Lt. Commander Bill Goss, USN (Ret) is an internationally
known speaker and author. Enlisting in 1974,
Bill worked on underwater weapons in Europe
for the U.S. Navy until he was discharged
as a Mineman Second Class in 1977. A former New Jersey Golden Glove boxer, Bill was also the light-heavy weight boxing champion at the U.S. Naval Air Stations in Pensacola, Corpus Christi, and Jacksonville. After his enlisted tour of duty, Bill attended
Rutgers University on the GI Bill and earned
an MBA from the Southern New Hampshire University. Bill graduated Aviation Officer
Candidate School in Pensacola, Florida, and
earned his Navy Wings of Gold the following
year in Corpus Christi, Texas.
As a P-3
Orion pilot, Bill flew missions against
Soviet submarines in the North and South Atlantic
and Mediterranean and deployed to a very wide
variety of sites around the world. He became
an instructor pilot in the T-44 Pegasus and
then the Assistant Navigator of the nuclear
aircraft carrier, USS Carl Vinson, deploying
throughout the Pacific from the Vinson's homeport
in the San Francisco Bay area. Bill and his
family returned to the east coast where he
flew P-3 Orions and a variety of other aircraft
while working for the admiral at NAS Jacksonville.
While there, Bill was diagnosed with a rare
form of cancer called amelanotic malignant
melanoma, had surgery, and retired from the
Navy. Bill is the author of The Luckiest
Unlucky Man Alive: A Wild Ride Overcoming
Life's Greatest Challenges -- And How You
Can Too. His second book, published by
Simon and Schuster's newest hardcover imprint,
Atria Books, is titled There's a Flying
Squirrel in My Coffee: Overcoming Cancer With
the Help of My Pet.
Bill is a contributing writer to many other
books including the New York Times bestseller,
Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover's Soul. Bill's life story has been featured on national
and international radio shows, and in publications
such as the Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles
Times, New Jersey Star Ledger, The Dallas
Morning News, The St. Petersburg Times,
and Maxim Magazine.
A motivational and inspirational speaker,
Bill is featured every month on the Discovery
Channel's Animal Planet. Bill's mailing address
is:
Bill Goss International
P.O. Box 7060
Orange Park, FL 32073
Copyright 2005. Used with Permission of The Florida
Times-Union.
Approximately one month ago, I attended the funeral of a tiny woman who was a giant in every other respect, especially in her devoted public service to our country, and particularly in her devotion to the men and women who wear or wore the uniform.
Mrs. Tillie Fowler died way too young -- at the age of 62, after suffering a massive brain hemorrhage on March 2, 2005. Surrounded by Buck, her husband of 37 years, and her two daughters, Tillie Anne and Elizabeth, this was a woman who, if you had met her just a week earlier, you would have bet would easily live to be 100 years old.
Tillie had risen to be the fifth-ranking Republican in a Republican controlled U.S. House of Representatives and she was one of the most vocal advocates in modern times of having a strong, well-trained, and properly funded military. And she gave up all this power and prestige because of her ethics and her personal integrity. You see, she had run for Congress in 1992 as an advocate of term limits, and although immensely popular with her constituents and immensely respected by her fellow politicians, she decided not to run for a fifth term in office. Later, in 2004, Tillie was appointed to be the new chairwoman of the Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee to advise Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld on strategic planning issues. And she had already been serving on the Chief of Naval Operations Executive Panel.
I was a big fan of Tillie's for a couple of good reasons. First, she loved to read, and she had read both of my books. And I fondly remember how, on the occasions I would encounter her at social events, she would always warmly introduce me to nearby people as an author. She would always mention a different detail from the pages to let me know that she had really read both of my books cover to cover. And nothing makes an author feel as good as that ... especially when it is a warm, funny, and extraordinarily intelligent woman is paying you the compliment.
Second, as a former enlisted man who somehow earned a commission and became a U.S. Navy pilot, Tillie would always compliment me on my service to our country -- but in reality, Tillie's service to our country far exceeded anything I had ever done during my military career, or for that matter, a thousand people like me. And this is utterly remarkable, because I am talking about a civilian woman who never donned a uniform.
Tillie was a friend to every serviceman and woman, but I think she had an extra soft spot for Navy people (although I know many Army, Air Force, Marines, and Coast Guardsmen who would say I was biased), especially those that lived in Northeast Florida, where she also represented them.
A true southern belle from Milledgeville, Georgia, Tillie had a combination of charm, smarts, and a will and determination of steel so indomitable that she graduated law school from Emory University in 1967, even though her chances of finding a job as a litigator in such a male-dominated arena were nil at the time. So instead she got a job in the Nixon administration with Elizabeth Dole, and the two of them, both still in their twenties, had a lot of fun working to change the female stereotypes on Capitol Hill.
In 1971 she married Buck and a few years later the charismatic little lady who loved to laugh started a book club that would continue meeting in Jacksonville, Florida, for the next 30 years.
One of the people at her funeral who eulogized Tillie was Elizabeth Dole, who struggled with losing a longtime friend so suddenly. She summed up Tillie's remarkable life with these words: "It's not how long you lived that matters, it's how you lived."
Other people I recognized who attended Tillie Fowler's funeral were Cliff Stearns, Tom Delay, Mel Martinez, Ander Crenshaw, Tom Foley, retired Rear Admiral Kevin Delaney, and Florida State Representative Jennifer Carroll.
After the ceremony, I had a conversation with the head of the CIA, Porter Goss, a terrific man ... and now I know who got the brains in the family (just kidding, we're related by name only), and my longtime friend, Charlie Patton, a writer for the Florida Times-Union, who kindly offered me some of his past articles as research for this piece.
In an incredibly moving moment, just as Tillie's funeral service ended, a formation of Black Hawk helicopters flew directly overhead, followed seconds later by a flight of F-15 Eagles. The incredible roar of those military aircraft that Tillie had fought so hard to acquire, equip, and maintain made me look up to the heavens ... and I'm sure I saw Tillie smiling down at me. But she wasn't just smiling down on me. She was smiling down on every person she had touched in some large or small way. And that was everyone.
