Khobar Towers--a Reluctant Hero

It was twenty five years ago, on 25 June 1996, that Islamic extremists set off a truck bomb at the US Air Force housing complex in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. My wife’s brother, then USAF Captain* Steven Goff, MD was present at the complex, known as Khobar Towers, and injured by the bombing. What began for Steve Goff as a typical, routine day in the sweltering heat, with temperatures over 100 degrees (F) on that early summer day in the Arabian desert near Dhahran, would end as a nightmare. The US Air Force was based in Dhahran, with an assigned mission, with other nations, of supervising the no-fly zone over much of Iraq.  In a sense they were protecting the minority Kurd population. My brother-in-law, Captain Steven Goff, MD was as a flight surgeon, or one of four doctors, to handle the care of the men and women who made up the contingent of over 2,300 Air Force personnel at Khobar Towers, near the Dhahran air base. The number of persons at the complex would rival that of mid-sized Wisconsin villages. His reluctant claim to fame was his having treated patients while he himself was seriously injured.

Steve Goff, MD, USA
Source: Family archives

The Khobar Towers bombing of 1996, in which 19 US military personnel died, is often not thought of today. When it is viewed, it is viewed in light of the other terrorist attacks that took place before and after. When we think of terrorist attacks today perhaps the first to mind are the four hijacked planes on 11 September 2001, and the horror that resulted. That bloody day, however, was presaged by other attacks, the Khobar Towers attack being one. On the date of the Khobar Towers bombing the US blamed Iran and Hezbollah, a terrorist organization. Louis Freeh, then FBI Director under President Clinton would, after investigation, place blame on Iran. In June 2001 the evidence of the involvement of Iran seemed incontrovertible, to the point that news outlets, such as CBS, were wondering why the US was not bombing Iran. Years later, others, such as Clinton's Defense Secretary William Perry would come to believe (in 2007) that Al Qaeda was behind the attack. However, in 2006 a US court found Iran and Hezbollah guilty of orchestrating the bombing, which confirmed the first reports of the US government on  responsibility for the attack.  Recently, Bruce Riedel, then an Assistant SecretRy of Defense, wrote that Iran, Hezbollah and one other group planned the bombing two years earlier.  He also notes that Saudi Arabia kept information from the US to avoid US retaliation against Iran.  For those injured in the attack, family and friends that lost a loved one or had a loved one injured in this terrorist attack, the main effect was that the attack occurred and would change the trajectory of lives. Lt Col Steven Goff would leave the bonds of this earth in September of 2006. Even after his last breath his body bore glass fragments of that  summer day in the Saudi desert. Every limited shoulder movement, and chest pain, would remind him of that Tuesday evening in Dhahran. The events of that night and early the next day would be ingrained in his body and mind.

Goff Receiving Airman's Medal from 
Air Force Chief of Staff, Gen Fogelman, 3 July 1996
Source:  US Air Force

Dr Steve Goff was born in October 1957, the second of three children to Jerry and Shirley (Schleis) Goff. A gifted child who played the French Horn, and cared for their dog when she severely injured its leg,which presaged a career in medicine.  He graduated from high school a semester early and joined the US Marine Corps where he served four years, and was discharged in March 1980. After his service in the Marine Corps he would attend college at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire where he graduated with a degree in environmental and public health. He then attended medical school at the University of Wisconsin from which he was graduated in 1990. He served his residency in family practice medicine in Wausau, and while there, living in Schofield, WI, he signed up to join the Air Force, where he would become a flight surgeon. Odd how life is. Shortly after his signing up for the Air Force, Jerry, his dad, and I were golfing at Yahara Hills golf course and were teamed up with another pair to have a foursome; the pair with which were teamed were Air Force recruiters one of whom worked with Steve in his joining the USAF.

Purple Heart Certificate
Source: Family archives

 
Captain Goff, MD was part of the medical attachment accompanying the 4404th Provisional Fighter Wing which had responsibility for keeping watch on varied no-fly zones established in the Middle East.  The no-fly zones were established to protect vulnerable minority populations, such as the Kurds, from attack. According to Perry Jamieson, “The 4404th Wing had more than 5,000 personnel assigned, at eleven locations in four countries.(p. 2l) The largest concentration of them were the 2,300 airmen stationed in the American sector of the KhobarTowers compound, just east of Dhahran Air Base.” (p. 19) No relatives of these active-duty members of the US or any other service members were allowed to accompany the Air Force service member to Saudi Arabia. For the Dhahran airman, the tours of duty were 90 days.

 

Airman's Medal Certificate
Source: Family archives

Perhaps a contributing factor to the bombing was the quick transition of personnel at the varied air bases. Jamieson goes on to say that “The Air Force manned the 4404th Provisional Wing largely by rotating officers and airmen through southwest Asia on temporary-duty assignments. Although some of the units of some aircraft-including HC-130s, C-130s, A-10s, and tankers served in the theater of operations for 365 days.” (pp 18-19) At Dhahran it was different. All but 19 of the 2300 individuals who served at Dhahran served on a 90 day rotational basis. This policy led to about a 10% turnover of personnel each week, as more than 200 airmen and officers turned over every week. Army personnel in the same theater rotated personnel every six months. (Jamieson, pp 18-20) This fairly quick turnover may have led to lack of operational and tactical awareness.  However, the US had concerns, and required groups of armed forces personnel being in groups of 3, but no more than 5 persons, to avoid kidnapping, or other potential terrorist attacks (Sherbo). The Saudi government liked the idea of the quick turnover due to the sensitivity of foreign bases on its soil. As usual, political considerations won out.

Airman's Medal Citation
Source: Family archives

Political considerations of short term deployments may have helped influence the bombers. The bombers knew what they were doing. A group of bombers drove up and parked a truck laden with 5,000 lbs of explosives (equivalent to over 23,000 lbs of TNT). The drivers of the truck had other vehicles which drove up to meet them where the truck was parked (not far from the US Air Force housing complex, to pick up the drivers and then speed off. About 9:50 pm a lookout noticed a truck and cars starting to move toward the complex, and he started notification and evacuation procedures. About 10:00 pm, or shortly thereafter, the truck bomb exploded. The lookout's action saved many lives and he would be awarded the Airman’s Medal for his actions that evening. The explosion could be heard over 20 miles away, and left a crater 85 feet wide and over 35 feet deep. The whole side of the building near where the truck was parked was essentially blown off, and is now an iconic symbol of the terrorist blast. 

Building near blast site
Source: Family archives

As the blast occurred Steve Goff was in his dwelling unit. He had just gotten back from a work out at the gym, and was awaiting the arrival of a friend to go rollerblading. It was not unusual, given the hot days and blaring sun, for the military personnel to work out at night after the sun had set and the temperatures started to drop. After all, it was over 100 degrees for a high that day, as it was for several days before. Steve was rolling up some rugs he had just bought in an excursion to town that day, when the blast went off.

Steve’s dwelling unit was about 200 yards from the blast site and the blast effect literally threw him across the room onto the sofa. Shards of glass spewed into the air, across the floor and into his body. To give an idea of what the glass did, Sherbo (p. 50) quotes airman Larry Oliver as he went into the corridor, in a building probably a similar distance away as was the building in which Goff was in: "I thoroughly expected to see the elevator doors split and damaged.  What I saw was glass impaled into the metal elevator doors and concrete walls." If glass is impaled in metal and concrete imagine where, and what, it can do in the human body. Goff said that could tell right away he was wounded and says “I had glass in me. I had some trouble breathing.” (Dominguez, p. 1) Add to his wounds, that there was no power, meaning no lighting, it was not a simple task. Stepping on glass with his bare feet, he treated himself as best he could, found some shoes, and then made his way to the medical area, through the darkened corridors of a building which had sustained significant blast damage. At the medical area, he started to work on patients, and after about 45 minutes, others treated Goff's wounds, as he worked on patients himself. As Dr. Robb, head of the 4404th medical unit at the Dhahran base said, “One flight surgeon was being bandaged for a serious chest wound while sewing up other patients” (Airman, p 10) This of course was Capt Steve Goff. Steve was generally limited to using his right arm since his left shoulder and arm were embedded with shards of glass, not to mention his chest wound. He would say that “Before I knew it, the patients were arriving fast and furious. (Dominguez, p 1) His Airman’s medal citation notes that he suffered a serious chest wound and “numerous lacerations to his hands and face.” He would later be transferred to a local hospital for treatment.

Photo of 4404 Provisional Medical Group
Steve Goff behind sign near center of photo
Photo Courtesy of Benjamin Scott Coleman

Meanwhile at the home front I spent part of my lunch hour attempting to call our US House Representative’s and Senator offices to see if they could find out Steve’s status. No luck. No one in the family had heard from him. My Dad, however, saw a news broadcast with him treating patients, and later when we talked to him he let us know about the broadcast. The thing is he found out about Steve being alive, due to a news broadcast.  The bombing was on Tuesday and we found out after the following Wednesday. Jamieson (p 83) indicates that Steve treated many patients. Then Lt Col (now Lt General) Douglas Robb, who was then interim commander of the 4404th Medical Group indicates that 519 persons were treated in the hours after the bombing, and of that number 317 were treated at the Khobar Towers complex. The last patients were being sewed up at about 5:00 am. Let me quote from Jamieson’s work:

Dr. Steve Goff a Schofield, Wisconsin, resident who had deployed to Saudi 
Arabia from Malmstrom Air Force Base, Montana, had declined Dr. Robb's invitation 
to make the dinner and shopping trip to downtown Dhahran earlier that 
evening. He had remained at Khobar and suffered glass lacerations in the bombing. 
Dr. Goff helped the patients at the clinic, undeterred by a shard in his chest. Later, 
even while his own wound was being bandaged, he continued sewing up injured airmen.
Like those around him, Goff worked tirelessly, eventually helping more than 
200 patients. In view of his own injury, he was taken to King Fahd University 
Hospital; and on July 3, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Ronald R. Fogleman presented 
him the Airman's Medal. (p. 83)

As one can see, Steve Goff did not even have to be at the base, as he declined a dinner (and shopping) invitation from Dr Robb and other senior officers. He declined, in part, because he already had purchased carpets (rugs) in town on an earlier trip. Robb was actually entering a carpet shop, about ¾ miles from the explosion, when he heard, felt and saw the glass break the store front windows. Given his experience, Robb thought the blast was in town and not at the base housing complex. Only by the fate of a simple daily life choice, having bought some rugs, was Steve Goff present at the complex at 10:00 pm that hot summer night. He sustained an injury which would affect the course of his life. If Goff had taken up Dr Robb's invitation, which would have been likely had he not already purchased some rugs, he would not have been at the Towers at the time of the blast.

Glass shards, and window coverings blown across room
Source: Family archives

In his prevalent self-effacing style, Goff would provide much of the credit of medical care to the full staff. As Dominguez reports (p 2): “Major Goff attributes much of the medical success not only to the clinic staff, but to all those who embarked on the first aid, buddy care system to help those injured.” She goes on to quote Steve “If it weren’t for people taking the initiative to utilize what they were trained to do, the situation could have been much worse. Fortunately the response on everyone’s part was a contributing factor.” The air force personnel are trained to respond to a variety of events, and as Michael Willis, said, (Sherbo, p. 69) "An announcement came over the Giant Voice asking for people to help care for the wounded." The buddy system was being enacted.  More than that, anyone who could provide aid was providing aid, and if you had any training, or even watched a human being stitched, chances are you may have been called on to help stitch a fellow airman. It is fortunate, that the doctors pushed the medics, as Benjamin Scott Coleman said (Sarbo, p 25), "One thing I'll say for our flight docs at the Khobar Clinic: they kept us involved and were constantly training us to improve our skills."

Steve Goff being recognized
Source: Family archives

Steve would help push the medics. Yet, Goff's self-less endeavors of helping others before himself endeared himself to the American public, who, like my Dad, saw him in. a newscast in which he was interviewed. Dominguez puts it this way, “the major caught the heartstrings of many people around America as he stood before national camera crews telling the events that took place that night. Since then, the public has regarded him as a hero.” It was just such action which earned him the Airman’s medal which was presented by Air Force Chief of Staff General Ronald Fogelman on 3 July, 1996. However, Steve never really thought himself a hero. He would say: “I never felt myself a hero through all of this. There were a lot of people who went above and beyond that night and a lot of people who did a lot more than I did. Receiving this medal is embarrassing in a way, but I can accept it as a tribute to all the medical people who were heroes that night.” (Dominguez, p 2). I have read more about his efforts that night than what he was willing to share with us. Just as my Dad did not like to talk about much of his experiences in WWII, Steve probably did not wish to discuss the events of that night which so shook and would affect his later, and short years, on this planet earth. The Airman’s medal would say otherwise, for it is the highest air force award for heroism in a non-combat situation. With all due respect to my brother-in-law, the Airman Medal was awarded by direction of the President of the United States. In that sense, the President of the United States, William J Clinton, the secretary of the US Air Force, the Air Force Chief of Staff, and the many in the American public all say he was a hero for his actions on the night of June 25, 1996.

Room with glass shards and rugs he had purchased
Source: Family archives

 
Through it all Steve kept his sense of humor. After receiving the Airman’s medal from General Fogelman, Steve was asked if had anything to do over again, what would he do, and his simple answer was: “duck”.  As we can see, training was important, and as Steve would say they had trained for such events, although none with an anticipated 400 casualties. Yet, he could also make fun of the military way of life. Here is one example: Dr Paul Nelson, who served under Steve at Spangdahlem (Germany)  air base in 1999, wrote that he had not known for the first year he served with Steve that Steve was one of the heroes of the Khobar Towers bombing.  He would hear about Steve’s heroic actions after that bombing from a friend of his whom Steve had treated that night. When he inquired of Steve about the event, Nelson noted that “Steve’s short answer was standard act,” Steve simply said “When some of the guys got shocky we would take the big stacks of crap in binders we had spent so much time working on and put it under their feet….That was the one time I’d actually seen paperwork save lives in my career….”

Steve Goff was a reluctant hero feeling he did his duty as did many others in the medical trenches and on the base that fateful night in the midst of the Saudi desert. He really did not want the award, but felt that in not accepting the award, it would show disservice to his medical colleagues at Khobar Towers. His recognition was their recognition. Daniel James Brown in his 2016 work on the 1894 Hinckley firestorm perhaps sums it up best:   

Research suggests that that people who act heroically in a disaster often carry a special burden later--foisted upon them by an admiring public that holds them to a higher standard.  It seems that we expect our heroes to be larger than life even after their exploits are completed.  And, because we expect them to be stronger and braver than the ordinary cut of humanity, our heroes often suffer their own demons in tortured silence.

It is a sad commentary on life that these reluctant heroes often suffer in silence. That was the case with Steve Goff, who liked his work as a flight surgeon. He also liked his work being helicoptered in to remote areas in the United States to treat and stabilize persons hurt in the wilderness. He gave our sons some t-shirts with his unit number and a donkey being pulled up in a sling to a helicopter with the writing just above the image saying "We'll save yours"  and just below "too".

Steve Goff (hidden) receiving Airman's Medal
from Air Force Chief of Staff Gen Ronald Fogelman
Source: Family archives

Today, on the 25th anniversary of the Khobar Towers bombing, a few persons in the nation will still remember and recall this terrorist attack. Every terrorist attack is consequential to those affected.   Unfortunately, the world still sees the Islamic militants at action in the Middle East, in Africa, Indonesia, the Philippines and elsewhere, and still,even at times, in first world countries. On that night, and the next morning, Captain Goff, MD did what he was trained to do in a mass casualty event. Even while suffering a severe injury himself, he worked tirelessly to assist others. While he did not see his actions as heroic, many others did. 

*Shortly after the bombing Steve was promoted to Major, hence many documents about the Khobar Towers bombing will refer to him as Major Goff.

Sources:

1. Jamieson, Perry D. Khobar Towers, Tragedy and Response, 2008, US Government Printing Office.
2. https://www.britannica.com/event/Khobar-Towers-bombing-of-1996
3. Dominguez, Debra “Malmstrom doctor returns from Dhahran a Hero” in “High Plains Warrior'',            Malmstrom AFB, Montana, 9 Aug 1996, v. 8 no. 29
4. Nelson, Paul,“In Memorium, Dr Steve Goff” in “Flightlines”, p 35
5. Bailey, Capt Timothy, Dec 1996, “Buddies Cared” in “Airman” Magazine
6. Citation to Accompany the Award of the Airman’s Medal

7. Brown, Daniel James. 2016. Under a Flaming Sky: The Great Hinckley Firestorm of 1894, Roman and Littlefield

8. Sherbo, Paul, 2021. Through the Perilous Night: Khobar Bombing Survivors Remember, Patriot Media Inc.

9.  Purple Heart award

10.  https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2021/06/21/remembering-the-khobar-towers-bombing/. (Bruce Reidel)

Author's note: For an account of Steve Goff, by a fellow airman and friend, see: https://www.durangoherald.com/articles/former-medic-remembers-heroes-victims-of-bombing-of-khobar-towers/

Note: photos at Khobar Housing facility from Family archives taken by Steve Goff, or a friend