A Bills mafia salute to service.
Bill Gosch, who 80 years ago served with Carlson’s Raiders, a special operation unit within the Marine Corps during World War II, was the honored guest on the Buffalo Bills home game this Sunday.
The 98-year-old North Tonawanda native has lived in Western Recent York his whole life but despite being a diehard Bills fan for years, the previous Marine Raider had never attended a game.
With the assistance of Buffalo Niagara Honor Flight and assistance from the Buffalo Bills organization, invited Gosch, along together with his wife, son, and daughter, to Highmark Stadium to observe the sport in their very own private suite.
During a break between the Buffalo’s 33-30 loss to the Minnesota Vikings, the veteran of the Pacific campaign got emotional as his name was announced over the loudspeaker and members of Bills mafia cheered and chanted “USA” in his honor.
Nearly three weeks ago, Gosch was flown out to Washington, D.C., with other veterans to go to war monuments around the world and was gifted the Bills tickets the night of his flight.
“He was blown away that he got the non-public invitation to the sport,” said Tom Petrie, president of Buffalo Niagara Honor Flight, told The Buffalo News.
Gosch’s story went viral on the YouTube channel “Remember WWII with Rishi Sharma,” where he detailed his first-hand account of the horrors he faced fighting within the Pacific.
Once a scholarship football player at Niagara University after the war, Gosch joined the Marine Corps in December of 1942. Just a few months after graduating from highschool.
He would spend two years overseas, seeing a number of the most gruesome combat of World War II in places like Guam and Okinawa, Japan.
The video has accrued over a million views since its release in 2021.
Fighting tears, Gosch explains that he’s killed anywhere from 12 to twenty men during his time fighting with Carlson’s Raiders. Saying it was something that “needed to be done” but sticks with him to today.
“These guys never got a probability to breed children,” Gosch emotionally says. “And that bothered me.”
Rishi Sharma, together with Honor Flight Heroes TV’s Eric Roberts and Andrea Reeves, are within the works of making a TV series honoring “hidden heroes” of World War II, which is able to feature Gosch’s story.
A Bills mafia salute to service.
Bill Gosch, who 80 years ago served with Carlson’s Raiders, a special operation unit within the Marine Corps during World War II, was the honored guest on the Buffalo Bills home game this Sunday.
The 98-year-old North Tonawanda native has lived in Western Recent York his whole life but despite being a diehard Bills fan for years, the previous Marine Raider had never attended a game.
With the assistance of Buffalo Niagara Honor Flight and assistance from the Buffalo Bills organization, invited Gosch, along together with his wife, son, and daughter, to Highmark Stadium to observe the sport in their very own private suite.
During a break between the Buffalo’s 33-30 loss to the Minnesota Vikings, the veteran of the Pacific campaign got emotional as his name was announced over the loudspeaker and members of Bills mafia cheered and chanted “USA” in his honor.
Nearly three weeks ago, Gosch was flown out to Washington, D.C., with other veterans to go to war monuments around the world and was gifted the Bills tickets the night of his flight.
“He was blown away that he got the non-public invitation to the sport,” said Tom Petrie, president of Buffalo Niagara Honor Flight, told The Buffalo News.
Gosch’s story went viral on the YouTube channel “Remember WWII with Rishi Sharma,” where he detailed his first-hand account of the horrors he faced fighting within the Pacific.
Once a scholarship football player at Niagara University after the war, Gosch joined the Marine Corps in December of 1942. Just a few months after graduating from highschool.
He would spend two years overseas, seeing a number of the most gruesome combat of World War II in places like Guam and Okinawa, Japan.
The video has accrued over a million views since its release in 2021.
Fighting tears, Gosch explains that he’s killed anywhere from 12 to twenty men during his time fighting with Carlson’s Raiders. Saying it was something that “needed to be done” but sticks with him to today.
“These guys never got a probability to breed children,” Gosch emotionally says. “And that bothered me.”
Rishi Sharma, together with Honor Flight Heroes TV’s Eric Roberts and Andrea Reeves, are within the works of making a TV series honoring “hidden heroes” of World War II, which is able to feature Gosch’s story.
