In Memory Of
Navy S 1C
Herman A. Goetsch
Mitchell, South Dakota
Davison County

December 11, 1919 – December 7, 1941
Killed in Action at Pearl Harbor

Herman A. Goetsch was born December 11, 1919, at home on the farm. He was the fifteenth of eighteen children; there were ten boys and eight girls. His siblings included two sets of twins. One of his sisters preceded Herman in death. All other siblings lived to start families.

“Hemmy,” as he was affectionately called, was home on leave, from the Navy, for the family 4th of July picnic in 1941. He was stationed on the Battleship U.S.S. Nevada, which was docked with the Arizona at Pearl Harbor. Herman’s humor and kindness can be seen in his last letter home, dated November 24, 1941; to his sister, Marie Albertz, he wrote:

I received your letter a few days ago and sure was glad to hear from you.
Sure am sorry to hear that you had so much snow before you got your corn
all out. I guess we will have snow before long too. Yesterday the temperature
came down to 78 degrees above zero and I thought sure we’d get some snow. Ha.
Ha. But no luck. What does that darn stuff look like any how?

… You are probably wondering why my writing is so poor. Well, I’ll tell you
why. I had my Appendix taken out a week ago yesterday (Sun. Nov. 16th) and
I’m sitting up today for the first time. We were out at sea at the time I was
operated on. I went to sick bay (hosp.) at about 9:30 in the morning and they
operated on me at noon that same day….

Well, I went up for Seaman 1st Class Oct. 16th and made it so on Nov. 1st I
started drawing $54 a month. I’m going to send 30 or $35 a month home
starting in Jan. I’ll never be able to save any by myself anyhow.

Herman A. Goetsch died on Pearl Harbor Day, December 7, 1941. His ship took a direct hit from a bomb. Later, Seaman William Hickey, a survivor aboard the USS Nevada, was home on leave and had this to say about the bombing of Pearl Harbor:

[I was] scared stiff. We all were for 20 or 25 minutes and then we got into
the spirit of the action. The first attack was at 8 o’clock and the last at 2 p.m.
Then six horizontal bombers came over. Our guns got three of them and our
fighting planes downed the other three.

Herman was my buddy and he was in sick bay (hospital) for an operation for
appendicitis. I was doing his washing as we all have to do that and he couldn’t
do it for himself. I had loaned him one of my shorts and it had my name on
it. After the attack, having given his bunk to a badly wounded seaman, Herman
came up on deck, though he couldn’t walk very well, being so weak.

I was standing with my buddy, Herman Goetsch of Mitchell, when I
was ordered to replace one of the Battery A guncrew, who had been killed.
We were standing near the captain’s bridge. I had scarcely left when a
bomb struck near Herman and he was instantly killed.

… He was wearing my shorts when killed, and in that way it was reported that
it was I who was blown to pieces by that bomb.

"Hemmy" was buried at Punchbowl Cemetery, Honolulu, Hawaii. There is also a memorial marker at Mitchell, South Dakota in the Veterans’ Cemetery, in memory of Herman A. Goetsch.

The American Legion in Mitchell is called the Coacher – Goetsch Post #18.

Herman A. Goetsch’s family remains very proud of him.

This entry was respectfully submitted by David Long, 8th Grade West, Spearfish Middle School, Spearfish, South Dakota, February 3, 2000; updated 2002. Information for this entry was provided by Dean Goetsch of Shawano, Wisconsin, and Bud Albertz, Mitchell, both nephews of Herman Goetsch.

View more history for Post 18 in Mitchell, South Dakota