"Phony Lieutenant Commander Honored At Alameda's USS Hornet Museum"

2015-06-02T10:24:45-04:00

This article was originally published by abc7news.com:
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ALAMEDA, Calif. (KGO) -- A Santa Clara County man has been able to convince many people -- including veterans groups, reporters, and even the Library of Congress -- that he is the second most decorated soldier from World War II. He was even honored by the USS Hornet Museum in Alameda this past weekend. But ABC7 News I-Team reporter Dan Noyes was there to reveal the truth and to speak with veterans who care deeply about the issue of stolen valor. There's a network of people across the country who work to expose the phonies, and this story started with a tip to the P-O-W Network. It went to Guardian of Valor and retired Navy SEAL Don Shipley, who then contacted Noyes.

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. The I-Team started digging and obtained Goehner's records under the Freedom of Information Act. He did serve in the Navy during WWII, but left as a seaman first class, not a lieutenant commander. He was never in the UDT, and he never received the Navy Cross, Silver Stars, and Purple Hearts.

Noyes: "Are you sure about those medals?"
Goehner: "Oh, yes."
Noyes: "You're sure about four Purple Hearts?"
Goehner: "Oh, yes."

When Noyes gave Mr. Goehner a copy of his actual records from the Navy, he showed a certificate supposedly from the Library of Congress detailing his accomplishments, but then admitted a schoolteacher friend had made it on a computer. Still, Goehner persisted with his tall tales.

Noyes: "Are you still going to tell the story, sir?"
Goehner: "That's what I did, that's what's on here."
Noyes: "I appreciate your time. Good luck."

The news that they just sat through an hour of lies hit the veterans hard.

Noyes: "You're emotional about it."
Arrowsmith: "Yeah, sorry. I mean, I'm not sad about him. It's the guys I knew who didn't come back."
Noyes: "The ones who didn't come back."
Arrowsmith: "Yeah."

Beyond uncovering yet another case of stolen valor, it's important to consider the big picture. How do these lies get so far? How did it come to this? The first documentation of Goehner's lies comes from April 18, 2004 in his interview for the Veterans History Project. The federal government has spent millions of dollars collecting oral histories and cataloging them at the Library of Congress. They include Goehner, telling his phony stories.

In his interview, Goehner said, "I got a bullet here and it came out between two ribs." The recording and its Library of Congress listing convinced a reporter for the Gilroy Dispatch and Morgan Hill Times to write a glowing feature in 2013 on Goehner called, "The Original Navy SEAL."

"I tracked him down in Morgan Hill after reading a newspaper article written about him in Morgan Hill," said United States Air Force veteran Brian Shiroyama.

Shiroyama was so impressed after meeting Goehner that he brought him to the USS Hornet Museum's Director of Education Heidi Schave, who didn't think to check Goehner's records.

"I apologize, I'm just shocked as anyone else," she said. "That's not our policy here at all to promote any fraud at all, this is the first of my knowledge.

With his appearance at the USS Hornet, Goehner fooled yet another reporter who wrote an article that appeared on the Oakland Tribune and Contra Costa Times websites this weekend. The publications have since removed it.

"It's important to have it correct, it is not important to fabricate it, because all that does is taint the veterans that have given the greatest gift they have, which is their life," said Navy pilot veteran Tom Constable.

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.

http://abc7news.com/news/i-team-phony-lieutenant-commander-honored-at-alameda-museum/761240/

Response by LTC Private RallyPoint Member made Jun 2 at 2015 10:32 AM

2015-06-02T10:32:10-04:00

Shame on him! Why!

Response by PO1 William "Chip" Nagel made Jun 2 at 2015 10:43 AM

2015-06-02T10:43:25-04:00

Interesting. Unfortunately until the Establishment of the DD214 as the be all, end all in establishing military credentials in 1950 any prior documentation wasn't as good or as thorough and lots of folks had the chance to manipulate that shortfall.

Response by CPT Bruce Rodgers made Jun 2 at 2015 10:47 AM

2015-06-02T10:47:35-04:00

Crazy

Response by CPT Ahmed Faried made Jun 2 at 2015 11:50 AM

2015-06-02T11:50:35-04:00

why?

Response by SGT Darryl Allen made Jun 2 at 2015 12:47 PM

2015-06-02T12:47:19-04:00

This is another classic case of a person who felt dissatisfied with their life and their own accomplishments. You see it all the time, men who feel inadequate because their military service doesn't measure up to the Chris Kyle's of the world. Some people don't understand that you should be proud of your service, no matter what you did, because it was important and it was honorable. What they see instead are the Chris Kyle's getting lauded for their military accomplishments and feel inferior by comparison, so they invent military service so they can feel those same feelings of accomplishment and appreciation. It's a very unfortunate side-effect of military culture and the need to be the biggest badass in the room.

Response by PV2 Lance Stewart made Jun 3 at 2015 12:15 AM

2015-06-03T00:15:23-04:00

These people.... Putting them in jail would make our taxes go up... And we can't shoot them.... Let's oppsidently push them in a lake or off a cliff

Response by Cpl Joshua Caldwell made Dec 16 at 2016 4:30 PM

2016-12-16T16:30:52-05:00

How on earth did he claim to be the second most decorated man in WW2 and nobody called BS

Response by LCpl Emanuel W. made Jan 18 at 2018 12:51 PM

2018-01-18T12:51:48-05:00

At least he's been ousted. If he's still alive, he can't claim to be UDT30 anymore. On January 21, 2012, I attended the funeral and had the honor of being casket guard for the last surviving member of UDT30, Emery Lee Martin, Jr.

http://lancasteronline.com/obituaries/emery-lee-martin-jr/article_378bdd03-7f92-56e8-abc4-2d2fe40c3982.html

Emery Lee Martin, Jr.

Emery Lee Martin, Jr., 86, of Lancaster, PA, died on Tuesday, January 17, 2012, at Hospice of Lancaster County-Mt. Joy, with his family by his side.

Response by SSG Edward Tilton made Jan 18 at 2018 1:16 PM

2018-01-18T13:16:15-05:00

Sure knows how to spin a tale. His stories are great, they might make a good movie