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 about two 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 apparently never did its own fact-checking to verify his story.
He said he did not receive the Navy Cross, Silver Star, Purple Hearts or other recognitions he previously and repeatedly said he gained during his service. 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 consultant for the film’s producers, 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 is less clear on the reason why he told these made-up stories, for decades, about his service record. “I guess you get in the habit of it,” Goehner said when asked why he repeated the lies so many times for so long.
Even Goehner’s son Victor won’t let him off the hook. Clearly upset about his father’s suddenly exposed record of fabrications, at their home Tuesday Victor showed his father the DVD that contains his 2004 video interview for the Library of Congress.
“But you’re the one who said you did these things,” Victor said, his voice rising. “I’m wondering how it took so long for this all to come out. Do you know how many people and organizations are going to get dragged through the mud because of this? Don’t sit here and say you didn’t know about it.”
Goehner replied sheepishly when Victor reminded him of the video interview, “I don’t remember that.”
Victor said his father has been telling the stories—now uncovered as false—about his service on the Navy’s Underwater Demolition team and his many decorations since Victor was a child—“as long as I can remember.”
When confronted by Noyes May 30 at the USS Hornet Museum with official military records that disprove most of his story, Goehner insisted on camera that the stories remained true. Victor said Tuesday morning was the first time his father “remotely admitted he’s wrong.”
“I’m having visions of a Jerry Springer episode,” Victor said angrily.
Disappointment
One veteran who vouched for Goehner, and recommended him as a presenter at 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.
“As of (June 1), he has firmly denied any deceit even when I told him that evidence against him was absolutely overwhelming,” Shiroyama said. “Now I feel better…that Goehner is a man after all… that he has admitted and apologized. I wish he had done that much sooner.”
Shiroyama added, “I am disappointed for my fellow veterans who faithfully served and continue to serve this country—many giving their lives. In their own way, they were and are all heroes. But Goehner’s deceit, I believe, could easily lead to questioning the credibility of those who fought for this country.”
Goehner did serve in the U.S. Navy in Europe, Africa and the Pacific before and after World War Two,according to his naval separation document and discharge certificates. 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, including telling people that he is wealthy.
Goehner enlisted in December 1943 and after leaving active duty, served honorably in the naval reserves until 1954, the documents state.
The documents also list his training not in underwater demolition but in the navigation and steering of LSTs, navy lingo for Landing Ship, Tank — large vessels that deliver tanks onto beaches.
The document indicates he received amphibious training at Little Creek Va., one of the few training sites at the time for what came to be known as Navy “frogmen,” or underwater demolition teams. But that site alsotrained the crews of landing craft that delivered men and equipment to invasion beaches.
Goehner not the first
On June 2, Goehner continued to insist he received UDT training while at Little Creek, but his son and a former Navy SEAL turned historian on the elite special operations squad say 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.”
Even if for some reason he was trained but did not turn up on the list, Underwater Demolition Teams, or UDTs, never were deployed in Europe during World War Two, Kaiser said.
“The first Naval combat demolition units…all went to the Pacific,” said Kaiser, a former Navy SEAL.
Goehner’s boasting of wartime heroics as a Navy frogman is not an isolated case.
Kaiser said it happens, “All the time; we have families come in every week saying ‘Look up my dad,’ and we look it up and he’s not in there we have to find a way to tell them politely.
I guess because of my position (with the museum) I don’t take as great of offense as I used to, because it happens so often. I did not realize that until I took this position.” In 1993, Kaiser received the Silver Star Medal for Valor during the Battle of Mogadishu, the so-called “Black Hawk Down” action in Somalia, Africa.
Goehner has also described being a policeman for eight years and of attending Santa Clara University law school. University verification specialist Christine Robbin said, “Archives was unable to locate a record for Mr. Goehner” after the Times requested a search.
“There are no records that William C. Goehner, Jr was ever employed by the Los Gatos Police Department,” a payroll specialist for the Los Gatos/Monte Sereno Police Department wrote. “All records of payroll, background information and personnel information has been checked with negative results.”
But Goehner and his son added June 2 that Goehner served as an “auxiliary” police staff person, which is “kind of like a volunteer,” according 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.”
