For nine months, Tom Goff flew medical evacuation missions
Gilroy – Tom Goff, the new program manager of CALSTAR’s busiest air ambulance base at Saint Louise Regional Hospital, spent most of last year flying Blackhawk choppers in war-torn Afghanistan.
For nine months in 2003, Goff flew medical evacuation missions for soldiers and civilians with the California National Guard’s 126th Medical Company. He was awarded a Bronze Star medal for his service. Mentioned in the commendation was how Goff’s unit flew seven wounded American soldiers out of a hostile area one day in summer 2003.
“Two of them, it was too late, and the other five, we were able to save,” Goff said. “The medical crew did an incredible job of keeping them alive.”
That day was “hotter than Hell,” Goff said. In the high desert region where his unit was based, both in Bagram and at a “primitive” forward operating base near the Pakistani border, the weather ranged from 125-degree heat to snow.
Goff has been with the National Guard for four decades and CALSTAR (California Shock Trauma Air Rescue) for six years, most recently as program manager of the nonprofit air ambulance group’s Auburn base. On Aug. 1, he took over operations at the Gilroy and Salinas bases.
Goff was working in Auburn when the National Guard called him to Afghanistan in January 2003. His unit left Feb. 1 of that year. The C-17 plane that flew them over was piloted by Goff’s son, Air Force Capt. Paul Goff.
Tom’s father was also an Air Force pilot who flew in World War II and the Korean and Vietnam wars. Tom chose to fly helicopters in the Army. He went to Vietnam less than a year after his dad left.
Goff’s unit returned to the U.S. on Oct. 31. Not only did CALSTAR save Goff’s job, he said, but CEO Joe Cook saw him off at the Sacramento airport when he left, and met him there when he returned at 4 in the morning.
Now, Cook has promoted him.
Goff and his wife have bought a house in Gilroy after living for many years in Colfax, but for now they are still living in a recreational vehicle at the Garlic Farm RV park.
“I enjoy it here,” Goff said of Gilroy. “What a beautiful community.”
Taking Goff’s former job as program director in Auburn is Bob Buss, CALSTAR’s most senior pilot, who worked out of the Gilroy base until his recent promotion.
