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 ...
Brian Williams’ uncle?
Real heroes tend to downplay their accomplishments, that should have been the first red flag.
If he had been UDT, he could have used the label SEAL.
All UDT can call themselves SEALs, since a few years ago.
I knew an old guy with a DSC from Korea, never talked about it. The only indications of the what he had done was that he really hated communists (especially Chinese) and whenever we went to Korea on business he was always met at the airplane by at least a ROK O-6. They treated him like a hero.
Here is a 2013 article on him titled “The original Navy SEAL”
Local veteran regales with fascinating wartime tales that inspired 1951 film
Here is a quote from him “I know I’m considered a hero, and I don’t feel like it, but most heroes don’t,” he said during a recorded video interview nine years ago for the Library of Congress. “They just say I am.”
There is no North China Sea. And even if there was his tale of serving in the European Theater and the Pacific Theater is not credible.
There reportedly is a saying among combat veterans that “Those who talk the most have seen the least”
One of the greatest seldom told stories of WWII was of the Italian frogmen. When I was in the fifth grade our teacher would order paperback books for us for only 50 cents each. I ordered one about the Italian frogmen and was amazed at how effective they had been.
One thing I recall is their sinking a British battleship with limpet mines.
Other than that book I don’t recall ever hearing anything about them.
Did I ever tell you about how I was drafted at the age of 11 and earned a battlefield commission in Vietnam. I was a colonel at the age of 14. After my secret mission to Cambodia with John Kerry I met Raquel Welch at the Bob Hope show. I spent hours taking a bubble bath with Raquel and blah blah blah...../s
Sad. 89 years old, most of it lived as a part of an ongoing lie, affecting everyone around him:
“Goehner’s own son told the I-Team that he heard the same war stories all his life and it’s a shock. He’s trying to figure out what this means for the family”
I knew this guy was a phony 20 years ago when I lived in Morgan Hill. Every year or so, his number of “suicide missions” would go up by one and he’d tack another Silver Star or Navy Cross onto his record. That self-provided (and unverified) oral history in the Library of Congress convinced a lot of people that he was legit.
“Goehner told the audience that his suicide missions earned him the Navy Cross, three Silver Stars, and four Purple Hearts. “
Surprised he isn’t an Octo-amputee...
[and four Purple Hearts]
Very impressive. I give him 5 Brian Williams.
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. :-(
Best comment:
“..., I was the 3rd most decorated veteran of WW2. I actually saved Audie Murphy’s life once. I was also the door gunner on the Enola Gay and did you ever see that pic of the Marines planting the flag on Mount Suribachi? That was my idea. I didn’t want all the glory, so I just took the picture.
I’m available for speaking engagements, all expenses paid, of course....>
Dude must be a Freeper and I’ll bet his name is “humble...”
LOL
Just teasing you man, erh, whatever you call yourself these days after Christy Jenner one upped you.
LOL!!!
(donning Nomex suit)
I was wounded in CONUS by a communist female. She broke my heart.
My friend owns this paper and he did not print the original article, which was done before he purchased MH Times...
I’m so jealous!
Did you get in on the action with Hanoi Jane too?
During an hour-long interview on Monday, Goehner’s son, Victor, 60, who is the elder Goehner’s caretaker, said his father has a long history of embellishing, fabricating and boasting of things that are not true, such as being wealthy.
Victor Goehner said he is uncertain if the war stories he has heard all his life are true or false or partly true.
He produced copies of his father’s naval separation document and discharge certificates. The former, dated May 1, 1946 shows the elder Goehner served in the Pacific, European and African theaters of war and was honorably discharged as an S1c, or “Seaman First Class.”
He enlisted in December 1943 and, after leaving active duty, served honorably in the naval reserves until 1954, according to the document.
So it appears that he is a WWII Vet, served in three different theaters of war and even his son calls him a BS'er
Yeah and four purple hearts!?
Amazing.
Even more fk’d is I’ll probably see him at the 4th of July parade.
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