Staff Sgt. Ken Goss
By KATHERINE PETERSEN
Exhausted after hours of helping the wounded get treatment and fielding media inquires, Staff Sgt. Ken Goss wearily answered the phone at his new desk in the base dining hall in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.
Goss's office was badly damaged during the June 18 terrorist bomb attack. The bomb left a crater 35 feet deep and 85 feet wide, killing 19 service members and seriously injuring 105. Another 250 people were treated for lesser injuries and released.
Goss, a public-affairs specialist, and Master Sgt. Greg Nelson are two members of Onizuka Air Station in Sunnyvale who are temporarily assigned to the air base in Dhahran. Nelson, who works in the base's contracting office, was in Kuwait on a 10-day assignment at the time of the explosion. He lived in the building that was hit and his room was destroyed.
"I'm just glad it was his room and not him," said Nelson's wife, Deborah Dean-Nelson, who also works at the Onizuka contracting office.
Goss had just returned from an intramural volleyball game and was in his room talking with friends when the blast occurred.
"When the explosion hit, the room started swaying and the whole building shook and the power went out," he said. "After that, it was all a blur as we tried to get everyone out of the building and help wounded to the triage area."
Goss's building had most of the glass blown out by the shock waves of the explosion, causing many lacerations.
"We took people to an emergency stitch area that had been set up in the dining hall so the more seriously injured could use the medical facility," he said.
A security policeman on the roof of the dormitory that was destroyed had reported the vehicle carrying the bomb as suspicious and had started evacuating the building before the explosion, according to Goss.
Goss also assisted in finding a wounded security policeman who had been posted on his building's roof as a security precaution. Goss and his other rescuers had to climb in total darkness over debris and broken glass to reach the roof where they found the policeman, who suffered a concussion and other injuries.
They then followed the same treacherous path back down--this time carrying a full stretcher.
Nelson returned to Dhahran to find he had nothing left but what he had taken to Kuwait. He had spoken with Dean-Nelson the day before the explosion, so she knew he was all right.
"I kind of knew instinctively that Greg's room was in the building that had been destroyed," Dean-Nelson said. "When he called to confirm he was OK, he said his room was destroyed, but I knew that."
Nelson has been deployed many times during his career, having previously worked in civil engineering and intelligence. Dean-Nelson said she feels the stress of having him away during a crisis.
"But at least this time I knew where he was," she said.
Both Nelson and Goss are now working with the rest of the base to clean things up and get back to some semblance of normalcy.
"Work is pretty much nonstop right now," said Goss, who is busy dealing with the deluge of new media queries after the blast. "We work until we need to get some rest and then we come back and do some more."
Goss said the work keeps their minds off the grim memories of last week, but not completely.
"Now it's the little things that bring the emotions home," Goss said. "I had taken a lot of pictures after the explosion, and the other day I was talking to a girl who had been injured to see if she could help me identify some of the others in the photo with her. And she just broke down. I realized we really hadn't had time to react to it all."
Goss is scheduled to remain at Dhahran through the end of August. Dean-Nelson is scheduled to return home July 12, when his wife said the couple plans to spend some well-deserved leave.
This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, July 10, 1996.
©1996 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.