Jacob H. Turbett – Corporal, United States Marine Corps

U.S. Department of Defense
Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs)
News Release

IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 111-10
February 16, 2010

DOD Identifies Marine Casualty

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a Marine who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Corporal Jacob H. Turbett, 21, of Canton, Michigan, died February 13, 2010, while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan.  He was assigned to 2nd Combat Engineer Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.


A Marine who graduated from Canton High School in 2007 and died recently in Afghanistan had known for years that he wanted to be in the military, according to one of his former teachers.

Jim O’Connor said Corproal Jacob Turbett was a good person, who truly owned his decision to join the military and knew what he was getting into. O’Connor taught auto technology and collision repair to Turbett for several years.

jhturbett-photo-001

“He just had a great positive attitude. I don’t think he ever had a bad day. He chased his passion and that was to be a Marine,” O’Connor said.

Turbett, whose unit was based at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, would have turned 22 next month. The military said his remains were returned to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware over the weekend.

His mother, Sheila Turbett, said that she’d spoken to her son a few days before he died, when he called her at work to say he and his fellow Marines in Afghanistan were waiting to go into the Taliban stronghold of Marjah. The invasion was repeatedly delayed, he told her, possibly because of weather.

Turbett’s wife, Crystal, told the Associated Press that the military notified her of his death Saturday.

His mother said he was killed by a single gunshot. “I was really shocked, obviously,” she said Tuesday.

The slain Corporal came from a military family, according to Sheila Turbett. One of his grandfathers, two of his uncles and a cousin were in the Marines and another uncle was in the Navy. In fact, his sister, Jaime Turbett, enlisted in the Navy and started boot camp on February 3, 10 days before he was killed.

Turbett himself did civil air patrol in high school for a couple years. His half-brother, Joe Marsh, is a sheriff’s deputy in Humboldt County, California.

“He was actually looking forward to going over there and fighting for his country,” his mother, Sheila Turbett, said about his tour of duty in Afghanistan.

He previously completed tours of duty in Bangladesh and Iraq and had been stationed in Okinawa, Japan.

Turbett, a Redondo Beach, California, native, had hoped to make the military a permanent part of his life.

“He was well-liked. He was a great worker, a really hard worker,” his mother said. “He wanted to fly airplanes and unfortunately, he never got the school grades good enough soon enough. He was planning on finishing up his tour of duty, finish up his four years and then was going to possibly get out, go to school and then go back into the military to try to get into flying.”

In his spare time, Turbett – Jake to his friends, Jakey to his mom – enjoyed playing video games, learning about airplanes and squirrel hunting.

“He was a quiet boy, kind of, but he was a jokester,” Sheila Turbett recalled. “He would be poking me – ‘Cut it out. Quit it. Leave me alone.’ He’d keep egging you on. He wouldn’t stop. He liked to see you laugh. He was a big family guy.”

Visitation will be Monday 12-9 p.m. at the L.J. Griffin Funeral Home, 42600 Ford Road in Canton, with a funeral the following day at 1 p.m. Turbett will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, on March 9, 2010.


By Brad Kadrich
Courtesy of HomeTownLife.Com
18 February 2010

On Marine Corporal Jacob Turbett's Myspace page, the 21-year-old wrote, “‘Bout to head out for a while, if you want to get updates, talk to the wifey. Mood: anxious.”

jhturbett-photo-002 jhturbett-and-wife-crystal-photo-001

Two days later, Turbett, a 2007 Canton High School graduate who entered the U.S. Marines right out of high school, was dead, killed in the war in Afghanistan.\

Turbett was apparently felled by a single gunshot over the weekend, according to his mother, Redford Township resident Sheila Turbett.

“He was actually looking forward to going over there,” Sheila Turbett said about his tour of duty in Afghanistan, which followed tours in Bangladesh and Iraq. “Honor, courage, commitment … what can I say, that's him.”

Sheila Turbett said she talked to her son just a couple of days before he was killed. Jacob's unit was waiting to push into Marjah, but were delayed by a sand storm. Turbett and others in his unit found the delay frustrating, according to his mother.

“He said he was looking forward to it … they were kind of put off that the sand storms weren't cooperating,” said Sheila Turbett, who said Jacob called her regularly. “We got to say our ‘I love yous.'”

Jacob Turbett followed in a long line of family members — one grandfather, two uncles and a cousin were Marines, his sister, Jamie, started Navy boot camp February 3 — to serve their country.

Turbett himself talked about joining the military as far back as junior high school.

But with everything going on in the world — particularly the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — Canton High School auto teacher Jim O'Connor debated the point with Turbett, whom O'Connor called “a great kid.”

“I talked to him about my fear of him not coming home, but he had already made his mind up,” said O'Connor, who taught Turbett in both his automotive technology and collision repair classes. “I respected him for that, and he was good enough to listen to my opinions, but he was very adamant about serving his country.”

Turbett wasn't to be swayed and ultimately enlisted in the U.S. Marines. Over the weekend, though, his former teacher's fears came true when Turbett was killed.

According to information on his Myspace page, Turbett was a combat engineer who enlisted in the Marines in 2006. He was part of a unit out of Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.

O'Connor, a teacher at Canton High School for nine years, said Turbett couldn't wait to be a part of defending his country.

“It wasn't an ego thing for Jake,” O'Connor said. “For Jake it was personal … it was to be a soldier. He wanted to defend our country against terrorism and make the world a safer place.”

Turbett is survived by his wife, Crystal – on his Myspace page, he called her “the best thing that ever happened to me” – whom he married in July 2008; his mother, Sheila; sister Jaime Turbett; stepbrother, Joseph Marsh; and his father, Richard.

Visitation will be noon to 9 p.m. Monday at the L.J. Griffin Funeral Home, 42600 Ford Road in Canton, with a funeral the following day at 1 p.m. Turbett will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, on March 9, 2010.

Jacob H. Turbett
A Marine carry team carries a transfer case containing the remains of Corporal Jacob H. Turbett Monday, February 15, 2010 at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware
Jacob H. Turbett
A Marine carry team carries a transfer case containing the remains of Corporal Jacob H. Turbett Monday, February 15, 2010 at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware
Jacob H. Turbett
A Marine carry team salutes after placing into a transfer vehicle a transfer case containing the remains of Corporal. Jacob H. Turbett Monday, February 15, 2010 at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware
Jacob H. Turbett
A Marine carry team marches after placing into a transfer vehicle a transfer case containing the remains of Corporal Jacob H. Turbett Monday, February 15, 2010 at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware

TURBETT, JACOB H

  • CPL   US MARINE CORPS
  • DATE OF BIRTH: 03/17/1988
  • DATE OF DEATH: 02/13/2010
  • BURIED AT: SECTION 60  SITE 9056
  • ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY

jhturbett-gravesite-photo-by-eileen-horan-may-2010-002jhturbett-gravesite-photo-by-eileen-horan-april-2010-001

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