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I-TEAM: PHONY LIEUTENANT COMMANDER HONORED AT ALAMEDA'S USS HORNET MUSEUM
abc7news.com ^ | june 1, 2015 | dan noyes

Posted on 06/02/2015 6:22:02 PM PDT by lowbridge

For its "Living Ship Day", the USS Hornet Museum honored 89-year-old Morgan Hill resident William Goehner as a member of the Underwater Demolition Team, or UDT, in WWII. It's the unit that predated the Navy SEALs.

"My UDT team, we destroyed 80 percent of the German submarine fleet in the Baltic Sea, lost 19 out of 30 men," said Goehner. "I cried."

Goehner told the audience that his suicide missions earned him the Navy Cross, three Silver Stars, and four Purple Hearts.

"The worst one was in the North China Sea," he said. "Got stuck down below in the ship and it burned up and I woke up four hours later on a hospital ship."

He added that he was the youngest lieutenant commander ever to serve in the Navy, "I went through the Navy there and ended up to be a lieutenant commander at 19," he said. "Hollywood heard about it and made a movie about me, Richard Widmark played me."

Goehner claimed he was a consultant on the movie The Frogmen, and that he became so famous that even a renowned general sought him out.

"I met George Patton in Sicily," Goehner said. "He heard about me and wanted to meet me, so I actually talked to George Patton. He impressed the crowd so much, he signed autographs after."

"It's certainly an honor and a privilege to be in the presence of someone who had such a distinguished career," Navy veteran Glenn Powell said at the event.

Another attendee, veteran Navy pilot Mike Arrowsmith, commented, "That's a lot of medals and that's a lot of valor."

The problem is that none of it is true.

(Excerpt) Read more at abc7news.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: dirtbag; stolenvalor
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To: smokingfrog

Hey, whoa, man.

I was on the swim team titanic of 1912....

I got a shirt in Sag Harbor, Long Island with that emblazoned on it...

Some people get upset when I wear it and I ask “Too soon?”


41 posted on 06/02/2015 7:35:21 PM PDT by Vendome (Don't take life so seriously-you won't live through it anyway-Enjoy Yourself ala Louis Prima)
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To: smokingfrog

Ann’s good like that and many other talents...


42 posted on 06/02/2015 7:36:30 PM PDT by Vendome (Don't take life so seriously-you won't live through it anyway-Enjoy Yourself ala Louis Prima)
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To: lowbridge

There’s no POS like an old POS.


43 posted on 06/02/2015 7:41:01 PM PDT by ozzymandus
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To: Vendome

Had he kept his lies somewhat reasonable, he may not have been caught out. At 19, a battlefield promotion from seaman to ensign or jg would have been questionable but remotely (perhaps very remotely) possible. Jumping it up to LCDR was laughable on its face.


44 posted on 06/02/2015 7:55:22 PM PDT by Bob (No, being a US Senator and the Secretary of State are not accomplishments; they're jobs.)
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To: forgotten man
I was born June 29th., 1945. Too late to help out with the war in Europe but I did co pilot the Enola Gay.

Here's a picture of me from that era:

 photo baby2.jpg

45 posted on 06/02/2015 8:01:52 PM PDT by Graybeard58 (27 more shopping days 'til, Graybeard 58's b/day!)
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To: ansel12

My Uncle was UDT, never called himself a seal, and only his Wife would talk about what he did after he died from his injuries after years of suffering.


46 posted on 06/02/2015 8:04:24 PM PDT by dila813
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To: Vendome

“Goehner told the audience that his suicide missions earned him the Navy Cross, three Silver Stars, and four Purple Hearts. “

.................................................................

He had almost as many as John Kerry.


47 posted on 06/02/2015 8:05:43 PM PDT by Graybeard58 (27 more shopping days 'til, Graybeard 58's b/day!)
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To: dila813

Your uncle may not have known, and probably would have continued to call himself UDT, even if he had, my guess is that few of the old UDT call themselves SEALs, but UDT was merged into the SEALs about 1983, with the UDT desiring to stay in, receiving additional training.


48 posted on 06/02/2015 8:25:05 PM PDT by ansel12
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To: ansel12

My uncle’s wife said he was proud of his service, didn’t care to be known. He knew he did his duty.


49 posted on 06/02/2015 8:33:36 PM PDT by dila813
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To: lowbridge
I'm so sorry I never questioned my dad about his service in WWII. All I remember was that he and fellow Marines had just finished training for the invasion of Japan when the ships they were aboard were sent to northern China to receive the Japanese surrender.
I do have photos of him playing ball with chinese children and several photos of him doing guard duty with Japanese soldiers.
50 posted on 06/02/2015 9:25:04 PM PDT by Larry381 (In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act)
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To: All

I recently read that the original UDT were Seabees.


51 posted on 06/02/2015 9:26:50 PM PDT by VerySadAmerican (I'm very sad for my country. Personally, I've never been happier.)
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To: ansel12

A few years ago, I met a UDT guy. He was very aggressive in saying he was a frogman, not a SEAL. They guy I met told me about some interesting intelligence missions during the Taiwan crisis in the late 50s, but he wanted me to understand exactly what he did and didn’t do.


52 posted on 06/02/2015 9:28:24 PM PDT by MediaMole
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To: MediaMole; dila813

The only one that we know for sure that prefers to tell people that he was a SEAL, instead of preferring the name of the elite unit that he specifically served in, and where he earned his pay, is Jesse Ventura.


53 posted on 06/02/2015 9:34:19 PM PDT by ansel12
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To: lowbridge

“War Stories and Fairy Tales”, no difference.....


54 posted on 06/02/2015 9:47:36 PM PDT by ThomasPaine2000 (Peace without freedom is tyranny.)
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To: doc1019
Every time I run across a “vet”, and he starts to tell me of his combat exploits ... I just walk away. Seldom will a combat vet ever want to talk about their experiences under fire, they are trying to forget, not remember. :-(

My son did two tours of Iraq as a combat Medic. He does not talk about it very much.

55 posted on 06/03/2015 3:28:30 AM PDT by cpdiii (DECKHAND, ROUGHNECK, GEOLOGIST, PILOT, PHARMACIST, LIBERTARIAN The Constitution is worth dying for.)
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To: lowbridge

This is sad. My own father told me some things about serving in WWII. But the stories my sister related that he told her are FAR different. Who knows where the truth lays?


56 posted on 06/03/2015 6:00:45 AM PDT by Shery (Pray for righteousness to be restored and for the peace of Jerusalem.)
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To: Foolsgold

I heard John F’N Kerry broke his leg on a two-wheeled combat vehicle on the beaches of Normandy, France...

He was air-vac’ed by C-17 to Walter Reed, where Obama himself laid another Purple Heart on his pillow.

What an F’N HERO!


57 posted on 06/03/2015 6:30:35 AM PDT by Alas Babylon! (As we say in the Air Force, "You know you're over the target when you start getting flak!")
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