Hershel W. Gober
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Hershel Wayne Gober (born December 21, 1936) is a former government official and
Vietnam War veteran A Vietnam veteran is a person who served in the armed forces of participating countries during the Vietnam War. The term has been used to describe veterans who served in the armed forces of South Vietnam, the United States Armed Forces, and ot ...
. He served as acting
United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs The United States secretary of veterans affairs is the head of the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, the department concerned with veterans' benefits, health care, and national veterans' memorials and cemeteries. The secretary is a me ...
(VA) on two occasions during the administration of
Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...
: first from July 1, 1997, until January 2, 1998, between the resignation of Secretary Jesse Brown and the appointment of Togo D. West Jr. as acting secretary, and the second time from July 25, 2000, until January 20, 2001, after the resignation of Secretary West; this time Gober served in the post until the end of the Clinton presidency. He started out in the VA as deputy secretary, serving from February 4, 1993, until August 10, 2000. Gober was also briefly secretary-designate, when Clinton named him on July 31, 1997,U.S. Senate
Chapter 10: Cabinet Nominations Rejected or Withdrawn
Accessed December 24, 2007.
to replace Jesse Brown. However, the nomination was withdrawn before Senate action on October 27 the same year because of fears that nomination hearings for Gober would become heated due to questions about a 1993 claim of sexual misconduct made against him; he also wished to stay as Deputy Secretary. During his tenure Gober, as a close and longtime aide, played an important role in the Clinton-era VA. He headed a delegation that traveled to
Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...
to seek the fullest possible accounting of missing veterans. He was also active in improving health care and expanding clinics for veterans. Before serving in the VA, Gober was director of the
Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the O ...
Department of Veterans Affairs from January 4, 1988, to February 4, 1993, during Clinton's tenure as governor.


Military service

Gober served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1956 to 1959. He served in the U.S. Army from 1961 to 1978, retiring as a Major.


Service in Vietnam

Gober served two tours in Vietnam. In addition to his combat duties, at one point he worked with an American-Vietnamese team that produced songs to help sway Vietnamese public opinion in favor of the American and South Vietnamese causes and to encourage the leadership in Washington to favor reaching the hearts and minds of the Vietnamese people. Later, in 1969, he was wounded while serving as a company commander.


Music

In 1970, Gober released a 45 rpm single, "Picture of a Man", which received some airplay on popular music radio stations. Gober had at least five single releases and one album as a recording artist; the first two were as Hershel Almond on Ace and Challenge in 1959. The others were on ABC ("The Proud American", 1966), "Tee Pee" (1967) and "Buddah" (1969)."On That Wisconsin Beat" (MusicGem, 2006) – Gary E. Myers


See also

*
Unsuccessful nominations to the Cabinet of the United States Members of the Cabinet of the United States are nominated by the president and are then confirmed or rejected by the Senate. Listed below are unsuccessful cabinet nominees—that is, individuals who were nominated and who either declined their own ...


References


External links


Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture entry
*
Profile at American President: An Online Reference ResourceRecordings of Gober singing songs in Vietnam
are available in the Edward G. Lansdale collection at the Hoover Institution Archives, Stanford University * , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Gober, Hershel Wayne 1936 births Living people 20th-century American politicians United States Army personnel of the Vietnam War Clinton administration cabinet members Military personnel from Arkansas People from Drew County, Arkansas Recipients of the Soldier's Medal Rejected or withdrawn nominees to the United States Executive Cabinet State cabinet secretaries of Arkansas United States Deputy Secretaries of Veterans Affairs United States Marine Corps officers