Robert O. Goodman (born 30 November 1956) is a former

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

bombardier–navigator. He was shot down in his

A-6 Intruder The Grumman A-6 Intruder is an American twinjet all-weather attack aircraft developed and manufactured by American aircraft company Grumman Aerospace and operated by the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps. It was designed in response to a 1957 r ...

over

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus lie ...

on 4 December 1983. Captured upon ejection from his stricken plane, he was held captive for 30 days. His release on 3 January 1984 was facilitated by

Jesse Jackson Jesse Louis Jackson (né Burns; born October 8, 1941) is an American political activist, Baptist minister, and politician. He was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988 and served as a shadow U.S. senato ...

Background

In October 1983, aircraft carrier was diverted to

Beirut Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...

, Lebanon, from her planned Indian Ocean deployment, after the

Beirut barracks bombing Early on a Sunday morning, October 23, 1983, two truck bombs struck buildings in Beirut, Lebanon, housing American and French service members of the Multinational Force in Lebanon (MNF), a military peacekeeping operation during the Lebanes ...

killed 241 US military personnel of the

Multinational Force in Lebanon The Multinational Force in Lebanon (MNF) was an international peacekeeping force created in August 1982 following a 1981 U.S.-brokered ceasefire between the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Israel to end their involvement in the confl ...

. The ship spent the rest of that year and early 1984 patrolling the region. On 4 December, in response to two U.S. Navy

F-14 Tomcat The Grumman F-14 Tomcat is an American carrier-capable supersonic aircraft, supersonic, twinjet, twin-engine, two-seat, twin-tail, variable-sweep wing fighter aircraft. The Tomcat was developed for the United States Navy's Naval Fighter Experi ...

fighter aircraft having been fired upon the previous day, ten A-6 Intruders of VA-85 ''Black Falcons'' along with A-6 and

A-7 Corsair The LTV A-7 Corsair II is an American carrier-capable subsonic light attack aircraft designed and manufactured by Ling-Temco-Vought (LTV). The A-7 was developed during the early 1960s as replacement for the Douglas A-4 Skyhawk. Its design was ...

aircraft from USS ''Independence'' (CV-62) took part in a bombing raid over Beirut.

Capture

While on a bombing mission, the two-man crew from VA-85 was hit by an

infrared homing Infrared homing is a passive weapon guidance system which uses the infrared (IR) light emission from a target to track and follow it seamlessly. Missiles which use infrared seeking are often referred to as "heat-seekers" since infrared is rad ...

missile (

SA-7 The 9K32 Strela-2 (russian: Cтрела, "arrow"; NATO reporting name SA-7 Grail) is a light-weight, shoulder-fired, surface-to-air missile (or MANPADS) system. It is designed to target aircraft at low altitudes with passive infrared homing gui ...

SA-9 The 9K31 ''Strela-1'' (russian: 9К31 «Стрела-1»; en, arrow) is a highly mobile, short-range, low altitude infra-red guided surface-to-air missile system. Originally developed by the Soviet Union under the GRAU designation 9K31, it is c ...

) into the engine nozzle upon dropping its bomb load, while still in a dive through 1,800 feet (554 m) AGL. The fuselage and a wing were immediately engulfed in flames, and then the right engine erupted. The pilot, Lieutenant Mark Lange, tried to control the aircraft in order to safely eject the crew. After a rapid, low-level descent, the Intruder was seen to pull up and likely stalled, resulting in a crash on a hill at 1,000 ft MSL, near a village surrounded by

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

anti-aircraft artillery Anti-aircraft warfare, counter-air or air defence forces is the battlespace response to aerial warfare, defined by NATO as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It includes surface based ...

positions. Lange ejected both himself and Goodman in the final moment, but his parachute failed to properly deploy before he hit the ground. Lange's left leg was severely injured and he died shortly after capture by Syrian troops and Lebanese civilians. Goodman, rendered unconscious, broke three ribs, and injured a shoulder and a knee during the landing, but was otherwise stable. He was captured and awakened by the Syrians and taken to

Damascus )), is an adjective which means "spacious". , motto = , image_flag = Flag of Damascus.svg , image_seal = Emblem of Damascus.svg , seal_type = Seal , map_caption = , ...

Captivity

Goodman was held for more than a month, during which the U.S. government made numerous attempts to free him. He had a few visitors, including Ambassador

Robert Paganelli The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, ho ...

who brought him

Christmas dinner Christmas dinner is a meal traditionally eaten at Christmas. This meal can take place any time from the evening of Christmas Eve to the evening of Christmas Day itself. The meals are often particularly rich and substantial, in the tradition of ...

Release

In December 1983,

traveled to Syria with a delegation that included; Reverend Wyatt T. Walker,

Louis Farrakhan Louis Farrakhan (; born Louis Eugene Walcott, May 11, 1933) is an American religious leader, Black supremacy, black supremacist, Racism, anti-white and Antisemitism, antisemitic Conspiracy theory, conspiracy theorist, and former singer who hea ...

, Jack Mendelson, Thelma C.D. Adair, Reverend

M. William Howard Jr. Moses William Howard Jr. (born March 3, 1946, in Americus, Georgia) is an American cleric, former college president, community and business leader. He is known for his involvement in ecumenical organizations domestically and internationally and i ...

, Florence Tate (Press Secretary), Julia Jones (Photographer), Thomas Porter,

Jesse Jackson Jr. Jesse Louis Jackson Jr. (born March 11, 1965) is an American politician. He served as the U.S. representative from from 1995 until his resignation in 2012. A member of the Democratic Party, he is the son of activist and former presidential cand ...

, Jonathan Jackson, and others. The mission's peaceful purpose was accomplished, as they secured the release of Goodman.

White House reception

On 4 January 1984, U.S. president

Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...

welcomed Lt. Goodman at the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in ...

, hours after he and Rev. Jackson arrived back in the U.S. Reagan said Lt. Goodman "exemplified qualities of leadership and loyalty" and said Jackson's "mission of mercy" had "earned our gratitude and our admiration." In turn, Jackson praised Reagan for sending a letter to Syrian president

Assad Asad ( ar, أسد), sometimes written as Assad, is an Arabic male given name literally meaning " lion". It is used in nicknames such as ''Asad Allāh'', one of the by-names for Ali ibn Abi Talib. People Among prominent people named ''Asad'', ...

calling for cooperation in bringing peace to Lebanon.

Aftermath

Following captivity, release, and return to the United States, Goodman remained in active service. Goodman was featured in an episode of '' Wings Over the Gulf'' ("In Harm's Way", 1992) in which he discussed his experiences in the

Gulf War The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Iraq were carried out in two key phases: ...

of 1991 with

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

, flying the A-6 Intruder. Goodman retired with the rank of commander in 1995. He subsequently became a business owner in

Colorado Springs Colorado Springs is a home rule municipality in, and the county seat of, El Paso County, Colorado, United States. It is the largest city in El Paso County, with a population of 478,961 at the 2020 United States Census, a 15.02% increase since ...

, Colorado.

References

Air Combat Information Group (acig.org)
*Road to Damascus: A Journey of Faith, by Wyatt Tee Walker

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Goodman, Bobby Living people African-American United States Navy personnel Shot-down aviators United States Naval Academy alumni United States Navy officers United States Naval Flight Officers United States Navy personnel of the Gulf War American prisoners of war American navigators Flight navigators People of the Lebanese Civil War 1956 births Prisoners of war held by Syria 20th-century African-American people 21st-century African-American people