By PAUL LAPANN
The Parkersburg News and Sentinel
PARKERSBURG, W.Va. — Bob Goff of Parkersburg has carried for 50 years the guilt over Army Sgt. James Ralph Snyder’s death in Vietnam.
After meeting with Snyder’s sister Cindy Dunbar of Roanoke, Va., at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., this summer, Goff said there was “some closure” to his guilt about Snyder’s death.
(Photo by Jill Seale)
Goff and Dunbar met in the nation’s capital 50 years to the day that Snyder died on June 27, 1967.
Goff and Snyder were both sergeants in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War. They served together for three months with the Fourth Battalion, Ninth Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division.
“I felt better after talking to Cindy,” Goff, 71, said recently.
Joining Goff at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial meeting were Goff’s wife, Sarah, and their friend Jill Seale of Charlotte, N.C., while Dunbar was accompanied by her husband, Billy.
Goff said he still feels responsible for Snyder’s death more than 50 years ago.
“He was my friend,” Goff said, wondering whether he could have done anything differently on the battlefield.
On June 27, 1967, Goff and his platoon leader, Lt. Lewis B. Gaiser, were to sweep for booby traps planted by the North Vietnamese Army around Tay Ninh, Vietnam.
“Intel had reported Vietcong setting mines in the area,” Goff said.
But on that date, Goff was told he could ride on a helicopter to Tan Son Knut to call home. This opportunity to call home, by using ham radio operators and telephone operators, did not come often for service members in battle, Goff said.
Snyder told the lieutenant he would fill in for Goff on the mine patrol so Goff could make his telephone call home.
Goff said he declined Snyder’s offer at first — noting Snyder was a “short-timer,” a serviceman scheduled to go home in July.
“It was custom to keep short-timers inside the wire so they wouldn’t get killed or hurt when they were so close to going home,” Goff wrote in a book he is writing about his military career.
Snyder insisted he take Goff’s place on the patrol, Goff said.
“He (Snyder) wouldn’t hear of it and reminded me that I had been leading more than my share of patrols anyway,” Goff said.
Goff had made his call home and was preparing to return to his base when he heard over the radio that his reconnaissance platoon had suffered casualties from a booby trap.
Goff soon learned that Gaiser and Snyder, 27, had been killed by the booby trap, a Chinese Claymore mine.
“Why him and not me,” Goff said he asked himself.
Snyder was Goff’s best friend and mentor in the Army.
“Jim had taught me how to stay alive,” Goff said.
Goff said he did not have a chance to mourn after Snyder’s death. He went on a patrol and mine sweep the next morning.
Goff continued to serve in ground operations against enemy forces in Vietnam. He was wounded and received the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star.
During their meeting at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, and at lunch afterward, Dunbar said she told Goff, “Don’t blame yourself. I don’t blame you. It was Jim’s time to go. He could have been hit by a truck.”
Dunbar said she told Goff her brother would have volunteered again to help Goff.
“That was the type of person he was,” she said of her older brother Jim.
Sgt. Jim Snyder is buried in the Gettysburg National Cemetery near his home in New Cumberland, Pa. Snyder’s platoon sent flowers and a note to Snyder’s widow, Phyllis, after his death in Vietnam.
Goff also contacted Phyliss Snyder by telephone after Jim’s death.
“She knows how to contact me if she ever needs help,” Goff said. They haven’t spoken to each other, however, since 1970.
Phyllis Snyder’s thank-you note to the platoon is included in Goff’s book.
Goff worked for the West Virginia Department of Labor for 30 years before retiring in 2001. He served a four-year term on Parkersburg City Council beginning in 2002.
Goff said he has battled Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD, since receiving his honorable discharge from the Army on July 1,1970. He enlisted in the Army at 17 years old.
Goff said he continues to be haunted in his dreams by experiences from the Vietnam War. “Dreams of ambushes and the cries of the wounded,” he said.
On Sept. 1, 2011, Goff left the following message to Jim Snyder on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial online wall.
“Friend and fellow recon member. Not forgotten. Jim, it’s been 43 years since that fateful day. I’ll always remember you and what you did for me. You’re always in my prayers and thoughts. Miss you.”
This message on the virtual wall led to Goff’s and Dunbar’s meeting this summer at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
Dunbar’s daughter Brandi Foutz saw Goff’s message and tried to contact him last December. Goff located Dunbar on Facebook and the two began talking on the telephone.
Goff was concerned about Dunbar’s reaction to him because her brother had died after volunteering to replace Goff on a patrol.
Dunbar told Goff she did not want him to carry the burden of her brother’s death any longer.
Dunbar wanted to learn about her brother’s service during the Vietnam War.
After their meeting, Goff said, he was struck by the resemblance and mannerisms that Snyder and Dunbar shared.
Their meeting in Washington was “good for me and good for her,” Goff said.
Dunbar said Bob and Sarah Goff are “sweet people, great people.”
Snyder died in Vietnam shortly after Dunbar’s high school graduation.
“He (Jim Snyder) was my hero,” Dunbar said. “He still is my hero.”
Dunbar wrote messages on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial online wall saying she missed her brother.
Both Goff and Dunbar had visited the Vietnam Veterans Memorial before this summer. The granite reflective wall is inscribed with the names of the 58,318 service members who died in the Vietnam War.
Goff and Dunbar talked on the telephone and sent text messages to each other before meeting in Washington, D.C. And they have remained in contact as friends since the June 27 meeting at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
“I feel like I have found a sister in Cindy,” Goff said.
Dunbar said she appreciates the framed photograph of her brother Jim that Goff sent to her.
Goff’s meeting with Dunbar at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall on June 27 has provided him with an ending to his book — a last chapter that was missing before their emotional introduction.
Goff said he is thankful that Dunbar lifted the burden of Snyder’s death off him.
“I want Bob to smile again … to go on,” Dunbar said.
Dunbar is thankful that Goff can provide her with information about her brother’s military service in Vietnam.
Goff has come “full circle” in this story that began on June 27,1967 in Vietnam and ended on June 27, 2017 in Washington, D.C.
The best tribute he can pay to Snyder is to live life to the fullest, Goff wrote in his book, scheduled to be published sometime this year.
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