thedrifter
02-08-06, 08:00 AM
Documentary recalls Marine's fight
Longview man wounded in 1968 Vietnam battle
By PATRINA A. BOSTIC
Wednesday, February 08, 2006
Former Marine Cpl. Les Goebel had a premonition in 1968 in the northern providence of South Vietnam that something bad was going to happen.
Goebel was 19 in 1967 when he volunteered to serve in for the Marine Corps in 1967, and a year later he and eight other Marines along with a South Vietnamese soldier were in the battle of their lives. The 10 men were part of the Delta Company Marine reconnaissance patrol that called themselves "Team Dallas Girl."
Goebel, of Longview, is part of a Vietnam War documentary titled "An Ocean Away" by Austin-based filmmaker Patrick Fries that will air locally at 7 p.m. Thursday. The documentary will not be on standard Longview Cable, but those with a digital value package will be able to see "An Ocean Away" on the Military Channel — channel 117.
The film follows the return of U.S. Marine Lt. Donald Matocha's remains to his Central Texas family. Matocha was killed in battle in April 1968. His body had been missing for three decades. The film shows the journey of Matocha's sisters to the battlefield in Vietnam where he died.
Goebel was at that April 5, 1968, battle on Dong Ma Mountain. He was shot three times, a piece of shrapnel landed near his jugular vein and he barely escaped with his life. He saw Matocha's lifeless body next to him and the gunshot wound to the Marine's head that stole the young lieutenant's his life.
Most of the battalion members had been wounded in the fight, and when a supply helicopter heard their call for help and went to rescue them, the wounded men weren't able to get Matocha's body into the helicopter.
Marines went back for him, but when they arrived at the scene of the battle, his body had been moved.
Goebel remembers the events leading up to that battle like it was yesterday.
"Something is going to go wrong," he told the nine men the day before.
The 10 men had spent the night along a river and would head up to Dong Ma Mountain the next morning to seek out information on the enemy's position.
The climb up the mountain was tough. They pulled themselves up on vines, dug hard into the dirt and grabbed onto rocks to make the climb.
What Goebel saw when they reached the top of the mountain gave him an eerie feeling. There was a communication wire and a bunker that the enemy had set up. He told one Marine to cut the wire.
For a few minutes, things were quiet and still.
"Something is getting ready to happen, and it's going to happen fast," he remembers saying to his fellow Marines. "We've got to get down."
It was too late. The enemy, hidden underneath camouflage grass doors, popped from the ground and began shooting. They also attacked the Marines from both sides.
The Marines threw an eye-burning agent into the air to help them combat the enemy, but the chemical also affected them. They struggled to put on their gas masks while firing back at the North Vietnamese soldiers. North Vietnamese soldiers also died that day.
On Tuesday night, Goebel recounted that harrowing day. One gunshot blew off his middle finger on his right hand. He also was shot in the leg and arm, but the three gunshots wounds aren't the only scars of the war.
Goebel, a U.S. Postal Service employee, is a throat cancer survivor. He said doctors told him he developed the cancer from Agent Orange, a chemical the U.S. government sprayed in the fields of Vietnam to kill the brush.
Paula Goebel said the cancer radiation treatment burned her husband's jaw, and he can't chew food. She says he has been on a liquid diet for 11 years.
"Our men fought valiantly, but because of the surprise attacks many lost their lives and were maimed and wounded," said Paula Goebel, a mother of two children, Steven Goebel Moreland, 37, and Cherse Steelman, 36. "Marines are taught to fight to the death. They did fight until the last man was down."
Filmmaker Fries agrees with Goebel's wife.
"He is a Marine through and through. I will say this about Les Goebel. If you are in a firefight, Les Goebel is the man you want on your patrol," said Fries, who invited Goebel and his wife to his home in August, where he interviewed the Goebels and other Marines who survived the 1968 battle. "The most important thing for me is that we have created a documentary that at the end of the production everyone, including members of Team Dallas Girl and the Matocha family, can be very proud of."
Fries said the heroes of the Vietnam War are the veterans and their families.
Ellie
Longview man wounded in 1968 Vietnam battle
By PATRINA A. BOSTIC
Wednesday, February 08, 2006
Former Marine Cpl. Les Goebel had a premonition in 1968 in the northern providence of South Vietnam that something bad was going to happen.
Goebel was 19 in 1967 when he volunteered to serve in for the Marine Corps in 1967, and a year later he and eight other Marines along with a South Vietnamese soldier were in the battle of their lives. The 10 men were part of the Delta Company Marine reconnaissance patrol that called themselves "Team Dallas Girl."
Goebel, of Longview, is part of a Vietnam War documentary titled "An Ocean Away" by Austin-based filmmaker Patrick Fries that will air locally at 7 p.m. Thursday. The documentary will not be on standard Longview Cable, but those with a digital value package will be able to see "An Ocean Away" on the Military Channel — channel 117.
The film follows the return of U.S. Marine Lt. Donald Matocha's remains to his Central Texas family. Matocha was killed in battle in April 1968. His body had been missing for three decades. The film shows the journey of Matocha's sisters to the battlefield in Vietnam where he died.
Goebel was at that April 5, 1968, battle on Dong Ma Mountain. He was shot three times, a piece of shrapnel landed near his jugular vein and he barely escaped with his life. He saw Matocha's lifeless body next to him and the gunshot wound to the Marine's head that stole the young lieutenant's his life.
Most of the battalion members had been wounded in the fight, and when a supply helicopter heard their call for help and went to rescue them, the wounded men weren't able to get Matocha's body into the helicopter.
Marines went back for him, but when they arrived at the scene of the battle, his body had been moved.
Goebel remembers the events leading up to that battle like it was yesterday.
"Something is going to go wrong," he told the nine men the day before.
The 10 men had spent the night along a river and would head up to Dong Ma Mountain the next morning to seek out information on the enemy's position.
The climb up the mountain was tough. They pulled themselves up on vines, dug hard into the dirt and grabbed onto rocks to make the climb.
What Goebel saw when they reached the top of the mountain gave him an eerie feeling. There was a communication wire and a bunker that the enemy had set up. He told one Marine to cut the wire.
For a few minutes, things were quiet and still.
"Something is getting ready to happen, and it's going to happen fast," he remembers saying to his fellow Marines. "We've got to get down."
It was too late. The enemy, hidden underneath camouflage grass doors, popped from the ground and began shooting. They also attacked the Marines from both sides.
The Marines threw an eye-burning agent into the air to help them combat the enemy, but the chemical also affected them. They struggled to put on their gas masks while firing back at the North Vietnamese soldiers. North Vietnamese soldiers also died that day.
On Tuesday night, Goebel recounted that harrowing day. One gunshot blew off his middle finger on his right hand. He also was shot in the leg and arm, but the three gunshots wounds aren't the only scars of the war.
Goebel, a U.S. Postal Service employee, is a throat cancer survivor. He said doctors told him he developed the cancer from Agent Orange, a chemical the U.S. government sprayed in the fields of Vietnam to kill the brush.
Paula Goebel said the cancer radiation treatment burned her husband's jaw, and he can't chew food. She says he has been on a liquid diet for 11 years.
"Our men fought valiantly, but because of the surprise attacks many lost their lives and were maimed and wounded," said Paula Goebel, a mother of two children, Steven Goebel Moreland, 37, and Cherse Steelman, 36. "Marines are taught to fight to the death. They did fight until the last man was down."
Filmmaker Fries agrees with Goebel's wife.
"He is a Marine through and through. I will say this about Les Goebel. If you are in a firefight, Les Goebel is the man you want on your patrol," said Fries, who invited Goebel and his wife to his home in August, where he interviewed the Goebels and other Marines who survived the 1968 battle. "The most important thing for me is that we have created a documentary that at the end of the production everyone, including members of Team Dallas Girl and the Matocha family, can be very proud of."
Fries said the heroes of the Vietnam War are the veterans and their families.
Ellie