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GILROY—No matter what was happening at home or school, Adrianna Ortega has always found solace on the softball diamond.

MORGAN HILL—A Morgan Hill veteran who was exposed as a fraud by a television news report earlier this week admitted Tuesday he has been lying for more than a decade and apologized for the lies.William C. Goehner, 89, has spent years fooling the Library of Congress, the media and even his own friends and family. He has talked publicly about the four Purple Hearts, three Silver Stars and Navy Cross he received for heroism as a member of a storied Underwater Demolition Team during the Second World War. Morgan Hill Rotary Club issued a presidential citation for valor that he proudly displayed.But it was all a lie. Goehner said at his home June 2 he is sorry for telling the tall tales all these years. That was just a couple days after Goehner’s credibility was called into question by ABC investigative reporter Dan Noyes at a presentation the Morgan Hill man made at the USS Hornet Museum in Alameda.“I’m sorry. I was discharged as a Seaman First (Class),” Goehner said Tuesday. Seaman First Class is several ranks below Lieutenant Commander, which Goehner has claimed many times to have achieved at the age of 19 after just 2.5 years in the Navy.On Tuesday, while admitting he is a fraud, Goehner stopped short of taking full personal blame for the fabrications. He said a friend, whom he declined to name, contacted the Library of Congress on his behalf to set up a video interview for its Veterans History Project in 2004. Goehner said the Library of Congress never did its own fact-checking to verify his story.He said he did not receive any of the previously claimed medals. He did not serve on the Navy’s Underwater Demolition Team. The lead character played by Richard Widmark in 1951’s “The Frogmen” was not based on Goehner and he did not serve as a film consultant, he admitted.The former editors of this newspaper— when it was under different management and ownership—reported Goehner’s detailed accounts under the headline “The original Navy SEAL,” on January 11, 2013.Goehner explained his lies by saying, “I guess you get in the habit of it.”Goehner’s son Victor showed his father the DVD with his 2004 video interview for the Library of Congress.“But you’re the one who said you did these things,” Victor said.“Don’t sit here and say you didn’t know about it.”Victor said his father has told  the war and war medals stories “as long as I can remember.”When confronted by Noyes May 30 at the USS Hornet Museum with military records that disprove most of his story, Goehner insisted on camera that the stories were true. Victor said Tuesday morning was the first time his father “remotely admitted he’s wrong.”One veteran who vouched for Goehner, and recommended him to the USS Hornet Museum, is Morgan Hill resident and U.S. Air Force veteran Brian Shiroyama. He is “obviously...disappointed” in Goehner, but “pleased” to hear he has finally admitted to his lies.Goehner served in the U.S. Navy in Europe, Africa and the Pacific before and after World War Two, according to his naval separation documents. Goehner and his son showed these records to Gilroy Dispatch editor Jack Foley May 31, when Goehner continued to insist his stories were true.A day later, his son, Victor, 60, said his father has a long history of embellishing and fabricating things about his life.Goehne  enlisted in December 1943 and served honorably in the reserves until 1954, his documents state. Theyalso list his training in the navigation and steering of LSTs, navy lingo for Landing Ship, Tank.On June 2, Goehner continued to insist he received UDT training at Little Creek, but his son and a former Navy SEAL says that’s not possible.At the National Navy UDT-SEAL Museum in Ft. Pierce, Florida, executive director Richard Kaiser called Goehner’s combat stories “just preposterous.”He said the museum has a database that lists every person ever trained in underwater demolition work and Goehner “is not on it.”Underwater Demolition Teams, or UDTs, never were deployed in Europe during World War II, said Kaiser, a former Navy SEAL and recipient of  the Silver Star Medal for Valor in the so-called “Black Hawk Down” action in Somalia, Africa, in 1993.Goehner has also claiimed he was a Los Gatos policeman and went to Santa Clara University law school.Neither the city nore school has a record of him on the payroll or as a student.Goehner and his son said  June 2 that Goehner was  an “auxiliary” police staff person,  “kind of like a volunteer,” said to Victor.“It was wrong of me,” Goehner said of his tall tales. “It was absolutely wrong. I shouldn’t have let it go this far. I’ve got to come out with the truth. It’s my fault, I guess.”

GILROY—UNFI, the $6-billon natural foods distribution company opening soon in Gilroy, filled 140 positions during a three-day job fair, with most slots offered to Gilroy residents.

These applicants were among 720 interviewed during United Natural Food Inc.'s 3-day job fair at the Hilton Garden Inn in Gilroy May 29-31. Of the 140 people offered jobs, 84 are Gilroy residents. An early August opening is planned for the firm's new Gilroy distribution hub, under construction since June, 2014. 

GILROY—A Union Pacific train collided with a Honda Civic late Thursday after the car became wedged under a crossing arm gate and could not get out of the way of the oncoming train at the intersection of Masten Avenue and Monterey Road.

On June 1, 2015, the Mayor of Gilroy admitted contritely that he had not done his budget homework before suggesting big cuts in city funding to the Gilroy Welcome Center. He then reversed his position, which magically changed the votes of his three well-leashed city council allies. Mayor Don Gage did the right thing, but not before causing unnecessary grief and anger that brought to the surface pent up frustration with the mayor and the City Hall minions that appear too often to snap to his heel. A few days earlier, the mayor told Dispatch Reporter Chris Foy that his idea to cut Welcome Center funds was a“mistake;” that after meeting with center director, Jane Howard, and a local hotelier, he’d seen the light and reversed his position, he told Foy.When the budget was adopted on Monday, $300,000 a year for two years remained intact for the Welcome Center, which works hard and efficiently to promote Gilroy to the world and by doing so brings tax dollars to the city and other immeasurables that contribute to the general welfare.That unanimous vote to continue funding deserves a job-well-done to the council. The fact is, three members never wanted the funds cut. They are Dion Bracco, Cat Tucker and Roland Velasco. They deserve credit for seeing the right path. It takes guts to stand up to bullying and a wrecking crew. But when a mayor who has drawn a huge cumulative paycheck from taxpayers for years as an elected county official, and has sat though more hours of budget hearings than Christopher has garlic, does not do his fiscal homework and then, shooting from the hip, angers many by suggesting drastic cuts to a community asset, it kind of makes you wonder, what’s going on in Gilroy?The mayor wanted to take money from the Welcome Center and help at-risk youth, even though the city shares $2 million in grants to help youth. His explanation did not ring true. His critics are convinced it was mayoral revenge for the defeat of Measure F, a city sales tax increase whose biggest booster was the mayor. He denied it.Auto dealers ponied up big bucks to pass F, now the mayor is pushing for improved roads for easier driving to the dealerships. Friends and family of the mayor voted against F but never told him for fear of retaliation, according to several.During the F campaign, a merchant who was the face of the anti-F opposition and who had a makeshift storage unit at his shop for years without incident, suddenly received a citation for the unit.The Gilroy Chamber of Commerce opposed Measure F. After it failed, the mayor abruptly ended his practice of attending chamber breakfasts. He also cut off long-time friends and allies who opposed the measure, to their dismay and frustration. When the mayor demanded cuts in Welcome Center funding, just about everyone figured it was because the center director is related to the merchant who was cited but continued his vocal opposition to F. It’s a coincidence that kind of makes you wonder, what’s going on in Gilroy?Here is the other thing. When Mayor Gage originally suggested cuts in Welcome Center funding, three  council members, Terri Aulman, Perry Woodward and Peter Leroe-Munoz, agreed and voted with him to direct staff to rework the budget to include the cuts. A week later, when Gage explained his unpopular action by saying he didn’t understand the center’s operation and didn’t do his homework, those same three council members flip-flopped, too. The Welcome Center has been the most visible of many issues that have people unhappy with City Hall and this administration and what some describe as its arrogance. They ask why the mayor and City Hall are so anti-business, why it takes years to get permits, why some departments seem to badger and not help customers, why the mayor and his council allies are so unwilling to compromise, and how one person’s vision and petty likes and dislikes seem so easily to blind or dismiss the views and visions of others.The very real hope that swelled Gilroy’s collective community pride when local-boy-makes-good Don Gage gave up  his comfortable Santa Clara Valley Water District director position to come home and be the mayor again now is sadly deflated. It kind of makes you wonder, what’s going on in Gilroy?*With a nod to William Allen White, 1868-1944.

Concert series kickoff