A Bills mafia salute to service.
Bill Gosch, who 80 years ago served with Carlson’s Raiders, a special operation unit in the Marine Corps during World War II, was the honored guest at the Buffalo Bills home game this Sunday.
The 98-year-old North Tonawanda native has lived in Western New York his whole life but despite being a diehard Bills fan for years, the former Marine Raider had never attended a game.
With the help of Buffalo Niagara Honor Flight and assistance from the Buffalo Bills organization, invited Gosch, along with his wife, son, and daughter, to Highmark Stadium to watch the game in their own private suite.
During a break between the Buffalo’s 33-30 loss to the Minnesota Vikings, the veteran of the Pacific campaign got emotional as his name was announced over the loudspeaker and members of Bills mafia cheered and chanted “USA” in his honor.
Nearly three weeks ago, Gosch was flown out to Washington, D.C., with other veterans to visit war monuments around the area and was gifted the Bills tickets the night of his flight.
“He was blown away that he got the personal invitation to the game,” said Tom Petrie, president of Buffalo Niagara Honor Flight, told The Buffalo News.
Gosch has lived in Western New York his whole life. 
At 98-years-old, Sunday's game was the first the Gosch ever attended. 
Gosch spent two years fighting in the Pacific theater as a Marine Raider. Gosch’s story went viral on the YouTube channel “Remember WWII with Rishi Sharma,” where he detailed his first-hand account of the horrors he faced fighting in the Pacific.
Once a scholarship football player at Niagara University after the war, Gosch joined the Marine Corps in December of 1942. A few months after graduating from high school.
He would spend two years overseas, seeing some of the most gruesome combat of World War II in places like Guam and Okinawa, Japan.
The video has accumulated over one million views since its release in 2021.
Fighting tears, Gosch explains that he’s killed anywhere from 12 to 20 men during his time fighting with Carlson’s Raiders. Saying it was something that “had to be done” but sticks with him to this day.
“These guys never got a chance to reproduce children,” Gosch emotionally says. “And that bothered me.”
Rishi Sharma, along with Honor Flight Heroes TV’s Eric Roberts and Andrea Reeves, are in the works of creating a TV series honoring “hidden heroes” of World War II, which will feature Gosch’s story.
