The Shawn Ryan Show

Podbit · The Shawn Ryan Show

#317 Johnnie Clark - Surviving One of the Deadliest Jobs During the Vietnam War

Explore episode Jun 29, 2026
Religion & Spirituality
Shawn Ryan's Conversion in Sedona

#317 Johnnie Clark - Surviving One of the Deadliest Jobs Du… · Jun 29, 2026 Religion & Spirituality

Shawn Ryan describes hitting rock bottom spiritually during the Afghanistan withdrawal chaos, breaking down crying on a flight to Sedona while feeling the world was darkness. A Vietnam veteran Air Force guard — a total stranger — read his mind and told him every burden he was carrying wasn't his battle. Then, the daughter of his recently deceased best friend texted him out of nowhere with a message her father had told her to send. Ryan says it felt like a battle for his soul.

4m 18s

Where this was said

The Greybeard Mountain Miracle and Psalm 121

At 3:17:12 · chapter starts 2:53:00

Clark travels to a remote cabin in Montreat, North Carolina at his pastor's urging — the first time he's been alone in the wilderness since Vietnam, and the first time without a weapon. Bears bang around the cabin at night; he sets up improvised punji pits with 2x4s and nails. When a repairman arrives and shatters his solitude, he takes a walk up Greybeard Mountain in shorts and a T-shirt with no phone, no water, and a recently operated knee. Halfway back down the trail, he is frozen mid-step — unable to move in any direction, feeling not fear but complete peace, like Mitchell Page on Guadalcanal. An audible voice says, 'Johnny, get up. Johnny, I want you to walk a little further with me.' He turns around and climbs until he reaches a boulder he has never seen, embedded with a round plaque bearing Psalm 121. Within days, the same verse arrives in an unsolicited missionary pamphlet, appears twice in his own book Gunner's Glory (which he hadn't read since writing it), and is sung as a hymn at his home church. Clark says this was the first time in his life he has told the full story publicly.

Religion & Spirituality
The Mountain Trail and the Voice of God

#317 Johnnie Clark - Surviving One of the Deadliest Jobs Du… · Jun 29, 2026 Religion & Spirituality

Clark hiked Greybeard Mountain in 2004 seeking relief from severe PTSD. Mid-descent, he was frozen mid-step — unable to move forward, backward, or sideways — feeling complete peace but total paralysis, just like Mitchell Page on Guadalcanal. An audible voice told him to walk further up. At the top, embedded in a boulder he'd never seen, was a plaque quoting Psalm 121 — the same verse he later found in his own book, in an unexpected missionary pamphlet, and sung at his church the following Sunday.

15m 40s

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