A tragedy was averted in a crowded pool.

A tragedy was averted in a crowded pool.
By JEANNE STARMACK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
BOARDMAN -- Anyone poolside at the Holiday Inn on South Avenue on Saturday evening would have seen a strange sight.
A man clothed in military fatigues suddenly jumped into the pool filled with children, most of them there for a birthday party.
Donald Turner, 48, of Truesdale Avenue, Youngstown, barely remembers going into the water.
His niece, Breeanna Coulter, had just summoned him to the edge of the pool. When he looked down, he saw a boy lying on the bottom, face-up.
"I wasn't even thinking," Turner said. "The next thing I know I was in the water in my complete drill uniform."
He brought the boy to the surface and laid him on the concrete deck. He yelled for someone to call 911. Then, using training he received in the military, he performed CPR on the boy. By the time paramedics got there, the boy was breathing and awake.
So it happened that 8-year-old Bruce Clinkscale, who's tall for his age and has a shy smile that speaks for him when he's not sure what to say, was alive and well Tuesday to greet Turner again at the pool. They met there to pose for pictures before going out to dinner. Bruce was released Tuesday morning from Forum Health Northside Hospital, where he'd been kept because of fluid in his lungs.
"He was breathing too fast," said his mother, Oumba Clinkscale of Philadelphia Avenue on the South Side. She said her son will be fine now.
What happened
Clinkscale was at the pool with Bruce and two of her three daughters, ages 11 and 5. They were not part of Turner's group, a drill team he calls the Young Navy Seals, who were there to celebrate the birthday of Turner's grandson.
Clinkscale said she was in the hot tub next to the pool. She thought her son was fine and playing with the other kids. Of the 25 to 30 children Turner had with him, about 13 were in the pool, along with Clinkscale's children, he said.
That was enough of a crowd in the water, though, to confuse Bruce as he tried to make his way to the side of the pool but couldn't, he said.
It was hard, too, for Clinkscale to see what was happening to her son in the crowd. The next thing she knew, Turner was pulling him out of the water.
"And I helped put him on the concrete there. I kept screaming his name, over and over," she said. Then, all of a sudden, her son was awake.
Turner had Bruce breathing again by the time paramedics arrived.
Hotel manager Mike Moliterno said the staff that was on hand Saturday evening, including manager-on-duty David Kirk, reacted quickly to reach 911. He said a doctor from Dayton was also there to help.
"We're thankful everything was OK," Moliterno said.
Also deserves credit
Turner, whose military career includes the Marines, the Navy and the Sea Cadets, also credits his nieces, Meriah Harris and Breeanna, with helping to save Bruce. Meriah was the first to spot the boy on the bottom of the pool, and she alerted Breeanna.
"They followed the chain of command," Turner said. The girls are members of his drill team, which performs military drills. Turner said the activity gives kids something to do and is designed to boost their self-esteem.
What does Bruce think of Turner, the man who saved him? He didn't seem to know what to say. But his smile spoke for him.