Turek’s dad claps back at son’s critics
Warning: Graphic content
John Turek can still hear the screaming.
Aboard a river craft known as an LST, a Landing Ship Tank that delivered troops and supplies in the Vietnam War, John Turek, who maned a .50-caliber gun during combat, saw an enemy rocket hit a U.S. helicopter near a river in country. The helicopter whirled into the jungle and John Turek and the rest of his Navy ship’s crew could hear American soldiers cries of pain as they burned to death.
“It never leaves you,” John Turek, now 76, tells The Iowa Mercury. “They say war is hell. It is definitely that.”
“There were so many days when you saw the worst of mankind.”
John Turek, retired and living in Council Bluffs, is the father of U.S. Senate candidate Josh Turek, a Democratic state legislator from Southwest Iowa.
State Rep. Josh Turek has served as the ranking member of the House Veterans Affairs Committee. His dad’s service and Josh Turek’s own tie to the Vietnam War inform his work today on veterans’ health care issues and suicide prevention — and Turek’s opinion that the current war in Iran required congressional authorization.
The younger Turek, a two-time gold-medal-winning Paralympian in basketball, is the first permanently and visibly disabled member of the Iowa Legislature. The spina bifida that required 21 surgeries by the age of 12 for Josh Turek is the result of his father’s 22 months of service in the Vietnam War during 1968 and 1969, much of it on rivers. What John Turek and his fellow Navy men thought was mosquito spraying, or perhaps something else, turned out to be the U.S. military’s delivery of Agent Orange — and his exposure to it resulted in Josh Turek’s disability — spina bifida — and Josh Turek’s eligibility for treatment through the Veterans Administration — just like his father, a cancer survivor.
“Josh is a casualty of the Vietnam War,” John Turek said in the phone interview today. “Even though he wasn’t over there fighting, he’s a casualty of the war. A lot of people were affected by this. A lot of people came out without having a son like me born with a disability but PTSD and all kinds of things. I ended up having two types of cancer.”
John Turek is not the only member of what he described as a generations-deep “military family” to serve. Josh Turek wore a USA uniform on the field of competition in wheelchair basketball, and not in battle, but he’s as much a part of the tradition of family honor in the Armed Services as any Turek — and he’s paid a big price, John Turek said.
“I went through war, but you went through hell,” John Turek has told his son over the years.
All of this considered, John Turek says his son is as deserving as anyone of the support of VoteVets, a progressive organization founded in 2006 to back veterans and military families seeking public office at local, state and federal levels. VoteVets is running ads in Iowa in support of Turek.
But Turek’s June 2 Democratic primary opponent, suburban Iowa City Democrat Zach Wahls, has repeatedly suggested that VoteVets is some sinister organization with “dark money” designs — that it’s little more than a vehicle for the schemes of Senator Majority Chuck Schumer.
In fact “veterans” is in the name of the group, making mission and transparency apparent from the jump, and VoteVets has more than 1.5 million supporters. Among other candidates VoteVets has endorsed are: Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona, Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois Senator Seth Moulton of Massachusetts — all veterans. VoteVets also backs former National Security professionals like Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan. VoteVets endorsed Gov. Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey, a Navy veteran, and Virginia Gov. Abigail Spamberger, a former National Security official.
VoteVets says Turek fits the 20-year legacy of supported candidates.
“Josh Turek is a fighter who knows firsthand the costs military families experience when our sons and daughters are sent to war. It’s families like his that bear the costs of decisions made in Washington,” VoteVets Senior Adviser Major General (Ret.) Paul D. Eaton said in a news release. “Our nation needs Senators like Josh who will fight for veterans and military families like his – and who know how to win, which Josh does. He will be an advocate in the Senate for veterans and military families like his own, and take on whatever fight is necessary to protect hardworking Iowans. We are proud to stand with him.”
In his Paralympics and professional wheelchair basketball career Josh Turek encountered many veterans with serious injuries.
“I played basketball with so many of these gals and guys that have come back missing arms and legs,” Josh Turek said in an interview.
For his part, John Turek, the father of six, marvels at the early resilience he witnessed in his his now Senate candidate son. Josh never complained about the surgeries or felt sorry for himself, didn’t let grievance consume him, and summoned an intense work ethic early, a hunger for challenges and achievement that drove him to gold-medal excellence, and the hill climbing to doors in two elections in Council Bluffs and Carter Lake, John Turek said.
“I listen to a lot of the politicians and it seems like some of them think they have a hard day if they go out and they give a couple of speeches and they go to a couple of fundraisers, have a couple of cocktails, knock down a steak, and boy, it’s been a tough day,” John Turek said. “For months and months I’ve watched my son go out day after day after day in sleet, snow, rain, whatever it is, and drag his wheelchair up steps. We live in Council Bluffs, and like it says, it’s bluffs, it’s not flat so a lot of people have stairs.”
About The Iowa Mercury
(Douglas Burns, founder of The Iowa Mercury and a fourth-generation Iowa journalist from Carroll, is a member of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative. Read dozens of the most talented writers in Iowa in just one place. The Iowa Writers’ Collaborative spans the full state. It’s one of the biggest things going in Iowa journalism and writing now — and you don’t want to miss. This collaborative is — as the outstanding Quad Cities journalist Ed Tibbetts says — YOUR SUNDAY IOWA newspaper. )
Thank you, Doug. The story of the Turek family needs to be told over and over and over again. It is an American story of bravery and resilience. Josh’s life is a reflection of that and so much more.
Another excellent piece of writing. I am glad we are given his dad's perspective. He has an unique angle of his son and his perseverance.