This week’s Veteran is Donald Turner, who served in the U.S. Army from 1963 – 1966. He is a member of the Lone Star Honor Flight Veterans Group, or 105. Don initially trained at Fort Dix, New Jersey, then was sent to Erlangen, West Germany, for a little over three years, where he says he served as a Soviet deterrent, protecting the West from the Red Menace. Turner was initially a 106mm Recoilless Rifle Gunner with the 3rd Battalion 51st Infantry Division, then transferred to the motor pool to use his vehicle mechanical skills. For the last year of his service overseas, he was in a maintenance company, putting to use his 5 ½ years of auto mechanic schooling to good use. 5 ½ years? Turner notes that during his high school years, he was known as ‘The Bishop,’ but didn’t note any piety in regards to the nickname. Following his military service, Don spent 50 years overseas working abroad, mostly in foreign shipyards building offshore Oil and Gas field structures. He spent nearly 3 decades in Japan, and married his Japanese wife there. It was in Japan, where Turner developed his love for the bidet, and the clean fresh feeling you get after you know, go No. 2. In fact Don wrote the essay, ‘To Bidet or Not to Bidet,’ which has been addressed on MCN’s OP-ED page. Don credits a lot of his life’s good fortunes to what he learned in the military. He says the ‘military changed his life for the better,’ but many of his Veteran colleagues doubt that. It was his Japanese wife that whipped him into shape. During his retirement years, Turner started writing. His first book, ‘The Foxtrot Submarine (And the Lucky Wooden Nickel),’ (296 pages $13.99) is a comedy novel, and is full of suspense and really corny jokes. The story is about an old mothballed Russian submarine that the new owner, protagonist and hero, conveniently named ‘Don,’ buys and converts into an American Great Lakes hotel, fine restaurant, and primarily tour boat. Turner says it’s a ‘tale like no other.’ When asked, Don said he has never been on a submarine. His second book ‘I’M DAMN RIGHT (The Military Did Change My Life For The Better),’ (133 pages 6.99) is about 30 veterans associated with 105, who were game enough to fill out one of Don’s long and tedious surveys. Don says he’s trying to convince our youth to sign up for at least one enlistment period in the military, and let’s hope his book is a success. It’s rumored that Turner once entered a Carl Reiner look alike contest, and even beat out Carl Reiner himself. He is one exceptional gentleman who calls Lake Conroe home. Good Luck Don, and Congratulations on being MCNs ‘Veteran of the Week’.
If the full content does not display, visit the article originally published on this site
