Goss, Bernard Joseph
Air Force Colonel

Bernard Joseph Goss, age 34, from Onondaga County Syracuse, New York .

Parents: Alice Goss
Spouse: Janet Goss
Children: Stephanie, infant, Richard, born after he went missing

Service era: Vietnam
Schools: Queens College
Military history: Korea war veteran

Date of death: Saturday, April 23, 1966
Death details: On September 11, 1978, the Central Identification Laboratory-Hawaii(CILHI, now DPAAA) identified the remains of Colonel Bernard Joseph Goss, missing from the Vietnam War. Colonel Goss entered the U.S. Air Force from New York and was a member of 421st Tactical Fighter Squadron. On April 23, 1966, he piloted an F-105D Thunderchief (tail number 61-048, call sign “Pecan 01”) on a strike mission against enemy targets in North Vietnam. During the mission, his aircraft was hit by enemy anti-aircraft fire and crashed. He bailed out successfully and was observed alive on the ground; however, he later died of unknown causes. No search activities were performed due to approaching nightfall and an active enemy presence in the area, and his remains were not recovered at the time. However, in 1978, the Vietnamese government repatriated human remains from Ha Bac Province and Col Goss was identified from these remains. Colonel Goss is memorialized in the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. His name is also inscribed along with all his fallen comrades on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, DC.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Syracuse Herald Journal (1970)