Debbie Harris and Bo Stuart are two survivalists taking on Surana on tonight’s episode of Naked And Afraid. Read on for the details on Stuart and Harris below.
1. Bo Stuart Is a Happily Married U.S. Army Special Forces Officer
(Discovery)
According to Stuart’s Discovery bio, Bo Stuart is a happily married man of over twenty years and has made a career as a U.S. Army Special Forces officer. Stuart married his college sweetheart and then got into a career as an Infantry officer. He then graduated from Airborne, Air Assault, Ranger Schools, and was deployed to Hawaii, Thailand and Panama. When he took the Army’s Jungle Warfare Course, a bigger interest in survival skills sparked inside of him. Stuart eventually earned the title of Green Beret and became a Latin American Specialist in the 7th Special Forces Group. He also survived several combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Stuart and his wife have two teen kids together and Stuart now works as an instructor at the Joint Forces Staff College in Norfolk, Virginia. Soon, Stuart will face retirement.
2. Harris Is in the Medical Field
(Discovery)
Debbie Harris is a registered nurse as well as American Red Cross CPR & First Aid Instructor, which could come in very handy in the wilderness. The past 10 years she has been married to her husband and has been focused on being the mother of three children. She now practices survival skills with her kids.
3. Leishmaniasis Got the Best of Stuart
(Facebook)
After struggling on Naked And Afraid, Stuart contracted Leishmaniasis. In a Facebook post with the above photo, Stuart wrote:
A little update of my Leishmaniasis battle. I am still waiting for the CDC to determine which species of Leishmaniasis I have before they will release the medication. It has been a long wait! I’ve lost pretty much of all the skin on the back of my ear and it is still really painful!
So, what is Leishmaniasis? The definition is a disease caused by protozoan parasites of the genus Leishmania and spread by the bite of certain types of sandflies.[2] The disease can present in three main ways: cutaneous, mucocutaneous, or visceral leishmaniasis.[2] The cutaneous form presents with skin ulcers, while the mucocutaneous form presents with ulcers of the skin, mouth, and nose, and the visceral form starts with skin ulcers and then later presents with fever, low red blood cells, and enlarged spleen and liver.
There are over 20 species of Leishmania and the skin sores occur after being bitten by infected sand flies.
4. Stuart Was an Army Brat
(Discovery)
Perhaps Stuart growing up as an army brat is what persuaded him to join the armed forces as an adult. His Discovery bio reads:
At twelve years old, Bo’s father took him to work as a soldier for a month, where he got to play the “opposing force” for a military training exercise in Hawaii. After running around for a month in the wilds of Hawaii building fighting positions and carrying an M-16 rifle, he was determined to become a soldier. He set his sights on becoming an Airborne Ranger Infantry officer so that he could jump out of airplanes, shoot guns and blow things up.
Traveling all over the globe with his family, Stuart got to know different areas, climates and cultures. He also grew to love hunting and fishing, which he learned from his father, grandfather and uncle.
5. Harris Grew Up Helping Out With Her Parents’ Bait Shop
(Discovery)
Debbie Harris grew up in Iowa, where she helped her parents at their bait shop. As a kid, she helped pick nightcrawlers, fished for crayfish, and hunted for frogs that they could sell at the shop.