with wounded warriors. He's like, Nope, it's not why I'm
doing this. He's like, I'm here on behalf of Donald Trump,
the Trump family and the American people. Is like, I
just want to tell you guys, thank you for your service,
and come around and shake our hands. So that was
his why we didn't have phones. During his reelection, he
(47:53):
was there to meet with us and spent time with
this one on one. He talked with everybody for about
five minutes, listen to what they had to say. He listened,
he didn't just hear them, responded in kind and it
was fabulous. And he got to My wife and I
were the very last ones. So they're running out of time,
you know, helicopters, rotors are spinning, getting ready to take off,
(48:13):
like he had to get out of there. We started
talking and this guy is the most amazing individual. I
mentioned John Farmer's two youngest children, President Priscilla earlier. They
met President Trump when John was brought home to Dover
and he's returned to his family. President Trump was there, helped,
you know, shook hands with the families, hugged the kids.
So he met them real briefly. President Trump walks up
(48:37):
to me and my wife, Samantha, and he says, you know,
they start reading my buyout buyoull being like John Turnbull
was injured in and President Trump said, stopped, told stop.
He's like I remember twenty nineteen right early, Like yes,
mister president, he's like suicide bombing, Like yes, mister President.
He's like, I'm gonna ask you some real tough questions
like what's up, mister president. He's like, how are President
(48:59):
Priscilla doing? John Farmer's kids? I mean, who is this guy?
Like one, how does he remember their names? And all
of our liberal friends out there? And be like he
didn't remember him? He asked, you know, he had held
headphones and somebody was prompting it. If that's the case, yes,
I will agree with you. He was prompted on it.
But how does he know what to be prompted on?
Do they know this stuff? No? He told them to
(49:22):
pay when I meet Turnbull brought me on this, so
that was his priority. He wanted to know about the families.
So we talked about the families and how they were doing,
and the kids were struggling at the time, and he
got really choked up when I was like, oh, they
you know when I asked him, asked me to have
her daddy come home for Christmas, and he's like, he
is home, and he's in Arlington, but he's he's home
(49:43):
and here and here. He's like, can you tell them
that and tell him that you know, Uncle Donald Trump
loves them and if they need anything, they call and
they have and he's good to it with his word.
But if I can tell you one other real quick
story about him that was really funny. So in the
middle of this campaign, um we remember how you know,
campaign have their ups and their downs. I think that
(50:06):
around this time he's having one of his downs. Um So,
I mean much like yourself when we met. I mean,
you didn't have any downs. You're you're always on top
of my opinion. But I like it. You're just like, hey,
you know, tell tell me something nice. Let's uh, you know,
let's let's have some fun. Let's have some laughter. Can
tell me something nice. President Trump said the same thing.
(50:27):
He's like John, He's like having a rough time of this.
It's like the news just beating me up. Tell me
something good. I remember its own. It was like, mister President,
my wife's it's pregnant. We were expecting our second child
and about one or two months and he's like what
I was, like, my wife's pregnant. He's like everybody because everybody,
(50:48):
you know, a bunch of people crowding rounds, everybody quiet.
It's like, say it again. It's like, seems like I'm
expecting mister president. He's like this. It's like, this is
what I wanted to hear. This is amazing. He's like,
but John, how did this happen in my beautiful life?
Seems to president if you don't don't know by now
it's too late, which got everybody laughing about it. And
(51:11):
you know he laughed. But that this man, and this
is the man Donald Trump that we know, all that
we met. He told us that. He's like, I've got
to do something for them. He's like, right on your notepad,
do something for the trembles. This is great, which is
just wonderful to have, you know, congratulations from the president
especially you know the man, you know, this really evil man,
(51:33):
you know, mean man that the news portrays. You know,
he's just very kind, magnanimous, a wonderful, humble individual. U
he it was the President Trump that we've seen. He's
not all talk. I mean, he talks a big game,
but he delivers. The next day we were able to leave.
(51:53):
Once again it's going out and getting all these signatures.
The same doctor that was like, uh, go to the gym,
told me again, go first to the did it, go
to the presidential wing of Walter Reed and then I'll
give you your signature. So we go up there and
we're like we are reading up here. His aid. President
Trump's aid was there's like, oh, President Trump left you this,
(52:15):
and he gave us a pewter plate with the presidential
seal in the middle of it. And I like to
tell my wife that there's also a lipstick kiss on
it from Milania. She says it's not there. But now
I know who the real blind one is. It's her.
But he left us stat with a little note saying
thank you. I loved being with you guys like you
(52:35):
guys are Americas what America you know needs? Thank you,
thank you, thank you. Just this very generous left us
a really cool plate. But it wasn't just that. When
we'd gotten home, we drove back to North Carolina. Within
a day or so, we had a big box from
the White House on our front porch which had a
(52:56):
rattle in it, a little stuffed animal bear, and a
bunch of another note from President Trump just being like, hey,
thank you so much for what you told me. I mean,
this guy was incredible, and we were told were like
James President, you know, like because he asked everyone there.
He's like, hey, what can I do to make Walter
read the medical hospital? What can I do to make
(53:17):
it better. Okay, you didn't make the army better? Is
there any suggestions for making America better or making the
world better? And I love I love this how his
approach to us. And I remember you're like, well, mister President,
like honestly, fire your social media team because they suck.
Oh and he's like, hey, hi, yeah yeah. I was like,
because if America could see you like this, like we
(53:40):
see you right now, I was like, you don't have
to run for reelection. We will demand that you be reelected.
Oh wow, you know. And we hear so many stories
like that about the true Donald Trump. And I am
so grateful to you that you shared this with us
because I think people need to hear that this is
the time type of stuff that he does. And he's
(54:01):
not asking for credit. No, he was not, and he's
you know, he didn't waive it. Like the news that
did come out from it was somebody snapped a picture
of him getting on to Air Force one helicopter and
you get the road to wash that was blowing down
really hard. His mess went down below his nose. So
what did the news hit up Donald Trump? You know
at the hospital not warn his mask? Right? Really, guys,
(54:24):
come on Now, let's you know you're always liked um
the was the show a crossfire with those the guys
on SEM. They brought on John Stewart one time, and
Don Sturt said, the best thing I loved it rerepped
for a crossfire was canceled. He said, stop you're hurting America.
(54:45):
Let's come together, Let's build up America. It's positive. Stop
hurting America. And that's I mean, every day it changed
to go on talk with those folks. I would want
to be like John Stuart and say, all right, let's
stop say something good. I mean, how hard it is
to say something positive? I mean, you can you can
turn everything negative and be like, oh, you know, it's
it's so gross outside it's twenty degrees out. Well, it's
(55:08):
you know, we're alive and the sun is shining. Let's
be positive about it. And that's what I loved about
my journey was the positivity maintained. I've always maintained a
positivity journal rather than you know, every time I think
it's something bad or sad, I try to replace a
sad thought or bad thought two positive ones something fun.
And that's how it came out with the book. Rather
(55:30):
than focusing on negative. Let's be positive and we can
make a world a better place. I think that's a
good principle that all people. Thank you, and that is
why I wanted to share you with as many people
as I could, because that's exactly what I felt when
I met you and reading this book, I really I'm
going to hold it up again. Zero percent Chance. It
(55:52):
is a page turner. You can't put it down. You
You're so honest and open and just like you are today,
That's why the people to hear from you, because you
tell the story that a lot of our veterans can't tell.
So I appreciate that you were willing to share this
with us today. Thank you, Major Jonathan Turnbull, author of
(56:12):
Zero Percent Chance. I hope everybody goes out and gets
their own copy because this is really a true, raw
story about the lives of our service members and the
sacrifices that you all make for us. Thank you so
much for joining me today on the Tutor Dixon Podcast.
For all of the people that are listening for this
episode and others, go to Tutor Dison podcast dot com.
(56:35):
You can subscribe right there and join me next time
on the Tutor Dixon podcast, have a great day, and
major thank you so much for joining me
Hey, this is Buck Sexton and you're listening to the
Tunor Dixon Podcast, part of the Clay Drivers and Buck
Sexton podcast Network. Welcome to the Tutor Dixon Podcast, where
we bring you stories of great Americans. And I've met
some amazing people across the state of Michigan, and I
just feel like I need to share those people with you.
Some of them have become a part of me. And
(00:23):
you know, when someone finds a permanent home in your heart,
you know that that story just needs to be told.
And my guest today is definitely one of those people.
From the moment I met him, you could just feel
I think what I can only describe as this intense
energy coming from him. He's an American hero, a leader,
a top military strategist, a loving father, loyal husband, and
(00:47):
strong man of faith. I want to welcome the author
of Zero Percent Chance and Purple Heart recipient Major Jonathan
Turnbull to the podcast. John, Welcome to the podcast. Thank
you man. I'm really excited to be here. Well, I
am so excited to have you. I want to talk
about your book and I'm going to hold it up here.
This is such an amazing piece of work because I
(01:12):
think what people need to understand is this is truly
the raw, unedited story of what it is to serve
in so many ways, It's not just your story of
what you've gone through, but it really is the story
of how a military family handles these missions. I love
the way you start out the book talking about your childhood,
(01:33):
and something stuck out to me that I want to
go through because your parents actually took you out of school.
You said you weren't doing well in school, and if
it were today's world, you'd be medicated. You would have
been told you had add and you would be medicated
and you'd be a different person. But the add part
of you, that part of you that has that get
up and go is what drove you to really become
(01:54):
this American hero. Is that right? So tell me a
little bit about that. Your parents. Parents are incredibly adorable
and sweet people. Your mom is so awesome. She I
think I met her before I met you, and she
was clearly just completely in love with you and talked
about you in such an amazing way. But she was
your champion very young. So tell me how she made
(02:17):
that decision and what that was like for you. Because
you said, instead of traditional book learning, you kind of
learned by doing. Yes. My mom was a big believer
in like a hands on approach to learning, and as
you mentioned, like a struggling in school. Attended a public
school until fourth grade. Again, it's fifth grade. When my
(02:40):
mom and my dad sat down, we had the conversation, like,
how are we going to continue education? You continue in
the public school, which was not working for me, or
do we find a way that does work and make
me more successful that way? So that we decided, I mean,
there's always a path to success, there's always an answer
(03:04):
for whatever questions we have. You just have to sometimes
you have to dig deep and figure it out. And
I know it's a tough question for them to tackle,
but they decided the best bet was to pull me
out into homeschool me and that their method of teaching.
We did. I mean, we got into books. My mom
was a librarian. She's been working at the library. She
(03:24):
still works at the library. She's been there for as
long as I can remember. Love's Book. So our daily school,
we'd go to the library. She'd be like, pick a book,
sit down, start reading. You know, I'll come back in
a little bit of time. And it was great but
it wasn't just this hands on approach reading books. I
mean we did, we did. We got into mathematics and
(03:49):
other core subjects, but when we got into things like
geography and history. My mom's a historian, love's history, and
one thing I took after was history. She said, all right,
I remember one of my very first ones, Gettysburg. We
were learning about the Civil War. What can we learn
about Gettysburg? You know, we watched the movies. I loved
(04:11):
watching the old fashioned Blue and Gray, and then we
watched Little Roundtop and you know these great movies. Read
the books about them, about Joshua Chamberlain and Battle for
a Little round Top and Steve. And then she's like,
all right, you've read about it, let's go see it.
So I filled up the car, and by this time
(04:33):
my mom was homeschool and my sister as well. We
drove to Gettysburg and we spent two or three days
walking the battlefields. It wasn't just Gettysburg. At one point,
she decided, when we were learning about out west, and
we read all the lord Engles Wilder books and maybe
started reading quite a bit about the mountain Men, and
(04:53):
you know, the westward expansion of the United States. So
we jumped in the car again and we drove out west.
We went and we saw the Grand Canyon. I got
to see um Yellowstone, Old Faithful, We visited Mount Rushmore,
and I mean so my parents were very big into
this hands on approach. The biggest thing they did for
(05:15):
me was learning about our heritage, where my family came from.
And my family originally came from Scotland prior to the Revolution,
fought with Bonnie Prince Charlie during the Jacobite Rebellion, and wow,
that is very cool. And when England over came the Scots,
(05:37):
they kicked out a lot of them and our family
was one of them they kicked out, and they sent them,
you know, send them to this the New World America.
Not a bad not a bad deal, I don't think, um,
but my family. The Outlander story, I don't know if
you've ever seen it's but that really is. That's that's
the Outlander story, which I think a lot of people
connect to. But so, did that then lead you to
(06:00):
say I want to follow in those footsteps and I
want to fight as well. I want to be out
there as a as a hero for my people. Absolutely
one thing that definitely sparked it, and try and practice brevity.
Everybody's seen the movie Braveheart with mel Gibson, y'oll freedom,
he holds his sword up. It's great, well, great movie.
(06:24):
The King King Robert the Bruce in that movie. Later,
after William Wallace was executed, Robert the Bruce won a
great battle, won a victory over England. England granted Scotland,
you know, their right to rule their own country, and
King Robert the Bruce was crowned the King. He was
later riding on a hunting trip with a bunch of
(06:47):
his knights, and during this hunting trip, of all things,
a Scottish cow charged him, knocked him from his horse
and started to gore him on the ground, at which
point one of the young squires jumped off his horse
and grabbed the cow by the horns, turned it, killed
the bull, but saved the King's life. The young man's
(07:07):
name was William Rule, and King Robert the Bruce knighted
him Turnbull and gave him lands in Scotland. So that's
where the name Turnbull comes from. Because a young man
turned the bull, and but my family they started out fighting.
That young man fought in the Scottish Rebellion or War
for Independence. Later on, like I said that, when the
(07:29):
Jacobite Rebellion happened, my family rose up in the rebellion,
joined the other clans and fought the English. Got cast
out of Scotland, moved to North America once again not
a bad deal, and in seventy six rolls around another
chance the English. So my family joined up. They were
true patriots, fought and many of the battles my mom
(07:52):
is very read into the lines that our family did.
They fought, their family again, fought in War of eighteen
well down in Louisiana joined my family were Louisiana's lived
north of New Orleans, passed through until the next big war,
the I mean Civil War. My family fought again the
(08:13):
Civil War unfortunately fought for the wrong side in my opinion,
lost that one, and they were deported from the South
to northern northern parts of Texas. So I'm still south,
but Texas and then parts of Michigan. They started moving
up to Michigan, and my grandfathers were both ardent patriots.
(08:38):
My paternal grandfather he fought in Vietnam and after Vietnam
moved his family from Texas to Alpina up here in
northern Michigan where he retired from the Air Force and
became a pastor. So they my dad's side of the
family stayed here forever. This background, it really it really
(08:59):
goes to who you are and how you became this
leader in our armed forces. And I want to get
to a little bit about your story because it's just
so amazing what you were able to do, and I
think that we can't really understand it without what you
just told us. So because reading your book, I am
(09:20):
in my heart, I'm saying, how do you become this
person that says I am going to continue to go
mission after mission? And you discuss that in detail about
what it is to leave your family behind and the
strength of a military spouse, but then that desire to
go out there and just continue with the mission, and
oftentimes you volunteered to go out and do these missions.
(09:41):
So tell us a little bit about your service and
this last deployment that you had so quick run down
to meet my service. I mean, you've heard my backstory.
I knew I was going to do something. I was
either going to be a police officer. I mean, what
kid doesn't want to be a soldier. I mean either
a marine or in the army. I mean, it's pretty awesome.
(10:03):
I remember nine to eleven was a really important day
for me. In two thousand and one. I was working
at our local pool. I was a lifeguard because it's awesome,
and my boss comes running and said, John, get into
the office real quick, and I thought I was in trouble.
I was like, oh, no, she's angry about something. So
I go in and I remember it clear as day
(10:23):
the second that I walked and right as a second
plane hit the second Trade Center and watched him collapse,
and my boss is like, we're at war. We just
got attacked. And I knew at that moment. I was like,
I'm not going to stand for this. Well, I mean,
I will stand, but I'm not going to allow injustice
to be made. I will go and protect freedom. I
(10:43):
want to promote justice and the American way of life.
So I raised my right hand, and I swore to
support and defend the Constitution of the United States of
America against all enemies, foreign and domestic. I swore to
bear two faith and allegiance to the same, the same
both of that every soldier takes joined the Army in
two thousand and five, when I graduated high school, was
(11:06):
accepted to the United States Military academ at West Point,
which I think I'm required to say, go Army beat Navy. Um,
we love, we love our Navy veterans as well. But
you know, football's football's football is what it is. But
I graduated from West Point in twenty ten, commissioned a
second lieutenant, and we'll do quick history on that. Second
lieutenant was an armor officer, went to third in three
(11:28):
Division in Fort Stewart, Georgia, where I got my you know,
first experience leading soldiers, great experience. My short term there
ended with a deployment in Afghanistan in two thousand and
twelve to twenty and thirteen, up in Regional Command North,
a beautiful area where a lot was happening, but there's
(11:52):
a lot more like under the water than it's at surface.
Value at surface is going out. A lot of infrastructure
are being done. Stuff people were working to improved the
way of life of the civilians, the local afghanis, to
make it so that they can have a better life.
Their kids can go to school there. You know, women
(12:12):
can work, something that was unheard of there. So I
think that's something that I want to tap into a
little bit because a lot of people are obviously talking
about Afghanistan and the removal of our troops there. But
you were, You saw what was going on, what was
happening on the ground. There was more than just fighting
an enemy. It was building and building a country. And
(12:34):
it was I mean the ad age, old adage, you know,
you know, give a man of fish he eats for
a day, give them, you know, teach a man to fish.
The same thing. We were there. We were teaching them.
We were not just in teaching encouraging them. Okay, you
don't have to take this. Stand up, you don't have
to you know, you don't have to be pushed around, bullied.
(12:55):
Stand up, put your foot down, say no, and act
and not just And we weren't doing it just with
the military and the police, the Afghan police or the
Afghan border guards. But we were in the houses of
the people, talking with the wives, talking with the mothers. Uh.
I went to schools and you would talk with the kids.
(13:17):
Girls weren't allowed to tend school. The same thing with
my final deployment, girls weren't allowed to tend schools. So
it said why not, And they're like bad people say
they can't go. It's like, well there's you know, new
kids are on the block. We're here. Let's change this us,
you know, remove the fear that these terrorist organizations impose
(13:37):
upon that, you know, commendate people, good innocent people. If
we can remove the fear, we can give them, you know,
a leg up, they can stand up, and it promotes freedom,
promotes justice in the area where they haven't seen any
of this, you know, gives them a chance. That's or
looking for giving them a chance. And same thing in Afghanistans.
(13:58):
When you look at what happened been in Afghanistan, what
does that what kind of feelings does that bring up
inside of you? Because now we're hearing that these girls
are no longer allowed to attend school, that things have
really very quickly reversed. So how do you feel about that?
You're you're getting all fired up. I love it. It
was It's very very difficult to see, and I compare
(14:21):
it quite a bit with the fall of Saigon in Vietnam,
and I spent a lot of time with their veterans.
That's one way I can cope now, you know, sit
down with our Vietnam veterans with Gulf wour guys. I mean,
I love our World War two vets. Not many out there,
so if you get a chance to talk to them,
you know, hear what they have to say, because they're amazing.
But yeah, we stepped away. It was a betrayal not
(14:47):
just to the Afghan people, but to every American that
has served over there. But I feel because I mean,
we lost, we lost some great people. I mean the
I mean the feelings that I have for it, like
can't be expressed. I mean, I'll get all choked up here,
so I'll take a couple of deep breasts. But I
(15:08):
mean men fought and died men and when fought and
died to defend America. Defend America from that, you know,
the evil, this evil regime known as the Taliban terrorist organization.
And for for us just to pack it up and
walk away, we should we should be embarrassed. And I
(15:31):
have people come up to me and apologize for what
our politicians did, and it makes I mean, it is
a step in the right direction. I like that people
recognize what has happened. But at the end of the day,
remember we were talking about it when I was still
in the army when Um the withdrawal was happening, and
we're like Biden, Biden's President Biden stuff and said, there's
(15:53):
no way to leave this country. We can't do it, um,
And I disagreed with them. I think that there there's
only one way that you can withdraw from a country
such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and that's once we've won.
And it makes me think of another silly thing everybody
(16:16):
knows about. If at first you don't succeed, try try again.
But I would also change it. If at first you
don't succeed, redefine success, so that way you do succeed,
I mean, redefine your parameters. This is what we need
to have happened with Afghanistan. I would have encouraged the president.
If I was on his staff, I would have said,
(16:37):
just the president, you know, how we leave. The country
is secured. They're running all their own missions. Their police
are investigating, you know, they're doing police work. Their soldiers
are defending their borders, defending the interior. And it gets
to the point where, you know, we shake hands with
them and we say thank you, and we go to
Kabbal International Airport and we you know, we have our
(17:01):
soldier's board. American Airlines or a you know, a regular airline,
Get on the airplane, fly back to the United States.
A lot of clapping, a lot of cheering. But if
we can do that, if we have that much stability
in a region, that in my book is called winning,
and we were there, we were working on this. The
(17:24):
program is called Village Stability Operations, and that's not classified,
can be googled, but it was working with the people
doing just that, giving them a leg to stand on, like, hey, guys,
you know, here's a shoulder to cry on, shoulder to
lean on. If you need help, We're here. You know.
You guys go and fight. If you need something a
(17:46):
little you know, a little extra, here's my phone number,
give me a call, and you know we'll we'll back
you up. What I'm hearing you say right now is
exactly what attitude that I hear in your book. It's
this encouragement. That's why you are such an incredible leader,
(18:06):
and that's why I believe that you were chosen for
the missions that you were chosen for and the ones
that you volunteered for. I know they were saying, well,
you were the person we wanted, and you can see
why you went on from fighting the Taliban, you were
also fighting Isis. So Isis was really eliminated and you
had a big role in that. But that was where
(18:30):
you were injured as well, because you were targeted. They
were mad that you were so successful. And I think
that's what people need to really understand that when our
servicemen go over there and they have a heart like yours,
and you had a team of people, and one of
those people on your team was Shannon Kent. We I
think a lot of our viewers are a lot of
our listeners know her story from her husband who ran
(18:51):
for Congress, Joe Kent. But you were there that day,
and I think that when you talk about that day
in the book, when you talk about the bombing, you
talk about it in such detail because you even talk
about Shannon's hair being pulled up and you looking at
her and one of the last images in your mind
of her is her smiling because of what you were
(19:12):
able to accomplish. Just before that suicide bomber walks up,
who you describe as a demon, And so I want
to talk a little bit about that because fighting Isis
was a part of you that was you wanted to
do that because you knew that that was what we
needed to keep people here safe. But not only were
you keeping people in the United States safe, you were
(19:34):
creating a community over there that was allowing people to
get medical attention, was allowing people to have energy, allowing
women to be educated. And this happened. Tell me a
little bit about that day. Yes, So the three things
that you mentioned were three big things we had done
for I wrapped in Syria in September of twenty eighteen,
and I had four months yeah, sorry, counting on my fingers,
(20:00):
four months to fight ISIS. And my boss, he was
a colonel in charge of all special operations in Syria
to fight against ISIS, he gave me a simple command,
go and defeat ISIS. Like I'm one guy. I like,
all right, let's do this. You put my boot put
my boots on, grabbed my rifle, jumped on the airplane
(20:21):
and picked up. We met my team who was there
already assembled. They just needed a team leader. We did
three big things, like you mentioned. The first big thing
was we restored a hydroelectric damn, storing power to all
of Northeast Syria, parts of Turkey, Iraq and Jordan. The
last count was was about five hundred thousand people. We
(20:41):
were stored power to which was a great thing. I mean,
you flipped the light switch on, you knew who had
turned it on. Not necessarily. It wasn't not John Turnbull,
it wasn't the United States of America. It was coalition
working with the Syrian Democratic Council. But your local government,
your government has got this, your government's turned the power on.
(21:04):
So that was the first big one. He also said health.
The health sector was very poor, so we rebuilt an
entire hospital focusing on emergency systems, gave them ambulances, working
with the British and the French, so restored the whole
health sector in my area that had about ten to
(21:25):
twenty thousand people, so now they could go receive medical attention,
and which was really big for me because I had
I had a son and he was six years old
at this time, and I couldn't imagine what how do
you you know, what do you do as a mother
when you give birth? And they're like, oh, you know,
we just at home. I'm like, you don't go to
(21:46):
the hospital, And they're like, what's a hospital? I'm like, hah,
here we go. So helping them, give them step up.
And then, as you said, the final thing really blew
my mind. We were visiting schools and I was trying
to help the kids out, and at one point we
learned no girls attended the school in northeast Syria. So
he said why not. They're like, ISIS won't allow it?
(22:06):
Like isis isn't in charge? You're in charge, Like talking
to the government. You're in charge. You make the rules,
like let's spit in the eye of isis open schools
back up to girls. One school in a small village
called the Dot opened their doors up for girls. Had
forty five girls returned to school one day, just overnight.
(22:27):
Click girls return to school. Wow, it was a beautiful day.
Always remember the day because it also was November fifteenth,
which as Michiganders we know it's a very important religious day,
a gear season, but not just gear season for me.
I sat there while when the doors opened up and
these kids flooded into these schools, and girls would come
(22:49):
up to me, and we went to the school actually
that I was bombed at. Remember sitting there and they
come up to me, They're like, thank you and so
they'd be shook round in Arabic. Thank you NICKI John,
Captain John, thank you, thank you for letting us come
to school. And they loved it. High fives, the hugs.
I taught him how to fist bump, like hey, in America,
(23:10):
we fist bump. They're like, oh, that's so cool, really cool,
until you have the ambassador for the whole region come
out and all the kids run up to him with
their fists up like this, and he jumped in my
car freaking out, like they're not going to beat you up.
They want fist bumps. Is good, But so we restored power,
pride him, housing, the housing, health Department, hospital, open schools,
(23:33):
back up for kids to return to school. These three
big things Isis was they were attacking the people and
creating chaos and holding it over them. That way, they
were able to control the people through these three things.
So by doing it, we removed the grip of Isis
over the people and we returned that control to the
(23:54):
local government, Senior Democratic Council. Iis didn't like it, I mean,
and we were also doing the army stuff. I'll finding
bad guys and arresting them and things like that. Actually
truly helping the missions. That these three things were great
because you know ten twenty thirty fifty years out, you know,
terrorst organizations will always rise up in these regions. We
(24:17):
want it, so, you know, they go into a village
and they're like, hey, let's go and fight America. The
West always they're really bad. I want one of these
kids to be like, hold on, America, let me go
back to school. America turned our electricity back on, and
the West made it so my mom could go to
the hospital when she was having problems. So why are
(24:39):
they bad? So we have this long outlook and it's great.
So I just didn't like this. Also, we were removing
them from our region physically and so on the day
on January sixteenth and twenty nineteen, but four months into
my deployment, and my wife will tell you the day
after I was supposed to return home, because supposed to
(25:00):
return in January fifteenth, but we're doing such a great job.
My boss said, would you like to stay? And I
said yes, How else can I affected this amount of
change in the world and make the world a better place?
And to quote oh Oh, Kingdom of Heaven with Orlando Bloom,
one of his phrases in there, what is a man
(25:21):
if he does not try to make the world a
better place? And I think that's very true. Who who
are we if we do not try to make the
world better place? So I had a chance, so I
volunteered to stay. We went to one of the schools.
We're going to go and talk with the kids to
see if there were any bad guys around, because kids know,
and you know, we're American military were really good at
(25:42):
dealing with bad guys. And went to the school, did
all the fifth pumps with all the little girls at school,
and that's why Shannon was so happy. We went back
to our trucks to get ready after the end of
our mission. So finished our routine combat patrol, get back
to our trucks and we're going through a simple patrol
brief where we were going, how long it is going
(26:03):
to take, what we're gonna do, why we were doing it,
and just you know, just kind of given clearing the field,
let everybody knows what's going on. At which time the
suicide bomber walk up and just I mean, the luck
of this individual should not have happened. We had security.
(26:25):
You know, I can't explain how it happened, if he
sneaked through or if he was you know, he wasn't
a genie, just poofy was there, but something like that.
But I do remember yet getting getting ready, getting my vehicle.
It was remember seeing Shannon's smiling because she was going
to tell her boys, Mommy has done something really good.
Girls from back to school. Kids are happy and healthful
(26:46):
and safe. And at the same time, I remember seeing
a chief corn Officers Special Forces guys with the toughest
of the tough. His name is John Farmer. Guy. I'm
pretty sure eight nails for breakfast. He was just that tough,
just big guy. He was bouncing on his feet back
and forth, making a little twirly motion with his finger bouncing.
I can rebody language. He had to go to the
(27:07):
bathroom and trolling his finger. He was saying, turnbull, hurry
it up, let's go so I can go back home,
go to the bathroom, and I can call my wife
and my kids and tell them how their daddy's a hero.
And it was at the exact time that the suicide
bomber walked between them both and detonated his vest, and yeah,
(27:28):
ruined first day of my life. Ruined the lives of
four families, And rather than focusing on that negative and
sad stuff, I decided to focus on the positive things.
I decided my mission was now to cheer up the families,
because you can't replace that kind of loss. It's it's
horrible and I don't want to replace it. But rather
(27:51):
than focusing on that, I remember that, as mentioned in
my book, my linguist who was killed, her name was
Goodeer to hear her to as Jasmine, just easier to saying.
She kind of looked like the princess anyway, but she yes,
there's a picture, so I beautiful woman. But I always
(28:11):
remember her mom was like we met her and she
was crying, and she asked me to said, John, why
are you here? And why is my daughter not here?
What did she do that made somebody want to kill her?
And again, rather than focusing on the negatives, we spent
a whole day together. And I actually get to spend
(28:32):
the opportunity with her in April. I'm really excited. I'm like,
rather than focusing on the bad things, let me tell
you how she lived, let me tell you about how
fiery and feisty her daughter was. And I talked about
in the book not Given Way all my secrets, But
my favorite thing was we were talking about we were
going into a room that hadn't been a bathroom that
(28:55):
hadn't been opened since ISIS had left the area, since
we had removed them. They boarded it up and they
wrote mines on the door, so saying that the room
was had bombs in it. So we're brief in it,
and I had explosive ordinance to Marines, got by name it,
Darius and Jared. They're briefing and as we're talking through
(29:18):
it Jasmine stuff, She's like, all right, guys, before we
go in, She's like, make sure you partner up with
the EOD guys, because I don't want any of you
to kick off a booby trap. I remember, I was like,
wait a minute, sorry for the profanity. Best I did
anybody just hear that? Like what it's like? Did you
guys just hear Jasmine? She said booby And she slapped
(29:39):
me and told me to grow up. But fun things
like that, like and you do mention that you make
a lot of people laugh in the bug, which you do.
You are very I got it. Have some fun and
if we can't laugh at the situations, especially the situations
we find ourselves in, and what's the point. So that's
(29:59):
why I wrote the book for this woman's name was Amina,
Jasmine's mom, and then for a little tiny girl who
right after while I was in the hospital, she heard
she was John Farmer's daughter who I mentioned earlier, the
Special Forces guy. Her name is Priscilla. Remember her asking me,
Uncle John, you're my daddy's boss. I was like, yep,
(30:21):
I'm your daddy's boss. She's like, can you order him
to come home for Christmas? I missed my daddy. I
was like, oh God, and like I don't know what
to do. And her mom is the most amazing woman ever.
She's just like, John, just be tough. She's like, you'd
be tough, you'd be tough for my John. John won't
(30:41):
want you to cry. John wants you to to be strong.
I'm like, yes, ma'am. And so I wrote the book
as a series of letters to the family members, being like,
once again, let me tell you how they lived. The
funny things, happy things, the things did run working out
on the play is going through the mentioned Joe Kent earlier.
(31:03):
I remember sitting down with them while I was at
the hospital again. He sat down with us so we
were able to talk with him, and I was like, hey,
did she send home? I mean, I'm gonna probably low
ball the number, but like a thousand scarves. And he's like, oh,
dear Lord, Yes, she sent home boxes and boxes and scarves.
And I'm like, we're sorry. She would go into town
(31:24):
and she picked up food for us, like hamburgers or
something fantastic. Is always Shoma, but the best you could find.
She'd bring it to us, and she wouldn't let us pay.
She was she was like a like a mother figure.
She had to take care of her take care of
her boys, so she was always there given us food
and she wouldn't loves to pay for it. But she
(31:46):
loved scarves, so we would buy her scarves from the
local market and we would pay her in scarves and
sales Campan. I was like, sorry, Joe about all those scarves. Yeah,
I helped the Serian economy quite well with the scar
of making and give em. But that was the point.
And then I was like, I want Shannon's boys, Josh
(32:06):
and Colton. I want them when they grew up, because
they were I mean they were babies when Shannon was
killed very little ones, and I want them if they
don't remember their mom, I want them to have something
they could be like that was my mom. And the
same thing with Priscilla and her brother Preston, who are
now eight or nine years old of them when they
(32:28):
grew up too. If they can't remember, like I don't
remember what my daddy was like, let me tell you
what your daddy was like. And it's this book. Zero
percent chance it was written for these four families. Saw
multiple letters. We ended up putting them together chronologically to
outline the deployment. But then it gets into after the explosion.
Explosion which killed four Americans, killed Chief one Officer John Farmer,
(32:54):
Chief Petty Officer Shannon Kent, killed Petty Officer second Class
Scott Wurtz, and Miss Gadeer to Hear also known as
Jasmine to our friends and family. These four people. It
also killed nineteen Syrians that day. So we traveled with
eight soldiers on my team. Immediately half of my team
(33:14):
was killed. Myself, I was blown to the ground. My
right eye. You can see the flap I have over here.
It's a skip and flap holding my face together. Right
eye was blown out of my head. My left eye
was punctured pretty badly. Shrapnel wounds were really gross, and
I'll go the word ikey. Two other soldiers were also wounded,
(33:36):
a guy by the name of Devin, and then another
guy by the name of Jail. And then we had
one soldier who was uninjured physically, uninjured, spiritually and mentally.
Was That's where his assault came because he had to
pick up body parts after the explosion. Falls being said.
A few hours later, Americans landed. We called in an
(33:58):
immediate METAVAC request for help medical evacuation MEDIVAC. Helicopter landed.
Is my boss, that colonel I told you about earlier,
who is in charge of the whole area. He landed,
big early American like probably one of the greatest leaders.
I've ever met a person. When I grew up, I
want to be just like him. Great person landed. They
(34:20):
found me, They found me two guys that were wounded,
and they evacuated us to another spot in Syria than
to a rock. I went from a rock to Turkey,
or we're not to Turkey, excuse me, to Germany. And
after a few weeks in Germany the past I went
to read National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, right
outside of BC, where I spent well, I think I
(34:44):
want to stop you here because I think it's important
to mention that what you did to bring medical services
to that area in Syria actually saved your life as well,
because it was one of the ambulances that you brought
in that you actually were taken out. In correct. Yes, yeah,
so the way things I mean, we didn't. You never
plan for things, but you always the sun sus said,
(35:07):
you know, you pray, pray for the best, prepare for
the worst. Paraphrasing it's a really bad paraphrase, but you understand,
I mean the reason we write death letters home and stuff.
But yes, I was we provided ambulance of service to
the region. Um, the British actually provided the ambulances and
(35:33):
then so we were put I was put into it ambulance.
I was taken to the hospital that we rebuilt, and
we worked with the Germans. The Germans provided a whole
bunch of equipment, extra machines, ultrasound machines, surgical equipment, all
the stuff you needed. Uh. And then American State Department,
our State Department provided brought doctors and who taught triage
(35:56):
so who lives, who dies? How do you fix up
wounds for this? And also how to package up people
in case things are so bad they can't stay there
that they need to go somewhere else. So I was
in an ambulance and went to the er in this
hospital where the equipment we had brought in. They worked
on us. The doctors who had the training from American
doctors fixed me up and I came in landed in
(36:22):
a specially made area. I'm gonna make it try and
make it sound really cool. Special Forces guys set up
a helicopter landing Zone HLZ for hot extract. Hot means
stuff happening. There's combat, things are bad, but it's safe.
Number help black Hawk helicopter to land. People got out,
(36:42):
And I try to make it sound really cool. It
was a soccer field, but I mean, I mean, it's
pretty amazing to think about it. And at this time,
I'm just gonna hold up your book one more time,
because at this time, this is when you hear the
doctor say he gives you a zero percent chance. Then
(37:03):
that's why you named the book zero percent. Ye. Through
the through the two years I spent in my recovery,
I was giving a zero percent chance so many times.
And I'm not going to bash any of her doctors,
and I'm not gonna I'll make fun of them though
they weren't wrong. I on my flight from Syria to Iraq,
my heart rate went to zero and my respirations went
(37:24):
to zero, which I guess medically that's considered dead. I
even have a time of death written in my medical records.
Not good for the life insurance policy, but that's not
here there. So I died. The surgeon was amazing. The
(37:44):
surgeon was like, all right, Termbull's dead. There were other
people in the airplane. Work on these other guys, fix
them up. This guy, you know as a flight surgeon,
has been to college for upteen years and you know,
the best of the best. But there was a young
man on that flight, and let's go with his first name.
(38:04):
His name was first name is Cory. A specialist, so
not an officer, not even even ann commission officer, a
low ranking soldier. I was a medic, and he got
it under his skin. He's just like, oh yeah, He's like,
let me show you what you're You know, your your
pad didn't teach you and he's like, not breathing whatever,
(38:26):
So would you breast heart not beating the trust com
that's called CPR. This young man and I ingest, but
this young man did CPR on me for four hours,
the whole flight it took to get from Syria into
a rock and by the time we landed, I was
breathing on my own and my heart rate had turned.
(38:46):
So it was Corey, in my opinion, was an angel
sent by God, or he was for sure an individual
sent by God given the stamina to perform CPR for
four hours. Like who does that stamina? The stubbornness, termination,
to nacity, all these you know, adjectives to describe this guy,
(39:09):
and they wheeled me off and again that you know.
The doctor gave his report to or the flight surgeon,
season gave his report to the hospital doctor and Baghdad,
and the hospital doctor and Baghdad. His name was Kyle.
I asked what was wrong with this guy because he's like,
you're pretty ugly. I'm like, I've always been ugly. He's like, nah,
(39:30):
you're you were missing your face and I was like,
that's pretty bad. But he said the flight surgeon said,
turnbull died on the flight over. He's like he's not
gonna make it. He's like, I'm giving him zero percent
chance of surviving twenty four hours. So Kyle, you know,
cracked his knuckles and we can't drink downrange. So I
(39:50):
mean he said it's a phrase, but said here, hold
my beer and started to work on me. And I
later was able to meet Kyle in my hospital room.
And while he was in my room, Samantha, my wife,
was there, and remember him telling her. He was like,
you can't be here and she's like, oh, I can't.
He's like, no, you can't be here. She's like, I'm sorry,
are you guys gonna talk like secret stuff? I can leave.
(40:12):
He's like no, no, no, no no no. He's like no,
you like, there's no way you can be here because
there's no way John's here. He's like he's dead. Like
John couldn't have survived. He's saying what I saw, there's
no way John survived. And this guy opened up to
me and said, John, there's one reason why he survived.
And we have a few seconds to get mushied about it.
(40:34):
He's like, before the explosions, like John, I was an atheist.
I didn't believe in God. I was a doctor, you know,
like a surgeon, a great certain there's no God. He's like,
but this bomb happened, I had a piece of TRAPM
I go into my iliac artery in my groin. This
doctor happened to specialize in of all things arteries and
(40:58):
you know, arterial repair, artery stuff, stuff with your arteries.
He was the one doctor in the middle league, in
the middle league, especially in our of our conflict, the
one doctor that could save my life with my artery
being torn open. So he's like, John, I we fixed
(41:21):
you up. And they sat back and I was like,
how did you know? This explosion happened to this one guy?
And he was flown all over these different places and
he comes to me by by chance. He's like, no,
such things a chance. It's like if it weren't for
(41:42):
the Father above, He's like, I would have never you
would have never come to me. You'd have just died
with anybody else, you would have died. It's like socited
to sit back. He's like, in that moment, it's like
I became a Christian. I remember some of the Bible
stories that I heard about Jesus and how Jesus helped
everything out. And he's like in that one moment I
knew there was a god. He's like, I prade necessary
(42:03):
sorry for what you know, for denying you all this time.
It's like thank you. It's like, John, you were injured.
It's like I don't want to see injured, just from
but it's like, thank you. You've saved me, You've saved
my family. He's like, and I can go on living.
He's put that so just absolutely amazing. But he still
couldn't believe. He kept touching me, like he kept like
(42:24):
hitting men. I'm like, what are you doing. He's like,
seeing if you're real. I'm like, I'm real. He's like,
you're not to head, Like I don't think so. I
mean like I lost my eyesight so I can't see,
so I can't really verify that I'm here on earth.
But I mean, like sounds, smells, We're good. But it
(42:45):
was amazing, Um, all these people were coming like and
that's the second part of the book. He's talking about
the people that came together America. Americans are amazing. We're amazing.
What makes some amazing is that we care and we
care about each other. I think that you probably saw
(43:07):
a side of President Trump that people talk about what
we don't really hear about. So I definitely want you
to share that my caveat is everything I'm about to say,
and everything that I have said is unclassified to the
best of my knowledge. Yeah, so now we're all covered.
So and I say, when listening in, this is all unclassified,
(43:27):
so you don't have to listen. But President Trump came
to visit me a few days after the explosion, came
to the hospital. I was in the ICU, and I
was really sick. My wife said that I was fluens
were coming out of me, not just both ends, but
(43:47):
like literally out of me, like all and gushing, and
it was it was ikey. President Trump met with my
two soldiers that were also wounded, and that they just
kept talking about this guy, kept talking about Captain John Turnbull,
their leader. Like, mister President, you've got to meet him.
He loves you and he thinks you're awesome. So President Trump,
(44:08):
you know, came up to my room in the ICU,
and in order to gain access to a room, you
have to ask permission to enter. My wife, Samantha was there,
and so he's like, may I enter your husband's room?
This woman, she says no, and he was taking quite
a bit back and he's like, no, She's like, it's president.
(44:31):
In all honesty, John has I had the flu type
whatever influenza. I had ecola. I was coughing up blood.
I had chunks of metal coming out of me. My
gups were played open. Say, John's in a bad place.
He had a breathing tube. And even she's like, if
I law you in there to meet him and he
can't talk with you, he'll be crushed. Say so, mister president,
(44:55):
can you please come back? My wife turned him away.
All but it gets better. He comes back. Yeah, she's
she's amazing. Um. But in November of twenty yeah, it's
twenty twenty. So November of twenty twenty, during his re
election campaign. I had my very last surgery. I had.
(45:16):
I've all stuff done and I mean you can see eyeball,
it's a prospect. Had an ear replacement, the cochlear implant.
I had my bilateral incision on my stomach, a abdominal
wall reconstruction. That was some pretty rough shape. But as
my last surgery, yeah, I'd made it. I defeated the
odds a zero percent chance, zero percent chance. When I survived,
(45:41):
it's one hundred percent got at work. So, you know,
like as I was all excited, we're getting ready to
leave the hospital, and I didn't, you know, have doctors
signed my report card, you know, my hall pass, so
to speak. And one of them said, no, you're not
allowed to leave. And I was like why not. He's like,
I'm giving you a direct order. You cannot leave until
(46:03):
the state and time tomorrow morning at nine o'clock or
whatever time it was. I would needs you to report
the gymnasium. Do not bring a cell phone, Do not
bring any cameras, don't bring any recording devices, iPads, any
of that stuff. Computers to show up, just in your
clothes and we'll beat. Something's going to happen. You're like,
all right, cool. So my wife and I walk down
(46:24):
to the gym. It's the place I love because I'm
an army guy, like working out. When to the gym,
they ram the pipe cleaners up my nose, you know,
checking for COVID, COVID clean They I walked through a
metal detector. Yeah, pipe cleaners look like COVID because I'll
SAYD my nose, where you done having stuff in there? Deep?
(46:46):
But we go in there, get padded down, no cell phones,
no technology. Wait around with about twenty or so other
veterans or soldiers that were there being treated. When President
Trump walks into the room, we're all like, Who's what's
going on? Very first thing President Trump says, he's like,
I bet you guys wonder why I say you can't
have cell phones? Camera's eyes. It's like, you're not gonna.
(47:09):
I don't want you to have any recording devices for this.
He's like, you don't see any news agency here. Nobody's
taking pictures except for official White House photographers are taking pictures.
But he's like, I have a reason. It's like, this
isn't about re election, you know, Donald Trump's re election campaign.
He's like, I don't want the American people to see
(47:31):
all over the news look at him going and schoozing
with wounded warriors. He's like, Nope, it's not why I'm
doing this. He's like, I'm here on behalf of Donald Trump,
the Trump family and the American people. Is like, I
just want to tell you guys, thank you for your service,
and come around and shake our hands. So that was
his why we didn't have phones. During his reelection, he
(47:53):
was there to meet with us and spent time with
this one on one. He talked with everybody for about
five minutes, listen to what they had to say. He listened,
he didn't just hear them, responded in kind and it
was fabulous. And he got to My wife and I
were the very last ones. So they're running out of time,
you know, helicopters, rotors are spinning, getting ready to take off,
(48:13):
like he had to get out of there. We started
talking and this guy is the most amazing individual. I
mentioned John Farmer's two youngest children, President Priscilla earlier. They
met President Trump when John was brought home to Dover
and he's returned to his family. President Trump was there, helped,
you know, shook hands with the families, hugged the kids.
So he met them real briefly. President Trump walks up
(48:37):
to me and my wife, Samantha, and he says, you know,
they start reading my buyout buyoull being like John Turnbull
was injured in and President Trump said, stopped, told stop.
He's like I remember twenty nineteen right early, Like yes,
mister president, he's like suicide bombing, Like yes, mister President.
He's like, I'm gonna ask you some real tough questions
like what's up, mister president. He's like, how are President
(48:59):
Priscilla doing? John Farmer's kids? I mean, who is this guy?
Like one, how does he remember their names? And all
of our liberal friends out there? And be like he
didn't remember him? He asked, you know, he had held
headphones and somebody was prompting it. If that's the case, yes,
I will agree with you. He was prompted on it.
But how does he know what to be prompted on?
Do they know this stuff? No? He told them to
(49:22):
pay when I meet Turnbull brought me on this, so
that was his priority. He wanted to know about the families.
So we talked about the families and how they were doing,
and the kids were struggling at the time, and he
got really choked up when I was like, oh, they
you know when I asked him, asked me to have
her daddy come home for Christmas, and he's like, he
is home, and he's in Arlington, but he's he's home
(49:43):
and here and here. He's like, can you tell them
that and tell him that you know, Uncle Donald Trump
loves them and if they need anything, they call and
they have and he's good to it with his word.
But if I can tell you one other real quick
story about him that was really funny. So in the
middle of this campaign, um we remember how you know,
campaign have their ups and their downs. I think that
(50:06):
around this time he's having one of his downs. Um So,
I mean much like yourself when we met. I mean,
you didn't have any downs. You're you're always on top
of my opinion. But I like it. You're just like, hey,
you know, tell tell me something nice. Let's uh, you know,
let's let's have some fun. Let's have some laughter. Can
tell me something nice. President Trump said the same thing.
(50:27):
He's like John, He's like having a rough time of this.
It's like the news just beating me up. Tell me
something good. I remember its own. It was like, mister President,
my wife's it's pregnant. We were expecting our second child
and about one or two months and he's like what
I was, like, my wife's pregnant. He's like everybody because everybody,
(50:48):
you know, a bunch of people crowding rounds, everybody quiet.
It's like, say it again. It's like, seems like I'm
expecting mister president. He's like this. It's like, this is
what I wanted to hear. This is amazing. He's like,
but John, how did this happen in my beautiful life?
Seems to president if you don't don't know by now
it's too late, which got everybody laughing about it. And
(51:11):
you know he laughed. But that this man, and this
is the man Donald Trump that we know, all that
we met. He told us that. He's like, I've got
to do something for them. He's like, right on your notepad,
do something for the trembles. This is great, which is
just wonderful to have, you know, congratulations from the president
especially you know the man, you know, this really evil man,
(51:33):
you know, mean man that the news portrays. You know,
he's just very kind, magnanimous, a wonderful, humble individual. U
he it was the President Trump that we've seen. He's
not all talk. I mean, he talks a big game,
but he delivers. The next day we were able to leave.
(51:53):
Once again it's going out and getting all these signatures.
The same doctor that was like, uh, go to the gym,
told me again, go first to the did it, go
to the presidential wing of Walter Reed and then I'll
give you your signature. So we go up there and
we're like we are reading up here. His aid. President
Trump's aid was there's like, oh, President Trump left you this,
(52:15):
and he gave us a pewter plate with the presidential
seal in the middle of it. And I like to
tell my wife that there's also a lipstick kiss on
it from Milania. She says it's not there. But now
I know who the real blind one is. It's her.
But he left us stat with a little note saying
thank you. I loved being with you guys like you
(52:35):
guys are Americas what America you know needs? Thank you,
thank you, thank you. Just this very generous left us
a really cool plate. But it wasn't just that. When
we'd gotten home, we drove back to North Carolina. Within
a day or so, we had a big box from
the White House on our front porch which had a
(52:56):
rattle in it, a little stuffed animal bear, and a
bunch of another note from President Trump just being like, hey,
thank you so much for what you told me. I mean,
this guy was incredible, and we were told were like
James President, you know, like because he asked everyone there.
He's like, hey, what can I do to make Walter
read the medical hospital? What can I do to make
(53:17):
it better. Okay, you didn't make the army better? Is
there any suggestions for making America better or making the
world better? And I love I love this how his
approach to us. And I remember you're like, well, mister President,
like honestly, fire your social media team because they suck.
Oh and he's like, hey, hi, yeah yeah. I was like,
because if America could see you like this, like we
(53:40):
see you right now, I was like, you don't have
to run for reelection. We will demand that you be reelected.
Oh wow, you know. And we hear so many stories
like that about the true Donald Trump. And I am
so grateful to you that you shared this with us
because I think people need to hear that this is
the time type of stuff that he does. And he's
(54:01):
not asking for credit. No, he was not, and he's
you know, he didn't waive it. Like the news that
did come out from it was somebody snapped a picture
of him getting on to Air Force one helicopter and
you get the road to wash that was blowing down
really hard. His mess went down below his nose. So
what did the news hit up Donald Trump? You know
at the hospital not warn his mask? Right? Really, guys,
(54:24):
come on Now, let's you know you're always liked um
the was the show a crossfire with those the guys
on SEM. They brought on John Stewart one time, and
Don Sturt said, the best thing I loved it rerepped
for a crossfire was canceled. He said, stop you're hurting America.
(54:45):
Let's come together, Let's build up America. It's positive. Stop
hurting America. And that's I mean, every day it changed
to go on talk with those folks. I would want
to be like John Stuart and say, all right, let's
stop say something good. I mean, how hard it is
to say something positive? I mean, you can you can
turn everything negative and be like, oh, you know, it's
it's so gross outside it's twenty degrees out. Well, it's
(55:08):
you know, we're alive and the sun is shining. Let's
be positive about it. And that's what I loved about
my journey was the positivity maintained. I've always maintained a
positivity journal rather than you know, every time I think
it's something bad or sad, I try to replace a
sad thought or bad thought two positive ones something fun.
And that's how it came out with the book. Rather
(55:30):
than focusing on negative. Let's be positive and we can
make a world a better place. I think that's a
good principle that all people. Thank you, and that is
why I wanted to share you with as many people
as I could, because that's exactly what I felt when
I met you and reading this book, I really I'm
going to hold it up again. Zero percent Chance. It
(55:52):
is a page turner. You can't put it down. You
You're so honest and open and just like you are today,
That's why the people to hear from you, because you
tell the story that a lot of our veterans can't tell.
So I appreciate that you were willing to share this
with us today. Thank you, Major Jonathan Turnbull, author of
(56:12):
Zero Percent Chance. I hope everybody goes out and gets
their own copy because this is really a true, raw
story about the lives of our service members and the
sacrifices that you all make for us. Thank you so
much for joining me today on the Tutor Dixon Podcast.
For all of the people that are listening for this
episode and others, go to Tutor Dison podcast dot com.
(56:35):
You can subscribe right there and join me next time
on the Tutor Dixon podcast, have a great day, and
major thank you so much for joining me
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